Chen scored 376 points across her five dives to win by more than 30 points over the second-place finisher. Chang had a poor first dive that scored over 25 points fewer than Keeney, and although Chang consistently placed second throughout the remaining four dives, she was unable to overcome that deficit. Keeney took silver with a score of 343.10, while Chang earned bronze with 318.75 points.

Chen established her lead from the first round and continued with consistent form and entry until she finished with the highest score. She was the only diver on Friday to score over 70 points in each round. Twenty-five-year-old Chen, who led both the preliminary round and the semi-final by a substantial margin, said she was "pretending to be chill" but was actually under immense pressure. "My heart was beating so fast from the warm-up all the way through the last dive," she told reporters after the event. "Then, when I finished the last dive, I suddenly calmed down, as if I had just let out a long breath."

Keeney, 28, scored the highest single dive score of 78.6 points in her final routine – a forward two and a half somersaults combined with two twists, which carried the highest difficulty level. However, that performance was not sufficient to close the gap on Chen, as Keeney, who won a bronze medal in the synchronised 3-metre event in Rio 2016, lost points with a problematic third dive.

"I think in order to beat the Chinese, you really need to take risks," said Keeney, who became the first Australian diver to win an Olympic medal in the event. "There’s something so thrilling about it, just anything can go wrong.” "You don’t think about that stuff in training… you’re physically shaking, your heart’s pounding… It’s a different beast… It absolutely is what you live for," she said.

Chang, who partnered with Chen to win the synchronised 3-metre event on 27 July, failed to reach the proper flight height in her first routine, resulting in a splashy entry with her body not fully extended. Placed last after the first round, she managed to make up the lost ground with stronger performances in the subsequent rounds, especially her fourth dive, which scored 75 points, earning her a place on the podium.

As a major global powerhouse in this sport, China has secured the gold in all the diving finals held so far at Paris 2024. The Asian giant, which claimed 9 out of the 13 gold medals on offer at the Doha 2024 World Championships, is similarly unbeatable in this springboard event, which their divers have dominated uninterruptedly since the Seoul 1988 Games.