With a mass of experience under the belt, and countless skills up their sleeves, it's rare to see Olympic-level athletes making potentially-fatal mistakes whilst performing.
Tragically, however, it can happen. And no one is more aware of that than Italian diver Maia Biginelli, who was just millimetres from suffering a catastrophic head injury during this week's competitions.
In fact, the sportswoman's near-deadly move sparked such a horrified reaction from spectators that one BBC commentator had a few things to say to the judges for not intervening sooner.
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What happened during Maia Biginelli's dive?
On Monday evening (5 August), a 21-year-old Biginelli took to the board in a bid to bag a medal at Paris' Aquatics Centre.
Despite this being the sportswoman's Olympic debut, the diver had years of professional experience under her belt before taking the plunge.
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Unfortunately, however, her expertise seemingly fell short, when she failed to create a sizeable enough distance between herself and the board as she performed a 3.2 difficulty three-and-a-half somersaults inward dive in the tuck position for her third effort.
Biginella narrowly avoided the devastating injury, with her hair falling just millimetres from the board.
The near-fatal incident sparked a wave of gasps from members of the audience - both at home and in the Olympic stands.
And by the sounds of things, one of the most taken-aback viewers of Biginelli was BBC commentator Leon Taylor, who called upon judges to act in penalising the sportswoman.
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Leon Taylor's response
In the hope that intervention would prevent a similarly catastrophic injury in the future, a visibly irate presenter - who represented Team GB in diving back in 2004 - could be heard yelling live on air: "Judges, you need to do your job now!"
"You didn’t do it this morning. Do your job now," he begged. "That is a dangerous, dangerous dive.
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"Her hair hits the diving board, she should be massively penalised for that. Her hair pretty much hits the board."
Springboard diver Taylor - known for winning medals at all major international events, including a silver at the 2004 Athens Olympics - went on to demand: "What are you watching from your seats? What are you watching?
"We’ve got a duty of care in this sport to keep athletes safe. You’ve got to penalise. Coaches, you can see that as well."
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Much to the pundit's dismay, however, the Italian athlete went on to receive a pretty impressive 41.60 for her performance, with no penalty for the 'dangerous' dive having been inflicted.
In the end, however, Biginelli landed in 18th of the semi-final of the women's 10m platform - a competition which saw China's Quan Hongchan awarded first place, before later winning gold in the final.
China's Chen Yuxi was later awarded silver, and North Korea's Kim Mi-rae landed bronze.
Topics: Sport, Olympics, World News, Health
Rhianna Benson