http://www.cuug.ab.ca:8001/~zimmerm/dive-info.html (Einblicke ins Internet, 10/1995)The Vikings were known to practice cliff diving and, in the late 1700s, Latin American Indians in Mexico were also diving off cliffs.
Fancy diving, a new form of diving using gymnastics apparatus, evolved in Germany and Sweden in the first half of the 19th century.
The first competitive diving competition is believed to have been held in 1885 in Halle, Germany.
By that time, the gymnastics apparatus had been eliminated, and rules and organizational structure had been put in place by a new group of sports people.