Why Do Divers Soak in a Hot Tub After Dives? There Are a Few Reasons
After dives, you'll often see divers taking a quick shower followed by a soak in the tub.
Published July 30 2024, 5:24 p.m. ET
You may have noticed while watching the Summer Olympic Games that the divers will often take a quick rinse in the shower and then jump into a hot tub after they dive.
So what's that all about? Are they trying to get clean? (No.) Are they just chillaxing? (Sort of.)
There are actually some real reasons behind what these incredible athletes do between dives, in order to help them pull off such amazing feats that we mere mortals can only dream about.
Below, we take a look at why divers usually opt to take showers and soak in hot tubs between their dives.
Francesca Dallape' of Italy takes a shower during the Italian Diving Championship at Piscine del Foro Italico on June 20, 2016 in Rome, Italy.
Why do divers go into a tub after dives?
Between dives, divers take a quick rinse in the shower and then jump into a hot tub for various reasons. For one thing, it can help keep their body temperature in check, especially after they've just taken a dive in a cold air-conditioned stadium into warm water. The quick changes in body temperature can lead to cramping, which — considering all that divers do with their bodies, from the tucks to the pikes — can be a real issue. The shower and the hot tub are meant to help with that, keeping the divers' muscles warm and loose.
But it wasn't always this way. Former Rutgers University diver David Feigley told the Washington Post in 2012 that back in 1966, when he was co-captain of his diving team, there were no hot tubs. "I just stood there and shivered," he said of his time between dives. He believed the hot tubs were introduced because "divers don't like cold water," and the tubs allowed the athletes time to "relax and focus."
Matty Lee and Tom Daley of Great Britain rinse in the shower after their final dive during their gold medal performance in the Men's Synchronised 10m Platform Diving at the Tokyo Aquatic Centre at the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games on July 26, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan.
Trainer and consultant Ralph Reiff agreed that the water for divers is "chilly" and that the hot tubs are a good way to keep warm, but he also told WaPo that it's "no different from track and field events where the athletes put sweats on and take a jog around the track. It keeps their muscles limber, and it’s certainly part of their mental routine."
There's also the fact that divers have to wait quite a while between their turns. Ball State University diving coach Jacob Brehmer told CNN in 2021, "Usually after a diver does a dive, they will have to wait a good amount of time before their next dive. [The] air temperature on the pool deck may be a little chilly, so the shower can help keep muscles warm. Diving is such a precise and fast-twitch sport, if the diver gets a little cold and tight, it could really affect their performance."
