The world’s best divers are arriving in Rio de Janeiro for arguably the most important competition on the road to the 2016 Olympic Games. The FINA Diving World Cup, which doubles up as the Rio 2016 test event for the sport, will not only provide athletes with a chance to compete at the Olympic venue, it will also offer the best opportunity to qualify for the Games, with 88 places up for grabs.

The first four national teams to arrive in Rio – Great Britain, Italy, Venezuela and Mexico – joined Brazil in the first open training session at the Maria Lenk Aquatics Centre last Friday (12 February). Six more nations arrived over the weekend and by Monday night organisers expect to have all 47 national delegations in the city ahead of the start of competition on Friday.

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The six-day competition will feature all eight Olympic events – men’s and women’s individual and synchronised competitions on the 3m springboard and 10m platform – and has 236 divers registered to compete. Among them is British star Tom Daley, the 10m platform bronze medallist at the London 2012 Olympic Games, who has been in town since last week and has already visited Sugarloaf Mountain, as this post on his Twitter account showed.

New-look venue

Built for the 2007 Pan-American Games, the Maria Lenk Aquatics Centre – which will also stage the synchronised swimming competition and group stages of the water polo tournament during the Olympic Games in August – has undergone renovations ahead of the test event. The new faciltities include a ‘dry training room’ (in which divers can practice their moves using platforms, a trampoline and harnesses, without getting wet), and a new warm-up pool that is connected to the competition pool.

Top synchronised swimmers compete at Rio 2016 venue

The first competitors get to know the renovated Maria Lenk Aquatics Centre on Friday (Photo: Rio 2016/Lucas Freitas)

The R$21.4 million (US$5.4 million) improvements also saw the diving tower modernised (including new surfacing on the diving platforms), new springboards installed, the medical centre refurbished, new hydrotherapy baths constructed and accessiblity improved in the changing rooms. “We have delivered another venue for the test events with new equipment,” said Rio mayor Eduardo Paes. “They are apparently basic elements, but they are crucial for top-level sport.”

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Brazil's Ingrid Oliveira takes the plunge during training on Friday (Photo: Rio 2016/Lucas Freitas)

After the Olympic Games the Maria Lenk Aquatics Centre – one of two existing venues, along with the Rio Olympic Arena, among the nine inside Barra Olympic Park – will be part of the Olympic Training Centre, the biggest sporting legacy of the Games. The facilities will continue to be used by high-performance athletes and to host top-level competitions, as well as being made available to social projects and students from the Olympic Experimental School that will be constructed inside Carioca Arena 3, the fencing, taekwondo and Paralympic judo venue.

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Diving will be the fifth test event staged in Barra Olympic Park, the largest venue cluster, following the tennis tournament in December and the basketball, powerlifting and wrestling events, all staged in Carioca Arena 1. 

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The new warm-up pool at the Maria Lenk Aquatics Centre (Photo: Rio Municipal Government/Beth Santos)