Team USA diver Alison Gibson is ready to talk about her 2024 Paris Olympics experience after making quite the splash.
“My feet were bleeding. My heels were painfully bruised from hitting the board and everybody on the pool deck thought I was going to scratch, but I didn’t scratch,” Gibson, 25, wrote via Instagram on Thursday, August 8, after a failed dive left her with a 0.0 score. “I kept my chin up and I kept fighting until the end of that event. This was far from the outcome I wanted, but I fought with everything I had to represent my country as well as I could and I’m proud of that.”
On Wednesday, August 7, the Olympian shocked the crowd at the women’s 3-meter springboard competition when she slammed her feet on the springboard while mid-somersault. The mistake caused judges to register her performance as a non-dive.
Despite the gaffe, she carried on with three additional dives in hopes of providing a lesson to younger athletes.
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“One thing that I say is I hope that anyone who is watching just was able to see what it looks like to get up and keep going even when things don’t go the way you want them to,” she told reporters after the competition. “It’s about the fight. Obviously, today didn’t go the way I wanted it to, but I think you can learn and grow from every experience, and I truly hope that the next generation of athletes recognize that even in the worst moments, you can keep fighting. You can walk courageously.”
This isn’t the first time the Texas native has competed in the Summer Games. She made her Olympics debut in Tokyo in 2021 but failed to medal.
She briefly retired for two years, but ultimately came back to the sport in the summer of 2023 to give Paris a go.
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“To those on the outside, this may look like an embarrassing failure. But to me, this journey to the Olympics has been anything but a failure,” Gibson said via Instagram. “Our worth is not defined by one painful moment. I am who I am because of the journey it took to get here. And I will not let the shame and pain of this moment define me and my worth.”
After her competition events ended, Gibson was able to create some happy memories by sightseeing in Paris with friends and family. She also received unconditional love from her parents.
“Pointing to the Lord is the only way to reconcile such success to such heartbreak,” Gibson’s mom Pat wrote via Instagram on Friday, August 9. “We couldn’t love this super talented diver any more than we already do.”
