Olympics 2024: LI's Andrew Capobianco's diving medal quest ends in semifinals

Only the top 12 would be moving on to the final in the men’s 3-meter individual springboard diving event at these Paris Olympics. So Andrew Capobianco had ground to make up at the pool after two attempts in Wednesday’s semis.

The 24-year-old Wantagh native sat in 14th place after his first dive and dropped back to 16th after the second. But following the third of the six-round rotation, he was on the right side of the cut line — 12th and hoping to climb.

Then came his fourth dive. The score flashed. It wasn’t good.

“Well, that’s a miss,” Ted Robinson, the Rockville Centre-raised sportscaster and Chaminade alum, said on the play-by-play call for the E! telecast and Peacock stream. “And that’s going to make the final two rounds extremely tough on Capobianco.”

He dropped to six spots behind the cut line and indeed never caught up despite a strong finish. Capobianco posted 407.65 points and finished 15th to miss Thursday’s final.

Fellow American Carson Tyler advanced by placing seventh with 438 points. China’s Zongyuan Wang was first at 537.85.

When he competed at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, Capobianco ended up 10th overall individually. But he also came away with a silver-colored parting gift from those Games after a runner-up showing in the 3-meter synchronized event with Michael Hixon, who then retired.

This time, Capobianco didn’t qualify in synchro with new partner Quinn Henninger at the U.S. Olympic Trials in June. They came in second. But Capobianco took first individually to gain his trip to France.

After placing 15th in Tuesday’s preliminary round, Capobianco stepped onto the board for a fresh start. His dad, Mike, and mom Darlene, two retired Nassau County police officers, watched from the stands at the Aquatics Centre in Saint-Denis.

Their son scored 66.30 on each of his first two dives, then moved up into position to reach the final with a 71.75 score on the third one.

Before Capobianco headed into the air in the fourth round, Robinson called the back 3 1/2 somersaults with a 3.6 degree of difficulty the Olympian’s “most troublesome dive.”

Afterward, analyst Laura Wilkinson, a 2000 Olympic gold medalist, said on the broadcast, “And it’s better than it was in the preliminaries, but it’s still pretty short of vertical.”

It was pretty costly, too. He totaled just 37.80 points.

His final two dives were his toughest, 3.9 and then 3.8 on the difficulty scale.

Capobianco earned 81.90 points in the fifth round and rose to 16th, putting him 16.95 points from 12th with four divers ahead of him.

His last dive was forward with 4 1/2 somersaults.

“Beautiful,” Wilkinson said.

Mike stood and pumped his fist and Darlene yelled her approval while gripping an American flag.

The score: 83.60.

But Capobianco had only moved up one spot after the 18 divers finished that final round.

The former two-time Nassau boys diving champ’s Olympic diving days may not be over. He can aim to make the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

“I think in my mind right now, I definitely do see L.A. as a possibility,” Capobianco told Newsday last month. “Whether I come back as just a synchro diver or I continue to do individual and synchro, that would be up to me and how my body is feeling.

“But I do definitely want to stick around. I think that would be a real cool thing to have a home Olympics.”