Alison Gibson, Team USA Diver, Opens Up After Receiving 0.0 Score for Dive – Hollywood Life
Team USA diver Alison Gibson is leaving the Paris Olympics with her head held high.
Gibson surprised the audience at the women’s 3-meter springboard competition on Wednesday, Aug. 7, when her initial dive in the preliminary round did not go as planned, causing her to hit her feet on the springboard mid-somersault.
This mistake resulted in a penalty for the 25-year-old and an audible gasp from the spectators, marking her performance as a non-dive and giving her a score of 0.0. Despite the setback, she persevered and completed her remaining four dives, ultimately securing the 28th position out of 28 athletes.
“Our value is not determined by one painful moment,” Gibson expressed in an Instagram post on Aug. 8. “I am who I am because of the journey it took to get here. And I will not let the shame and pain of this moment define me and my worth.”
Gibson went on to convey that while her dive may appear to be “an embarrassing failure” to observers, she viewed it in a different light and hoped that her resilience would motivate others to persevere “even when you fall short.”
“This was not the outcome I desired, but I fought with all I had to represent my country to the best of my ability, and I am proud of that.”
OUCH 😬
A tough moment for Alison Gibson as her feet strike the board on the way down. #Paris2024 #Olympics pic.twitter.com/jdXFwTKcVh
— Eurosport (@eurosport) August 7, 2024
She shared the message alongside a video of her mishap, adding, “In my 15 years diving, this has never happened to me,” and, on top of the disappointing score, the incident was also physically taxing.
“My feet were bleeding, my heels were painfully bruised from hitting the board, and everyone on the pool deck thought I was going to scratch. But I didn’t scratch. I kept my chin up and kept fighting until the end of that event,” she narrated in a voiceover.
Gibson detailed her injury to NBC News, saying that she has “cuts along the sides” of her limbs because she hit her heels and feet on the board. “I bruised my right heel pretty badly, but I was determined to keep going,” she explained.
Although she acknowledged that her “heart and body hurt,” Gibson reiterated her powerful message: “If you have a moment when you feel like all is lost, don’t give up hope. You are beautifully and wonderfully made.”
Gibson made her Olympic debut in Tokyo in 2021, finishing last in the event. After briefly retiring for two years, telling the Austin American-Statesman that Tokyo was a “gut-wrenching experience,” she ultimately came out of retirement in the summer of 2023 to give Paris another try.
The athlete exemplified beautifully that when incidents happen that seem like a failure, nothing is ever truly a failure when you are building toward something.