China’s Quan Hongchan, Chen Yuxi lead the way in Olympic 10-meter diving

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SAINT-DENIS, France (AP) — China’s Quan Hongchan and Chen Yuxi were the highest-scoring diving qualifiers in both the preliminaries and semifinals of women’s 10-meter platform at the Paris Olympics on Monday, setting them up as overwhelming favorites heading to the finals.

In the first individual diving event of these games, Quan led the way in the preliminaries with 421.25 points, followed by Chen at 382.15. No one else was even close.

It was more of the same in the semifinals. With the field pared down to 18 divers, Quan was nearly identical with 421.05 — another sign of the Chinese divers’ amazing consistency — and Chen improved to 403.05. Again, those two were well clear of the field.

Quan is the defending Olympic champion off the tower and a three-time reigning world champion. Chen was the silver medalist in Tokyo and already teamed with Quan to win the 10-meter synchronized gold in Paris.

China is aiming for an unprecedented sweep of the eight diving events. They are halfway to that goal after winning the four synchronized competitions in the opening week of the Games.

Neither American diver advanced to Tuesday’s 12-woman final. Delaney Schnell, the fifth-place finisher on 10-meter in 2021, was eliminated in the semifinals. Daryn Wright was knocked out in the prelims.