85kph, aesthetic gravity-defying freefall — cliff diving is the purest extreme sport on earth. The world’s best cliff divers launch from 27 meters with no protection at all, except their concentration, skill and physical control. Let’s dive into the science of what the body endures upon a monumental 85kmph impact. The impact on the body is enormous and a cliff diver has to handle it over and over. What the divers need to do in the air in order to find a vertical position when they hit the water? — Find out by watching the story clip!
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In a seven-day period the divers will have to deal with a modern opera house in Denmark’s historic capital and return to the impressive volcanic rocks of the Azores archipelago in the middle of the Atlantic. Without any time to recover, the athletes will face one of their biggest challenges of the whole season: in the first all-natural competition of the current season an imposing monolith and the outside crater walls of the circular-shaped Vila Franca do Campo islet offshore from São Miguel are the perfect spots to explore this pure sport and dive straight from the cliffs again in 2013.
Artem Silchenko opened the competition, picked up exactly where he left off in France after racing into the lead during the first round and with an almost perfect execution of his blind-entry dive he took the highest score for a single dive as well as his second successive win in Denmark. On Saturday afternoon, 27,000 spectators witnessed the cliff diving masterclass from the 28m-stage atop the Copenhagen Opera House in a spine-tingling competition. Never before in a World Series competition have the judges awarded four tens for a single dive; the total competition score of 522.40 points is a record high as well. Champion Gary Hunt threw himself into second position and Orlando Duque came home in third.
Artem Silchenko’s outstanding performance left the huge crowd of people that had gathered below, around and opposite the opera speechless. The Russian had just nailed his back armstand with two and a half somersaults and two and a half twists for 10s from the judges. The dive has a Degree of Difficulty of 6.1 and, with its blind entry, it’s one of the most exhilarating and jaw-dropping manoeuvres. The view across the water through royal Amalienborg, from which spectators were spotted, impressed the cliff diving elite just as much as the dizzying height of 28m. Leaving this high stage and diving for three seconds into a sea of 27,000 enthusiastic spectators below, made the first-ever stop on Danish ground a big success.