Great haul of China: Cao Yuan wins Olympic gold to give his nation an unprecedented diving sweep

SAINT-DENIS, France (AP) — Call it the Great Haul of China.

Cao Yuan defended his title in the men’s 10-meter platform on Saturday and gave his nation an unprecedented sweep of the diving gold medals at the Paris Olympics.

The Big Red Machine won all eight golds handed out at the Olympic Aquatics Centre, most of them with dominating victories.

That wasn’t the case in the final diving event of the Games. With teammate Yang Hao having an uncharacteristically poor day and Rikuto Tamai of Japan keeping the pressure on until a botched dive in the next-to-last round, the burden of completing the Chinese sweep fell entirely on Cao’s slender shoulders.

He was up to the task.

The 29-year-old Cao essentially locked up the gold with big scores on his toughest dive of the competition, a forward 4 1/2 somersaults in the fifth of six rounds. He finished with 547.50 points to become the first male diver since Greg Louganis in 1988 to win a second straight gold off the big tower.

“I believe in myself,” Cao said through an interpreter. “I am very, very confident.”

Cao now has four golds in his career, tying Louganis for the most ever by a male Olympic diver....