At the age of 17 years and 131 days, Quan Hongchan becomes the youngest triple-gold medalist in China’s Olympic history – breaking the record held by another diving star Fu Mingxia (17 years and 350 days). While Quan was only the second-youngest Chinese diver to win an Olympic gold medal (the youngest was 12-year-old Fu Mingxia), she was just getting started.

 

At the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, 14-year-old Quan was not only the youngest athlete in the Chinese delegation, her first gold medal set a new Olympic record with 466.20 points, beating Chinese diver Chen Ruolin’s (who would become Quan’s coach in 2021) previous record of 447.70 points, which she had set at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China.

 

Like Quan Hongchan in Paris Olympics 2024, Chen Ruolin also won gold in both the 10-metre platform and synchronised events. Additionally, Chen is a five-time Olympic gold medalist (2008, 2012 and 2016), ten-time World Championship medalist (six golds), nine-time World Cup medalist (eight golds), four-time Asian Games medalist (three golds) and two-time Universiade gold medalist.

Already 3-time Olympic gold medalist, 7-time World Championship medalist (five gold) and 2-time Asian Games gold medalist, Quan appears to be on her way to beat her coach’s record. But the teenager’s popularity skyrockets not merely because she has won the third gold at Paris. Came from a poor farmer’s family, her intention to win gold was to earn prize money to treat her mother’s illness after an accident.

 

As she loves dolls, but could not afford it since she was a child, her fans showered QuanHongchan with truckload of dolls – which she gladly picked them up – to show the Olympic gold medallist how much her story has touched them. She also won the hearts of millions with her playful innocence and cute antics. Her favourite toy – turtle – has quickly turned the toy into a viral sensation.

 

Her magical “water splash disappearance technique” has won legions of local fans as well as amazed foreign athletes and reporters. In Tokyo 2020, all the seven judges gave her the perfect-10 score in two dives, with her fifth dive just one judge (who awarded her 9.5) away from another perfect score. In Paris 2024, she again scored a perfect 10 on her first of five dives.

However, in her latest interview with CCTV, it was revealed that Quan was not particularly happy despite having won her second gold defending the women’s 10-metre platform. She was extremely concerned for Chen Yuxi, her partner in the women’s synchronized 10-meter platform event. She said – “Chen trained very hard too. I wonder if it was wrong for me to win the gold medal”.

 

That explains why Quan rushed to find Chen and shared a heartfelt hugand left the venue together after the synchronized event in Paris. Quan felt guilty as she had won the gold back at Tokyo 2020, and wins it again at Paris 2024, while Chen only got the silver medal on both occasions. Quan would be much happier had both of them won the gold each as they have worked equally hard.

 

When the interviewer asked if she really won’t mind not winning gold, Quan said it doesn’t matter who wins the gold, as long as China wins the medal. The reason is simple – other countries too were eyeing the same gold medal. Therefore, the top priority was to ensure the country secured the gold, only then everyone will be happy. This is why both Quan and Chen value their friendship over everything else.

Quan scored 425.60 points on five dives, compared with 420.70 for Chen in the 10-metre platform competition. The small margin, compared to 372.10 points by Kim Mi Rae of North Korea who won bronze, shows the Chinese domination in diving. Crucially, it shows China is at a different level, and it was all about Chinese divers competing with each other for gold and silver from the beginning. 

 

Chen, 19, and Quan, 17, were the only divers to score more than 50 points on their first two dives, which had to have a degree of difficulty of 2.0. On the final three dives that had no limit on the difficulty, they scored at least 80 points each time off the board. No one else in the field had a dive score better than 80 all day. It’s little wonder why even competitors were in awe of their incredible skills.

 

Great Britain’s Andrea Spendolini Sirieix, who won the bronze medal alongside teammate Lois Toulson, said – “The Chinese train so hard. The way that they train, everything is close to perfection. They are the best of the best, the people that we chase, and inspiration. Just so good. I’m always clapping their dives. Just watch their dives. They go in the water like they are sleeping.”

Quan once revealed that she didn’t feel pressured at all during the Tokyo 2020, which she described as “easy meat”, because she can always rely on Chen to deliver the gold should she fail to perform. Such strategic thinking shows not only maturity and teamwork, but also an advantage to the diving team from making mistakes due to pressure. The joke is that had there been no quota, the top-10 divers would be from China.

 

One man’s meat is another man’s poison. In the case of Chen and Quan, the Covid-19 pandemic has changed the entire fate of both divers. Chen Yuxi was on the top of the world after winning the 2019 World Championships without a sweat – her first participation in a world-class competition. It was only a year earlier (2018) when the 13-year-old Chen entered the national team after winning 2 gold in local competition.

