Diving rules rules, for watching
Start with the rules you see all the time, then the ones that change results.
Settling an argument? Search all 17 rules
- What are the diving events, and how is a competition won?
- What do the numbers and letters of a dive mean?
- How is the difficulty of a dive worked out?
- How do the judges' marks become a score?
- How may a dive begin?
- What makes a take-off legal?
- What must a dive look like in the air?
- What makes a good entry into the water?
- When does a dive score zero?
- What happens if a diver stops and starts again?
- What happens when a diver nearly hits the board?
- Which dives must a diver perform, and can the list be changed?
- How does a diver reach the final, and who dives last?
- How is synchronised diving judged?
- How does the diving team event work?
- What does the referee control during a diving competition?
- What happens when divers tie, when a competition is stopped or when a mark is disputed?
Where these rules come from
| Tag | Document |
|---|---|
| DV plus article number | World Aquatics, Competition Regulations, Part Four: Diving Rules, in force as from 1 January 2025. Read in full for this set: Articles 1 to 11 (general, dive numbers, degree of difficulty, competitions, format, statement of dives, procedure, the referee, the secretariat, judging, synchronised diving, the summary of penalties, the Olympic and world championship programmes) |
| "Part One" plus article number | The same document, Part One: Article 13 (protests and appeals) |
| R | "Why the rule exists", or a point reasoned from the rule, not stated in it |
| C | Common usage or general knowledge, not a rule |
All checked on 14 October 2026. The file is a text PDF with article numbers in the text layer.
The edition is from January 2025. The swimming part of the same regulations has a February 2026 edition, so the diving part may have been revised as well. The newer text is not saved.
Not covered: Article 12 (age group rules); Article 13 (facilities: board and platform dimensions, water depth); Article 14 (medical and safety); the appendices, which hold the difficulty formula's component values and the tables of dives; high diving (Part Five); masters diving.
Not covered: Article 12 (age group rules); Article 13 (facilities: board and platform dimensions, water depth); Article 14 (medical and safety); the appendices, which hold the difficulty formula's component values and the tables of dives; high diving (Part Five); masters diving.