Diving

The sport of diving as we know it from the games of Olympics was known as 'fancy diving' around the 19th century, which itself was inspired from gymnastics from as early as the 18th century. However, the modern version of it was included for the first time in the 1904 St Louis Games and since then it has been a permanent part of the event. Though it started out as an all-men sport, women too were included in the diving events from the 1912 Stockholm Games. And so far, over a century of Olympic Games, it's United States of America that leads the table, winning 48 out of 106 gold medals. China is the close second with 27 gold. Overall too, United States of America has won 131 out of 320 Olympic medals. In the last Olympics held in Beijing, it was a close Chinese wipe out as China claimed 7 out of 8 gold medals. Matthew Mitcham from Australia snatched one in the 100m platform event. In the 2012 London Olympics, 136 athletes, 68 men and 68 women, will compete for the gold in as many as 8 different diving events. The competition will be held at Olympic Park - Aquatics Centre from 29th July to 11th August.