No one knows exactly when diving officially began, but people have been jumping off cliffs for millennia. Historical evidence suggests that it dates back at least to Greece's ancient Games. In Naples, Italy, a 2,500-year-old tomb shows a man diving from a narrow platform.

Long before the modern springboard and platform, people dove off cliffs and bridges into the water below, invigorated by the adrenaline rush as they descended through the air and plunged into the water below. Diving developed further as an athletic discipline in 17^th-century Europe, when gymnasts practiced their acrobatics over water.

The first official diving competition took place in 1880 in England, with divers splashing into ponds. Sometimes the athletes had to wait for ducks to move out of their path; other times, they brought cans and garbage to the surface after hitting bottom. Initially, the only dive was a straight forward dive, resembling a swimmer's standard entry.

While swimming and diving are commonly linked, contemporary diving has more similarities with gymnastics. In the early 1800s, Swedish and German gymnasts practiced their somersaults and twists over water. Their practices became known as fancy diving, a term that stuck until the early 1900s.

When diving debuted at the 1904 Olympics, one of the two events was a plunge for distance, the goal being to swim the furthest underwater after a dive. The event was dropped immediately because it was not well received by the audience -- not really a spectator sport. At the 1908 Games in London, the pool was 100m long and the diving tower was removable. In 1908, springboard diving was added to the original platform diving event. At the 1912 Stockholm Games "fancy highdiving" was introduced and it was the first time women were allowed to compete in their own platform event. Women had a springboard event beginning in 1920. The first concrete diving tower appeared in 1924 in Paris.

In the 1920s, divers grew tired of the slow rotation from rigid take-offs starting with a straight position. They became fancier as the pike and tuck positions began to dominate, making multiple somersaults possible. Around that time the United States began to dominate diving, replacing Sweden and Germany. In 1924, the United States won all but the bronze in women’s platform. In 1932, American divers occupied every space on the podium in both the men’s and women’s events.

Several divers have captured gold medals in both the springboard and platform events at the same Olympics. American Albert White was the first person in Paris in 1924, followed by American Peter Desjardins -- born in Canada -- in 1928 in Amsterdam. He was the first diver to score a perfect 10.00, which he received in 3m. In London in 1948, Victoria Draves of the United States was the first female diver to win gold in both women's diving. And only Americans have the distinction of winning gold in both the springboard and platform diving events in back-to-back Olympiads. Pat McCormick owns that honour for the women’s springboard and platform in 1952 and 1956.