China's Wu Minxia sets Olympic record with 5th diving gold medal

RIO DE JANEIRO - Wu Minxia ended her record-setting Olympic career the way it began: with a gold medal.

Shi Tingmao and Wu totaled 345.60 points to win the women's 3-meter synchronized title Sunday in the first diving event of the Rio de Janeiro Games. They led throughout the five-round competition and won by a whopping 31.77 points on an overcast day at the Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, where light rain briefly fell.

"We have a very high standard," Wu said through a translator.

Wu claimed her fourth consecutive gold in 3-meter synchro, becoming the first woman to win four golds in the same event at the Olympics. She also won in 2004, 2008 and 2012, and has had three different partners.

The 30-year-old Chinese also made history as the first diver to win five career golds, having won the 3-meter individual event four years ago in London. She won't defend that title in Rio.

"When I first got into diving, I thought it was a very exciting sport," Wu said. "My personality, I always want to win."

She also owns silver and bronze in individual 3-meter from the 2004 Athens Games and 2008 Beijing Games.

Wu is the oldest female diver to win gold in the Olympics, a mark previously held by American Micki King, who won 3-meter springboard at 28 in the 1972 Munich Games.

Shi and Wu routinely hit their dives for scores of 9.0 and higher, totaling 81.00 points on their final dive, a backward 2 1/2-somersault pike. They climbed out of the water and embraced, knowing the gold was secure with five other teams still to dive.

Italy's Tania Cagnotto and Francesca Dallape took silver at 313.83. Maddison Keeney and Anabelle Smith of Australia rallied from last to earn the bronze with 299.19, edging Canada by less than a point.

"We are used to diving against the Chinese," Cagnotto said. "We don't even think about the gold. Gold is for China."