Brandon Loschiavo
Brandon Loschiavo Qualifies for 10-Meter Semifinals at Olympic Games
PARIS – Brandon Loschiavo (Huntington Beach, Calif./West Lafayette, Ind.) found out just two weeks ago that he was headed to the Olympic Games.
Now, he’s headed to the men’s 10-meter semifinals.
Loschiavo scored 393.65 points to finish 13th in Friday’s preliminaries to earn one of 18 spots in Saturday’s semifinals.
The U.S. had initially earned just one Olympic spot for men’s 10-meter, which went to Carson Tyler (Moultrie, Ga./Bloomington, Ind.) as the winner of the Olympic Trials. The U.S. was notified the evening of July 25 that it was awarded a second spot, and Loschiavo arrived in Paris on July 27.
Because he hadn’t expected to be on the Olympic team, Loschiavo had stopped diving. With limited time to prepare and because of a wrist injury, Loschiavo wasn’t sure what to expect.
“There was a lot of excitement and fear because I knew the path ahead was going to be super hard, and it has been. But, it's all followed by gratitude. The fact that I'm here in the first place is just super exciting. And it's an honor to represent USA,” Loschiavo said.
Loschiavo was 19th after four rounds but found himself in qualifying position after moving up to 17th with 61.20 points on a back 2 ½ with 2 ½ twists in the fifth round. He closed his list with an 85.10-point front 4 ½ tuck to solidify his spot in the semifinals.
“I'm just happy I was able to get those six dives off. I wasn't expecting to dive today because I'm injured. I took it one dive at a time,” Loschiavo said. “I was just happy to get to that point. If I made it, if I didn't make it, I just essentially let go of the result and just kind of thought of all the support.”
Tyler, who placed fourth in Thursday’s men’s 3-meter final, finished 19th with 363.75 points – 2.3 points shy of the cut. After competing four days in a row, Tyler became the first U.S. diver to dive both individual events in the same Olympic Games since Mark Ruiz in 2000.
“I’m feeling a little let down, disappointed. But it’s been a good journey. I’m happy overall with how my first Olympics went,” Tyler said. “I mean training, it was just a lot of volume and really intense, so coming off a high last night into this, I’m sure there was some fatigue. But it’s definitely something I’ve worked with.”
Diving at the Olympic Games wraps up Saturday. Loschiavo will dive in the semifinals at 10 a.m. Paris time (4 a.m. ET). The top 12 divers will advance to the finals at 3 p.m.