Sooji Kim, First Korean Female Diver to Reach Semifinals Twice in a Row... 11th in Preliminary [Paris Olympics]

Kim Suji (26, Ulsan Metropolitan City Hall) became the first Korean female diver to advance to the Olympic semifinals in two consecutive Games.

On the 7th (Korean time), Kim Suji scored a total of 285.50 points from rounds 1 to 5 in the women's 3m springboard preliminaries at the 2024 Paris Olympics held at the Aquatic Center in Paris, France, ranking 11th out of 28 competitors. The top 18 from the preliminaries advance to the semifinals.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Wearing a swimsuit adorned with the Taegeuk pattern, Kim Suji secured her ticket to the semifinals and will perform on the 8th at 5 PM to qualify for the finals. If she ranks within the top 12 in the semifinals, she will become the first Korean female diver to reach the Olympic final stage.

During the preliminaries, Kim Suji was in 16th place after the first three rounds, but in the 4th round, she performed a dive with a difficulty of 3.0 (305B) ? a pike position with two and a half rotations, entering headfirst with knees straight and hands holding the legs from behind ? earning 58.50 points and moving up to 13th place. In the final 5th round, she received a solid 57.00 points for her 5152B dive, which included a twist, finishing the preliminaries in 11th place.

Kim Suji previously competed as the youngest member of the Korean delegation at the 2012 London Olympics, where she placed last among 26 competitors in the women's 10m platform preliminaries. Later, at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics held in 2021, she competed in the 3m springboard and became the first Korean female diver to advance past the Olympic preliminaries, finishing 15th in the semifinals. At the Paris Olympics, she has achieved her first goal of advancing to the semifinals for the second consecutive time by passing the preliminaries.

Korea’s leading male diver, Woo Haram (Korea Sports Promotion Foundation), has reached the finals in three consecutive Olympics ? 2016 Rio de Janeiro, 2020 Tokyo, and this competition. However, no Korean female diver has yet reached the Olympic final stage.

Earlier this year in February, Kim Suji won a bronze medal in the women's 3m springboard at the 2024 Doha World Championships. She also teamed up with Lee Jaekyung (Incheon Metropolitan City Sports Council) to win a bronze medal in the mixed 3m springboard event. Despite suffering a torn cartilage injury in her left knee last November and having insufficient training volume, she achieved the remarkable feat of winning two medals at the Doha World Championships.