The Maria Lenk Aquatics Centre, Barra Olympic Park, 2016. A full house raucously cheers on the best divers in the world as they strive for perfection. The competition is broadcast live on television and the world’s media relay the details around the planet. But it is not yet August and these are not the Olympic Games. Instead it is the FINA Diving World Cup. Set to begin on Friday (19 February), the six-day competition is a test event for the Rio 2016 Games, but with the added spice of being the sport’s largest Olympic qualifier, with 88 places up for grabs.

Top divers arrive for test event at new-look venue

With 236 divers registered to take part in the 24th Rio 2016 test event – exactly 100 more than will compete at the Olympic Games themselves – competition will be intense and the local public have reacted: tickets are selling fast, with 85 per cent already snapped up for Sunday and 70 per cent sold for Saturday.

“We can confirm that 98 per cent of the divers that will compete at the Games are in Rio for the test event”

André Siqueira, Rio 2016 diving competition manager

Divers practise off the 3m springboards at the renovated Maria Lenk Aquatics Centre (Photo: Rio 2016/Alex Ferro)

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“This event will really be a realistic simulation for the Games,” said Eduardo Falcão, Rio 2016 competition services manager. Staff from 36 departments of the Rio 2016 organising committe will be action alongside 462 volunteers. All operations related to the competition, services provided to athletes and officials, security and athlete accommodation will be tested to an “Olympic level”.

It will be the first test event to feature the National Force and National Penitentiary Department – a total of 300 agents from the two organisations, as well as officers from the federal, civil and military police, fire officers and traffic agents, will be part of the test event.

New drone video takes viewers inside Barra Olympic Park

Tom Daley and Dan Goodfellow are out to earn Great Britain a place in the platform synchronised event (Photo: Rio 2016/Alex Ferro)

The event is also very real for the athletes, with 88 Olympic Games spots up for grabs. British star Tom Daley and his new partner Dan Goodfellow are aiming to earn a place in the 10m platform synchronised event, while the USA’s David Boudia, who won the 10m platform individual gold at the London 2012 Olympic Games, is returning to the venue where he won Pan-American Games gold in 2007.

“I remember the venue being full of people cheering for us and, of course, hearing the national anthem with the medal around my neck. I hope to do same here at the Olympics”

David Boudia

China has dominated diving in recent years, winning six of the eight golds available at London 2012, and taking silver in the other two contests. The list of those responsible for the success is long: Wu Minxia, who has six Olympic medals, four of them gold; four-time Olympic champion Chen Roulin; Qin Kai, a two-time Olympic gold medallist; and four-time world champion Qiu Bo… and all of them are in Rio for the test event.

China will be out to extend their dominance of diving at the Rio 2016 Games (Photo: Rio 2016/Alex Ferro)

Tickets can be bought on the Aquece Rio website. Click here for the competition schedule. All finals will be broadcast live on FINA TV.

Built for the 2007 Pan-American Games, the Maria Lenk Aquatics Centre has been renovated for Rio 2016
(Photo: Rio City Government/Beth Santos)