Sarah Bacon and Kassidy Cook win the first medal for Team USA at the Paris Olympics

Kassidy Cook and Sarah Bacon earned silver in the women's 3-meter synchronized springboard event on Saturday, giving America its first medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Sarah Bacon, 27, and Kassidy Cook, 29, took silver in Saturday's 3-meter synchronized springboard competition at the Aquatics Centre. Bacon and Cook ended with 314.64 points on five dives, falling 23.04 points short of China's Yani Chang and Yiwen Chang, first-time Olympians who entered as heavy favorites after winning the event at the previous three world championships. China wins its sixth consecutive Olympic gold medal in the event, dating back to the 2004 Athens Games.

“We were really consistent Cook, a 29-year-old from the Houston suburbs who attended Stanford. “We were able to dive the way we train. It wasn’t our best performance but we didn’t miss anything, so we’re really happy with how we did. To be able to walk away with a silver medal is freaking awesome.”

Tasmin Harper and Scarlett Mew Jensen of Great Britain finished in third place with 302.28 points.

Cook and Bacon had known each other since before they were teenagers, when they consistently finished first and second in national events. Bacon, a 27-year-old from Indianapolis, recalls Saturday witnessing the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics at Cook's home.

The silver medal was Team USA's first in women's synchronized springboard since Kelci Bryant and Abby Johnston took silver in London in 2012.

This is Bacon's Olympic debut. In addition, the Indianapolis native will compete in Paris' individual springboard event.

Cook is from The Woodlands, Texas, and this is her second Olympic debut.

The American duo missed the Tokyo Games three years ago after finishing second at the US Olympic trials while Cook was suffering from a "pretty gnarly shoulder injury". But such suffering just paved the way for Saturday's long-awaited Olympic medal.

“Everything we’ve been through as individuals and as a team, injuries, heartbreak, coming so close to reaching our goals but falling short has only made this moment sweeter,” Cook said. “To be able to share it together means everything in the world.”