 

China was betting on talented Chen – who took a mere 9 months from entering the national team to becoming the world champion – to win the gold at Tokyo 2020. But she was unlucky when the Olympic Games was postponed for one year due to Coronavirus. Chen entered a period of growth and development. In one year, she grew 10 centimeters taller and an increase in weight. 

To make matters worse, two months before the Tokyo Olympics, Chen Yuxi’s waist injury relapsed and she had to be hospitalized. Even though she recovered, her movements were not as stable and light as they were a year ago as everything needed re-adjustment. The delay of Tokyo 2020 to 2021, however, means Quan Hongchan can enter Olympics after meeting the minimum age requirement.

 

Quan, who was only 14 years old and has yet to develop, was extremely lucky as the postponement provided her with a huge opportunity. Had the Olympics not postponed, Chen would certainly win her first Olympic gold as the underaged Quan was not qualified. But Quan too had to face the same puberty problem after winning the gold medal in Tokyo at the age of 14.

 

Recognizing the rapid changes in her body, Quan admitted that her dives are now not as good as before as she can feel the new burden like the one Chen was going through previously. Having experienced the painful growth period, Quan understood how Chen had felt. Despite the incredible hardship, however, Chen said the Olympic dream is worth fighting for.

Chen Yuxi, whose grandfather was a famous gymnast whilst her father was a senior gymnastics coach, said during the interview that she was willing to sacrifice food and work hard as not only winning gold has been her dream since childhood, but believes that her dream could be so close that one step further is what she needed to achieve.

 

Instead of throwing tantrums and blaming others, Chen remains positive despite having lost the gold twice to fellow Quan. She felt lucky in a sense that without fierce competition from Quan, she might get complacent and not be able to hit the 450 points for the female 10-metre platform, a hurdle for many divers. It was Quan that has pushed Chen to achieve such a high standard.

 

Indeed, at the Tokyo 2020, the difference was 40.8 points between gold medallist Quan Hongchan (466.20 points) and teammate Chen Yuxi, who claimed the silver medal with 425.40 points. Three years later, Chen narrowed the gap to razor-thin 4.9 points (420.70 points compared to Quan’s 425.60). She said – “It is a pity that I lost so narrowly but I’ll just have to work harder.”

Showing world class diving in Paris, Quan quickly demonstrate what perfection is in a dive by getting full marks from all the judges on her first – a forward 3-1/2 somersaults piked. Her mistakes on her third dive, however, allowed Chen, to narrow the gap to 1.6 points after she executed a neat routine from an arm stand position to score 89.1 points, her highest in the final. But Quan quickly recovered with a better fourth dive, scoring 92.4 points to keep her lead.

 

A more mature Chen, who has gained admission to the prestigious Tongji University, says diving is only one part of her long journey in life. While Chen’s story is about persistence, dreams and courage, perfectionist Quan sees no reason to stop at this moment because she believes she can still be better – if she works even harder. Despite winning the gold, Quan said – “I give myself 50 (out of 100) for today’s performance.”

 

It was not an easy journey for Quan too. The Back 3 ½ Somersault Tuck (207C) was once her biggest nightmare. She shed tears in the competition due to a mistake in 207C. Quan’s coach Chen Ruolin revealed how Quan was tormented by 207C every day. But in this final competition, Quan scored 92.40 points for the 207C in her fourth dive, successfully overcoming her fear.

Being humble, Quan Hongchan said in the interview that it was not a big deal being the Olympics champion. Training for 8 hours daily, and used to dive 400 times every day, she considers herself like other ordinary athletes, refusing to accept the recognition that she was a genius because people have no idea the type of training involved. To keep going despite tiredness, she can only focus on her goal and target.

 

Heck, when Quan was sent to Tokyo 2020, she was so young she had no idea what was Olympics all about, which allowed her to focus and fearlessly dive with zero pressure. Only when she manages to score perfect 10 would she dare to consider herself a talented diver. Together with Chen Yuxi, the Chinese pair of divers has been winning every single gold medals in the world competitions.

 

Even though both Chinese top divers were both competitors as well as partners during competitions, they were also “sisters growing up together” at the same time. Quan hopes to be treated like any ordinary people, and not surrounded and celebrated excessively as it would do more harm than good. More importantly, people should stop comparing who is better between the two Chinese Diving Queens.

 

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August 22nd, 2024 by financetwitter

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