They may have gotten off to a sluggish start, but German Sanchez and Iván García threw caution to the wind in the final rounds to capture Mexico’s first medal at the 2012 Olympic Games…

The 20-year-old and 18-year-old Mexican divers went all out on Monday with a very difficult dive and pulled it off to assure the dynamic duo the silver medal in the Men’s Diving: 10-Meter Synchronized Platform final at the London Games.

Garcia and Sanchez earned 468.90 points for second place behind champions Cao Yuan and Zhang Yanquan of China, who had 486.78.  The pair beat out U.S. divers Nicholas McCrory and David Boudia, who ended with a score of 463.47.

The Chinese divers, as well as Great Britain’s Thomas Daley and Peter Waterfield went ahead early in the final, while Sanchez and García found themselves in last place after their first two obligatory dives.

In their third dive, however, the pair moved into fifth place.

That’s when they decided to forget they were competing at the Olympics and visualize themselves alone with their trainer in their gym in Guadalajara. Sanchez and García executed an inward 4 1/2 somersault tuck with a 4.1 degree of difficulty, picking up 95.94 points to vault into second place, with only the Chinese ahead of them.

“We played it because it was the only way to fulfill this dream,” said Sanchez. “We could have failed because we tried something very difficult, but it worked out and here I have the medal.”

The silver medal was Mexico’s first of the London games and 56th overall.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon congratulated Garcia and Sanchez via Twitter.

“Congratulations to German Sanchez and Ivan Garcia, silver medal in 10-meter synchronized … Congratulations!” the president wrote.

The divers also received a shout-out from the governor of their home state of Jalisco, Emilio Gonzalez Marquez.

“Congratulations to @IvanGarciaPollo and to @DiverSanchez for giving Mexico its first silver medal. They are the pride of Jalisco,” the governor tweeted.