A nearly perfect cannonball executed by American diver Ken Newberry in the men’s three-meter springboard final on Tuesday netted him a measly 1.3 average score from judges. The cannonball, which came on his final dive with a gold medal in sight, eliminated Newberry from medal contention.

“I don’t know what the judges were thinking on that one,” said Michael Roth, Newberry’s coach. “I haven’t seen a cannonball that pure since I hung out at my neighborhood pool when I was 12.”

The USOC is considering filing a complaint on Newberry’s behalf, arguing the dive deserved a much higher score.

“I know the cannonball doesn’t have the world’s highest level of difficulty, but that was pure cannonball perfection,” said Newberry. “Even with a few tenths taken off to start, there’s no way that dive should have prevented me from getting the gold.”

Newberry, who was the final diver of the night, consulted with Roth before deciding on the cannonball and taking the diving board.

“We wanted to go out with something really big, something memorable that would stick in the judges’ mind,” said Roth. “We thought we had it.”

Newberry jumped off the board, reaching perhaps the highest altitude of the night, before folding his knees to his chest and plummeting to the water.

“He was locked in tight. Perfect form,” said Roth. And when Newberry hit the surface, an enormous, perfectly proportionate splash exploded around him, soaking many of the spectators surrounding the pool, including the judges.

“No matter how long I’m in this sport, I can’t even imagine doing a better dive than that one,” said Newberry. “The splash was friggin’ huge. I think the judges were just upset ‘cause they got all wet.”

Ian Robinson, an Australian judge who gave the cannonball its highest score – a 1.6 – said getting swamped by the dive’s splash had nothing to do with the low score.

“Sure, we didn’t like getting wet,” said Robinson, “but he got a one-three because cannonballs are not Olympic-level dives. Anybody can do them. No doubt his was awesome, but we can’t give it a good score in the Olympic Games. That’s just how it is.”