The 1976 Olympic diving events were held at the Piscine Olympique (Montreal Olympic Pool), which had been built specifically for the Montreal Olympics. It hosted swimming, diving, water polo, and the swimming section of the modern pentathlon in 1976. There were four diving events – 3-metre springboard and 10-metre platform for men and women, which remained the standard Olympic diving program through 1996. American divers won two gold medals, while [Klaus Dibiasi] won his third consecutive gold in men’s platform. Close behind Dibiasi in second was young American [Greg Louganis], the man who would be King, in his first Olympic appearance.

At the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, four diving events were contested during a competition that took place at the Montréal Olympic Pool, from 19 to 27 July (July 24, rest day), comprising 82 divers from 22 nations.

[Phil Boggs] (USA) had won the 1973 and 1975 World Championship and was favored as the US Olympic Trials approached. But Boggs was defeated at the US Trials by a young 16-year-old named [Greg Louganis]. But the Olympics were different as Boggs was by far the most consistent diver. He led the qualifying and took the lead in the final on the first dive and was never headed as he won the gold medal. He had the highest score in the final on 8 of the 11 dives, and for his 22 dives (qualifying and final), he had only two judges’ marks of 6.5, with all marks ranging from 7.0 to 9.5.

Louganis did not win a medal, but on his fourth qualifying dive, became the [Nadia Comaneči] of diving when he was awarded a 10.0 from judge #3, the first perfect score ever given in Olympic diving. In the final he was in third place after nine dives before stumbling on his 3½ sommie to drop back to sixth. He would come back to win this event, and the platform, in 1984 and 1988.

The silver went to Italy’s [Franco Cagnotto], repeating his finish from Munchen. Cagnotto’s teammate, platform superstar [Klaus Dibiasi] was considered a challenger, having placed second to Boggs at the 1973 and 1975 Worlds, but he was hampered by a sore Achilles’ tendon and placed last in the finals.

The men's 3 metre springboard, also reported as springboard diving, was one of four diving events on the Diving at the 1976 Summer Olympics programme.

The competition was split into two phases:

1. Preliminary round (21 July)

   Divers performed eleven dives. The eight divers with the highest scores advanced to the final.

2. Final (22 July)

   Divers performed another set of eleven dives and the score here obtained determined the final ranking.