RIO DE JANEIRO — For the first time in 11 years, Meaghan Benfeito refused to look at the scoreboard as she scaled the 10-metre platform for her fifth and final dive.
Back home, Canadians tuning in knew Benfeito and Roseline Filion needed a monster final dive to vault over Great Britain and North Korea from fifth to third place and defend their synchronized bronze medal from the 2012 Olympics. They witnessed the North Koreans botch their final dive, leaving an opening for the Canadian duo.
But Benfeito shielded her eyes, refusing to let mathematics and jangled nerves paralyze her limbs in the moment she needed them most.
On their own, but together, Benfeito and Filion walked to the edge of their respective platforms.
“Okay, let’s go,” Benfeito said. “We’ve got this. You can do it. Ready?”
“Yes,” Filion replied.
“One,” Benfeito said. “Two, three, go!”
In unison, they soared off the platform and nailed an inward 3-1/2 somersault for their best score of the day at 80.64.
They climbed out of the pool — a putrid green thanks to a surge of algae — and awaited the final dive for Tonia Couch and Lois Toulson, of Great Britain. Benfeito put a hand on Filion’s shoulder. Filion kissed Benfeito’s cheek.
Under immense pressure, the Brits messed up their timing and scored just 63.36 to set off a wild Canadian celebration in the stands and on deck at the open-air Centro Aquatico Maria Lenk.
Filion, of Laval, Que., and Benfeito, of Montreal, sobbed in a tight embrace.
Bronze, beautiful bronze.
“You saw a lot of tears of joy after we found out we were third,” Benfeito later said. “It’s really different than the bronze medal in London. We’ve had a very hard season.”
Hard doesn’t quite begin to describe it. Back in December, Filion’s chances of qualifying for these Games looked grim after she broke her ankle at the Canadian championships in Saskatoon.
“At the beginning, when it happened, I thought this was it,” said Filion, 29. “I was definitely scared.”
She was scared for good reason, with an Olympic diving test event two months away and Filion needing to finish top-18 in the preliminaries to secure a second spot for Canada in the individual 10-metre platform.
The problem was, she couldn’t walk or put any weight on that right foot. So Benfeito sprung into action, sending encouraging texts and probing for updates. She basically served as personal chauffeur for her wounded teammate, driving her to and from practice and doctor’s appointments.
“She put her life aside, she put all her energy on me and she forgot about herself,” Filion said. “When I got back into the pool she modified her diving to make sure we were synchro. She was jumping lower because I didn’t have my full strength back. She’d hold back a little bit …
“That’s why I can’t ask for a better partner, a better friend. She did it for me. It’s rare that people would do that for someone else.”
With all that help, Filion somehow competed on one good foot at the Rio test event in March and secured that spot for Canada.
But somewhere along the way, the 27-year-old Benfeito neglected to take care of herself. The modified dives messed up her rhythm, and she started to miss dives she always made. She forgot the wisdom dispensed in every pre-flight safety demonstration to put on your own oxygen mask before assisting others.
“That’s the biggest lesson she has learned and I feel extremely bad about it because she didn’t have to do it,” Filion said. “But she wanted me to be well and she forgot herself through all that period.”
On Tuesday, Benfeito was the one who struggled to land her fourth dive, momentarily dropping the Canadians into fifth.
“In practice I’ve been having a very hard time with that dive,” Benfeito said. “It’s been almost a disaster this week, so that was probably the best one so far. So I’m really happy. It could have been better. It has been better. But I’m very happy to finish the event with a smile on my face.”
Ruolin Chen and Huixia Liu, of China, won gold with 354.00 points. Malaysia’s Jun Hoong Cheong and Pandela Rinong Pamg claimed silver with 344.34. Canada climbed into third at 336.16.
“I didn’t even think about my foot here,” Filion said. “It doesn’t hurt. I don’t feel anything. I’m back to normal. And definitely the last dive, the 11 years of experience kicked in. We saw the ones going under pressure but our experience helped today.”
The good experience, and the bad.
vhall@postmedia.com