After 16 years and numerous disappointments, the Olympic medals have finally arrived for Italian diver Tania Cagnotto.
Cagnotto, who made her Olympic debut in Sydney in 2000, had always come close. She finished in fourth in both the individual and synchronised three-metre springboard events in London four years ago and fifth in the individual event in Beijing.
On Sunday, the 31-year-old took the bronze medal in the women’s three-metre individual springboard event, adding to a silver she won in the synchronised event last week.
China’s Shi Tingmao dominated the competition to win gold, with team-mate He Zi taking silver.
Shi tied with He in the first two dives, before the 24-year-old pushed ahead in her third to achieve 84 points, the highest score, and eventually reached a total of 406.05, 18.15 points ahead of He and 103.2 points more than the last-placed diver.
The gold is the second for the 24-year-old, who won her first on the second day of the Games with team-mate Wu Minxia in the 3m synchronised springboard event.
“Now I’m fine and I can retire,” she told Reuters after the medal ceremony, during which she stood on the podium and blew several kisses to supporters.
“I’m just happy and I’m enjoying this moment because I lost two medals in London 2012 by very little points.”
Four years ago, Cagnotto was pipped for bronze in the individual event by Mexico’s Laura Sanchez by 0.20 points. In the synchronised, she and Francesca Dallape were 2.7 points behind Canadian duo Jennifer Abel and Emilie Heymans.
Her quest for the bronze medal, however, looked uncertain at certain times on Sunday as she faced strong competition from Abel before she finally came up out on top in her final dive and finished with a 5.55-point advantage.
“I was looking at the scoreboard, I just had one goal and that was to do my best score.”
Cagnotto, who is also a police officer, comes from diving stock.
Her father, Giorgio, was an Olympic diver who won two silver and two bronze medals over three Games between 1972 and 1980.
Her mother, Carmen Casteiner, was also a national diver.
Now that she’s achieved her medal dream, she said she was not tempted to train for another Olympics and that Rio would be her last.
“I’m getting married in September and I will start a new life and we’ll see.”