Team USA diver Alison Gibson is leaving the Paris Olympics with her head held high.
Gibson shocked the crowd at the women’s 3-meter springboard competition on Wednesday, Aug. 7, when her first dive in the preliminary round went awry, causing her to slam her feet on the springboard mid-somersault.
The mistake prompted a penalty for the 25-year-old, as well as an audible gasp from the crowd, registering her performance as a non-dive and earning her a score of 0.0. Despite the painful error, she carried on and completed her remaining four dives, ultimately finishing 28th out of 28 athletes.
“Our worth is not defined by one painful moment,” Gibson wrote on Instagram post on Aug. 8. “I am who I am because of the journey it took to get here. And I will not let the shame and pain of this moment define me and my worth.”
Gibson continued, stating that while her dive might seem like “an embarrassing failure” to those on the outside, she saw it as anything but and hoped that her perseverance would inspire others to keep going “even when you fall short.”
“This was far from the outcome I wanted, but I fought with everything I had to represent my country as well as I could, and I’m proud of that.”
OUCH 😬
A tough moment for Alison Gibson as her feet strike the board on the way down. #Paris2024 #Olympics pic.twitter.com/jdXFwTKcVh
— Eurosport (@eurosport) August 7, 2024
She shared the message alongside a video of her mishap, adding, “In my 15 years diving, this has never happened to me,” and, on top of the disappointing score, the incident was also physically taxing.
“My feet were bleeding, my heels were painfully bruised from hitting the board, and everyone on the pool deck thought I was going to scratch. But I didn’t scratch. I kept my chin up and kept fighting until the end of that event,” she narrated in a voiceover.
Gibson detailed her injury to NBC News, saying that she has “cuts along the sides” of her limbs because she hit her heels and feet on the board. “I bruised my right heel pretty badly, but I was determined to keep going,” she explained.
Though she noted that her “heart and body hurt,” Gibson reemphasized her powerful message: “If you have a moment when you feel like all is lost, don’t give up hope. You are beautifully and wonderfully made.”
Gibson made her Olympic debut in Tokyo in 2021, finishing last in the event. After briefly retiring for two years, telling the Austin American-Statesman that Tokyo was a “gut-wrenching experience,” she ultimately came out of retirement in the summer of 2023 to give Paris another try.
The athlete exemplified beautifully that when incidents happen that seem like a failure, nothing is ever truly a failure when you are building toward something.