Stephan Feck makes waves
- Details
- Published on Thursday, 16 August 2012 09:03
- Written by Sam Newdigate
London – Olympian Stephan Feck managed to score himself a solid round number for the men’s three-metre springboard dive. Unfortunately for him, this “round number” was a zero.
The German diver surprised the audience, and most probably himself, with his unusual execution of the traditional diving style during the preliminary round’s second attempt. Losing grip on his left leg, Feck faltered his tight form which thrashed him backwards into the water. He landed with an impressive backwards flop, of which many 13-year-olds would have been proud.
The purpose of the event is to create as little interference in the water as possible, as is expected from Olympic divers. Yet Feck instigated a tsunami of raised eyebrows instead.
Despite his stinging back, Feck surfaced to receive a total score of 0.0 from the unimpressed judges. This inevitably placed him last, leaving him over 160 points behind the rest. He was automatically eliminated from the games.
Feck made it into international news and blogs; his surname gaining him some particular attention with headlines such as "What the Feck!”. Worldwide audiences have responded with fits of laughter as well as a few sympathetic “Leave Britney alone!” -type reactions. One thing is for sure: making it to the Olympics is an amazing feat and deserving of a (not-so-watery) slap on the back.
The clip of his dive may be hard to get hold of, but a link of the a gif can be found here: http://cdn.lastangryfan.com/wp-content/uploads/feck.gif?adb689
It is better to have dived and flopped than to never have dived at all.