Olympics: Rikuto Tamai, 17, wins Japan's 1st diving medal in games history

Rikuto Tamai won a silver medal in the men's 10-meter platform diving in Paris on Saturday to become his nation's first-ever Olympic medalist in the sport, Kyodo reports.

The 17-year-old from Takarazuka, Hyogo Prefecture, scored 507.65 points from six dives to finish 39.85 behind Chinese gold medalist Cao Yuan, with Noah Williams of Britain taking bronze on 497.35.

Tamai scored 99.00 on his near-perfect final dive, a back two-and-a-half somersault with two-and-a-half twists, to jump up to second, just one dive after almost throwing away a medal with a 39.10 scored on a sloppy attempt, which got the 12th best score of the round.

"(Winning an Olympic medal) has been a dream and I'm feeling the weight of it," Tamai said. "(The fifth attempt) made my heart tremble but I kept faith in what I've been doing until now. I'm relieved."

Tamai was top or equal top scorer on three of his dives and second on two, making his second-last dive all the more painful.

Where he faltered, Cao showed why he is the reigning Olympic champion in the event and now has four gold medals in total, with the 29-year-old's worst single-dive rank a fourth.

The Japanese would have been Japan's youngest ever male Olympian at 13 years and 10 months had the Tokyo Games gone ahead in 2020, and when it did in 2021 he finished seventh in the 10-meter platform.