Bacon qualified for her first Olympics and Cook, a 2016 Olympian, became the first American female diver to make non-consecutive Olympic teams. Cook and Bacon finished second to Alison Gibson and Krysta Palmer in the synchro event at the 2020 trials. This time around, Gibson and Palmer finished at the runner-up spot with 599.49 points.

"We faced a lot of obstacles over the last couple of months together, years honestly," Bacon told USA Diving. “Injuries and all that kind of stuff, so just coming through all of that and making my first Olympic and her second Olympic team. I don’t have any words right now for it.”

Bacon has had to overcome numerous injuries —shoulder injuries, stress fractures in her back, and concussions— and was thinking of quitting the sport three years ago.  Cook also stepped away from diving and didn’t compete internationally in 2022 following a series of serious shoulder injuries. Bacon encouraged Cook to come back as her synchro partner, prompting her to quit her job and return to the sport full-time in 2023.

"It was that moment when all of your hard work came to fruition,” Cook said. “Sometimes that doesn’t always happen, and you don’t always get the result you want, which has happened to us before. But once we landed in the water, we knew we were Olympians going to Paris."

Bacon, Gibson and Palmer will also be among those vying for two individual women’s 3-meter spots on the Olympic team. Palmer won a bronze in that event at the Tokyo Olympics, one of three medals claimed by the U.S. team.