Holly Springs High School diver Andrew Capobianco competed in Paris. Here’s his result.

Andrew Capobianco of Holly Springs competed in the semifinal of the men’s 3-meter springboard competition Wednesday at the 2024 Paris Olympics, finishing 15th overall and ending his Olympic run.

Scoring 66.30 on both of his first two dives, Capobianco posted a 71.75 on a reverse 3 ½ somersaults dive to put himself in 12th place at the midway point of the semifinal competition.

After having a subpar fourth dive which put him in 18th overall, Capobianco bounced back with a huge 81.90 on his forward 2½ somersaults with three twists. Competing in his second Olympic games, he finished off his semifinal performance with his best dive of the morning, scoring a 83.60 on a forward 4½ somersault.

“I’m proud of the lead up to it,” Capobianco said after the semifinal. “I haven’t had the most perfect three years since the last one with some injuries and surgeries in there so I’m just proud of the way that I kind of fought through that and tried to always keep my head high and go out there with confidence. Sometimes you just have to fake it and unfortunately, the faking didn’t really work for me today. I just didn’t really feel my most confident out there.”

In his Olympic debut in 2021 at Tokyo, Capobianco finished 10th overall in the 3-meter competition and took home a silver medal in the synchronized springboard. This year at the Olympic trials, he won the 3-meter final.

The 24-year-old diver, originally from New York, began his career in diving as a youth before his family moved to North Carolina. While at Holly Springs High School, Capobianco was a member of Team USA 2014 and 2016 FINA Junior World Championships teams in addition to being a five-time senior national champion.

During his five year-career at Indiana University, Capobianco was a two-time NCAA 3-meter diving champion, a four-time NCAA medalist and a 10-time All-American.

After prepping for so long, Capobianco had to battle injuries since his podium finish in Tokyo.

Capobianco competed in the semifinal round alongside fellow Indiana teammate, Carson Tyler.

Although they crossed only briefly while in college, the two represented Team USA together Wednesday and Tyler will have a chance to add a medal to the country’s count after finishing seventh in the semis.

“It’s great being able to train together so hard and coming here and just being able to have that,” Capobianco said. “[Tyler’s] like a brother to me so being able to compete with him is fun but it’s not a team sport where we’re with each other the whole time.”

Due to the COVID restrictions of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, this is the first chance Capobianco’s family had gotten to see their son compete in-person at the Olympics. He was joined in Paris by his parents, twin brother Matt and older brother, Christian.

“It’s great to have them here,” Capobianco said. “I wish I could have had a better result with them here. Obviously the last one, I won a medal and nobody was really there to see it so that makes it a little bit more bittersweet this time. I wish I had a similar result and we were able to celebrate but we’re still gonna celebrate. I’m still a two-time Olympian but it’s just a little bit different.”

In the preliminary round on Tuesday, Capobianco placed 15th overall with a score of 382.05 after the fourth of six rounds. Capobianco secured his semifinal spot with 76.05 points on a forward 2 ½ somersaults with three twists and 79.80 points on a front 4 ½ tuck.

Although he won’t be advancing any further, his family is proud of not only his Olympic run, but how he has represented their family and North Carolina on the world stage.

“To be an Olympian is not only being able to perform at a really high level athletically, but to generally just be a really great person and represent the country really well,” Christian said. “It’s pretty incredible that he’s been chosen not only to fulfill his role athletically here, but also to be kind of a role model for everyone in Paris and back home as well and I feel like he really does a great job at that, and we couldn’t be more proud of him.”

Maya Waid and Anna Laible are students with UNC Media Hub, a program with the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media, reporting from the Summer Olympics in Paris. Laible hosts the Speak Up Sports Podcast. Follow her journey covering her first Olympics on her Instagram (@anna_laible).