Number of dives per round
Women’s events (individual springboard, individual platform, synchronized springboard, synchronized platform) require five dives per round. Men’s events require six dives per round. At the end of a round, divers are ranked based on the cumulative score of all their dives from the round.
Individual events
Individual Olympic diving events are broken up into three stages. There is a preliminary round involving all athletes qualified for that event, usually 25-35 total. The top 18 divers, including ties for 18th, advance to the semifinal round. The preliminary round scores are eliminated.
In the semifinal round, the remaining divers perform another full program of dives (they can repeat dives from the previous round with no penalty, or substitute new dives). The top 12 including ties advance to the final round.
After one more full program of dives, the athlete with the highest score in the final round is awarded the gold medal.
Synchronized events
There is only one round of competition in synchronized events. Qualifying is limited to 12 teams (no more than one per country), and no teams are eliminated at any point. The team with the highest cumulative score across all their dives is the winner.