Russian diver goes from 2012 hero to 2016 zero

As far as being the defending Olympic champion goes, Russian Ilia Zakharov has set the bar at a new low.

In what was the last thing the beleaguered Russian team needed in Rio, Zakharov scored a perfect 0 on a dive in the men’s 3m springboard semi-finals.

It became apparent quite early in the dive that all was not well for the man from Leningrad.  He failed to get a good lift and left the springboard at a strange angle. It all headed south from there.

Even a diving novice could see that the somersaults and twists looked all wrong before Zakharov hitting the water far sooner than he planned. Feet first in fact.

When a diver’s feet are the first thing to hit the water, 0s are the only possible score.

The only positive for Zakharov is that he at least made the semi-finals and he wasn’t like so many of his countrymen and women who were banned from even competing in the 2016 Games.