"Hits in the room. With a belt": why one mistake left Ukrainians without an Olympic medal, but they showed the best result in our team

Ukrainian diving team Oleksii Sereda and Kirill Boliukh took fifth place in the 10-meter tower diving competition at the 2024 Olympic Games. In Paris, the winners of the world championships in this event could have won bronze if they had performed their most difficult jump more accurately. The Chinese won, the British took second place, and the Canadians were third.

The winner of the European Games, Sereda, took the blame for his poor performance and did not consider his hand injury on the eve of the competition to be an excuse. However, he was unable to jump for more than two months and, of course, fell out of the competition rhythm.

"I made a mistake on the fifth jump, it was minor, but it was enough. And the other jumps could have been done better. So there is a little disappointment. We were 10 points short of the bronze medal, but if I had performed that fifth jump with 7.5 points, we would have been third. But you see: this is sport. One mistake and you're out of the competition," said Sereda.

According to Oleksii, his injured arm no longer bothers him. And in his opinion, this is not an excuse.

"Why did you make a mistake? Because I haven't learned to jump properly yet. When I learn, I won't make mistakes," said Sereda, who was self-deprecating, although until recently it was not known whether he could perform in this type of program at all.

"I thought I would be more nervous. But in fact, I'm not. I was nervous on this fifth jump, and on the last jump, I was quite relaxed. I didn't do this fifth jump very well in the warm-up either, I didn't have any good attempts. That is, it's still not perfect. There are a lot of factors here – both jumping technique and physical form. Plus nerves. You could say that the injury was fading, if I had a little more time... But this is no excuse for me. I made a mistake," said Sereda.

When asked jokingly whether Kirill scolds him after his mistakes, Oleksii humorously replied: "Yes, he does. And he beats me in the room. With a belt. I'm even more upset that I let down not only myself but also Kirill. Because of me, he was also left without a medal."

The Ukrainian also spoke about a potential fight with the Chinese: "I don't know how to compete with them. We had our best performance in Fukuoka, when we scored 432 points, and they have now scored 390. So we need to add another jump. Unfortunately, I don't see any way to overtake them yet. Unless, of course, one of them makes a mistake, but they don't," Oleksii emphasized.

But Sereda will still have the opportunity to compete for the Olympic medal in individual ski jumping.

"I have more or less swallowed this speech. Now Kiriukha is still raising me in the room... Seriously, I'll do my best, but I can't promise anything. Do I lose motivation? It's the opposite for me.  I'm the kind of person who, when something doesn't work out, I get more motivated and start working harder.  Because it's really possible, I have all the chances and there's only a little bit left," Oleksii added.

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