Diving scores question

Question
Hi, I'm writing a short story about diving and wanted to know, if someone was in the top three at a diving competition and then, on the final dive, totally botched it, how far down in the rankings would that typically put the person. Thanks so much for answering this random question!

Answer
Maresa -

The question you have asked is rather difficult to answer because there are so may variables with how the outcome of a competition can be.I think the best way I can help you is to explain how a meet works along with how it is judged and calculated. I will then give an example of how a meet can end with a result that you will not expect to happen.

A divers score is determined by at least 3 judges. They judge each dive on a scale of 0 to 10. The 3 judges scores are added up for what is called a net total. This total is multiplied by the degree of difficulty of each dive. This gives the diver the total score for each dive performed. Therefore, the highest net total for 3 judges is 30 and lowest is 0 (or called a failed dive). Any dive that has a net total of about 12 or lower could be called what you have referred to as a "botched" dive. The degree of difficulty scale ranges from 1.2 at the low end to over 4.0 on the high end. To keep things simple, lets say that the following example meet has divers doing dives that range from 1.5 to 3.0.

Here is the example meet and how it ends up:

There are six girls diving in this contest. Each diver is performing 6 dives. Here is the diving order:

1. Sarah
2. Celia
3. Anna
4. Fiona
5. Claire
6. Shawna

Here are the standings after 5 dives:

1st. Shawna with 250 points
2nd. Claire with 220 points
3rd. Fiona with 190 points
4th. Anna with 175 points
5th. Celia with 170 points
6th. Sarah with 160 points.

The final round begins. Sarah does a 1.5 degree of difficulty (D.D.)dive for a net total of 15. 15 times 1.5 = 22.50. Her final total is 182.50.

Celia does a 1.6 D.D. dive for 16 points net total = 25.60 for a final score of 195.60.

Anna does a 1.7 D.D. for 17 points net total = 28.90 and ends up with 203.90

Fiona does a 1.8 D.D. for 18 points net total = 32.40 for 222.40 final score

Claire does a 2.4 D.D. for 24 points, a great dive (all 8's from the judges), for a score of 57.60 and a final total of 277.60. She has just done the best dive so far of anyone.

Now Shawna is the last diver in the contest. She is doing the hardest dive of anyone in the meet with a D.D. of 3.0. She is nervous because the dive is giving her problems and she is afraid of it. She is also concerned because Claire has just done a hard dive for a great score. What she does not know is that all she needs to win is a net total of 9.5 or higher to win. She "botches" the dive for a score of 3, 3, and 3.5 from the judges, the lowest net total of anyone in the meet. Her net total is 9.5 times 3.0 = 28.50 for a final total of 278.50. She wins the meet by less than one point after bombing the dive !

So you can see that a diver can still win a meet with a poor final dive and not drop down in the top three standings.

So in answer to your question, it is really hard to determine how far down a diver can go in the standings after missing the final dive. Too many different possibility endings.

Hope all this helps and that you get a good grade on your story.