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Nothing plays with the emotions quite like sport. And few athletes have ridden a rollercoaster quite like Scarlett Mew Jensen after she kick-started the Team GB medal train in Paris.
Minutes after winning an unexpected bronze, alongside diving teammate Yasmin Harper in the women’s synchronised 3m springboard final, she revealed a partial back facture just three months ago almost prevented her from competing at all.
The 22-year-old feared her Games were over before she’d even packed a bag but after six weeks of rest she was back twisting and contorting her body to a bronze that marks Team GB’s first opening-day success in 20 years.
The pair shed tears when the scoreboard confirmed their place on the podium, and no wonder. Australia’s Maddison Keeney and Anabelle Smith had looked set to beat them until a howler of a last dive cleared the path for a British podium – and the sweetest of moments for Mew Jensen.
“I didn’t think it was going to be possible,” the Londoner said. “The individual competition was off the table for me right away when I hurt my back.
“I have got to push that doubt to the side and having the team and Yas being so supportive and our coaches have been incredible.
“We have got to this point, and I am ecstatic. It was a partial back fracture and we had to pull out of the World Super finals in China.
“I had an MRI and I had six weeks out, no diving at all but I had to maintain my strength and conditioning. But I have come back, and I don’t think I have been diving any better and our timing has been the best it has ever been, and it showed.
“I have not re-scanned it; I have not been in any pain. I am going to rest and then see what the situation is.”
The situation on Saturday lunchtime was the first Team GB medal on the opening day of an Olympics since Leon Taylor and Peter Waterfield won silver at Athens 2004 – also in synchronised diving.
And, for part of this final, this was as equally unexpected.
Mew Jensen and Harper made a promising start and sat second after the first round but fell to sixth in the third after a relatively low 63.90 for a forward 2 ½ somersaults 1 twist. If it sounds complicated – it’s because it is.
Seeing fly through the air at angles and positions mere mortals can’t even fathom is one of the sights of the Olympics, and this was a high-quality final that had a packed crowd – including Tom Daley and his knitting needles – transfixed.
Mew Jensen and Harper may have been sixth, but they were still on course to better their score from the 2023 and 2024 World Championships, from which they returned with medals.
China’s Yani Chang and Yiwen Chen were runaway winners, while USA’s Sarah Bacon and Kassidy Cook sat second.
The race for bronze, however, was a hot one, with Germany and Italy also in contention, but Australia’s Keeney and Smith had nudged ahead by the final round.
Mew Jensen and Harper set the benchmark with an impressive 70.68 with their final dive – their hardest of the event – and watched nervously as Germany failed to beat them.
Keeney and Smith, the World Championship silver medallists, needed a relatively low 58.69 to win. But at the wrong moment, Smith almost slipped off the board entirely and did well just to even complete some form of a dive. It drew gasps from the crowd and confirmed Team GB a bronze – a perfect birthday present for Harper, who turns 24 on Sunday.
“We knew it was going to be tight and to watch them not perform in the last round, I think I knew what they did was not enough,” Harper said.
“You can tell where or whereabouts the score will be and for us, we knew, but we were still waiting for the score to pop up.
“It makes my birthday a special one tomorrow, I don’t know what is going on. I might have to go off and see Paris.”
Mew Jensen is off to see a back specialist but not before returning to support the likes of Tom Daley and Andrea Spendolini-Siriex in their competitions next week.
“It is a dream come true and it is all we have worked for in the last year,” she added.
“To come away with the medal feels amazing.”
Watch every moment of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 live only on discovery+, the streaming home of the Olympics.
