FINA is the international body that governs the sports of swimming, diving, water polo and synchronised swimming (and some related activities). Every four years FINA review their rules and their latest changes took effect from 1st September 2005.
There have been many detailed changes which coaches, officials and organisers will need to know about. However, this page serves simply to draw attention to some of the changes that a diver might want to know about. Should you want to know all about it you can read the Diving Rules online. Note that these rules are for international events .. however, most countries will observe them at their national events.
There is a major change to all open (senior) events. The 1m, 3m and platform events will now:
Synchro events also change significantly. There is no longer a requirement for one round to have the divers performing a forward and a backward rotating dive - in each round of dives, both divers must now perform the same dive in the same position. Women perform five rounds and Men will now do six.
Where there are large entries there will be a Preliminary, possibly a Semi-final, and a Final, in each of which the qualifying divers will repeat the same 5 or 6 dives (dives can only be changed within 30 minutes after a previous stage). Note that in these cases each stage will be treated as a separate event and no score will be carried forward to the next stage - too bad if you got lots of 10s in the semifinal .. you will just have to earn them again in the final!
Only minor changes here. These events follow the 'old' practice of being divided into dives with and without limit. The tests have been made slightly harder (extra dive). These events will always be straight finals (at International level).
These events are similar to the oldest Age Group events but there is provision for a possible final in which case there will be a carry forward score to the final in which the finalists will perform their 'unlimited' dives.
There has been one change that affects the calculation of scores. In an event with 7 judges (major events) two of the highest and two of the lowest awards will be discarded and the score calculated using the remaining 3 awards. It is presumably hoped that this will further reduce the impact of bias or mistakes. A side effect will be a slightly higher chance of ties.