Stephan Feck’s Incredibly Embarrassing Olympic Dive

Germany’s Stephan Feck is probably hiding out in his room at Olympic Village in an attempt to avoid reporters after an incredibly embarrassing dive at the London Olympics where he lost grip on his left leg during a diving rotation, landing flat on his back in the water.

After his disastrous dive, Feck finished dead last (29th place) in the preliminary round of the Men’s 3m Springboard Diving and was eliminated from the competition on Monday, reports Yahoo! Sports.

Feck’s dive was by no means the most difficult, as three others had a higher degree of difficulty. It was also a dive that the German swimmer had gone through countless times, and probably nailed countless times. But as the German diver now knows, all it takes is one time, one small mistake for it to all fall apart, and for the 22-year-old, it was losing grip on his left leg in the middle of his rotation.

Robert Dillon of the Sydney Morning Herald reviewed Stephan Feck’s disastrous dive by writing:

“He had no doubt successfully completed the same dive thousands of times over the years. He probably practises it a few dozen times every day….But this time something went wrong. Instead of completing the maneouvre and disappearing into the water with barely a ripple, he landed flat on the middle of his back. The resounding splat prompted a loud groan from the crowd, while each judge scored him zero.”

The 22-year-old German diver emerged from the pool in obvious discomfort, completing one more dive before withdrawing because of too much pain.

If it’s a surprise to you that a diver could suffer injuries (aside from the obvious ones that could come from hitting the board), do you remember the pain you had when you did a belly flop in the pool? Australian veteran Loudy Wiggins stated of the sport of diving that:

“I’m pretty sure it is a young person’s sport for a reason. You travel at 60km/h and the water feels like concrete when you hit it.”

Australia’s two 10m platform daredevil divers, Matthew Mitcham and James Connor, have both been sidelined during their careers because of stress fractures in their backs, which came as a result of repeatedly slamming into the unforgiving water.

Ethan Warren, a rookie diver from Australia who will perform in the 18-man quarter-finals after finishing 15th stated that he didn’t see Feck’s huge faux pas. He added that injuries are a normal part of every sport and that the German diver’s mistake gave insight into the punishment that divers suffer when things go wrong. Warren explained:

“It depends how you hit the water, really. You get this big sort of burning, stinging sensation. A bit of bruising, some blood vessels can pop, but overall that’s sport.”

Check out the photo and video below to see Stephan Feck’s worst dive of the Olympics.