- Photo: Getty images
PARIS: China's Quan Hongchan (pic) has become the darling of the nation's diving team at the Paris Olympics 2024.
The 17-year-old Quan and teammate Chen Yuxi, 18, did their country proud when they won gold in the Women's Synchronised 10m Platform Final with 359.10 points on Wednesday (July 31).
The pair dominated Wednesday’s event from the beginning, taking a lead of nearly 15 points after the first two dives, but neither was satisfied with their performance despite the win.
"I'm not happy about our performance. All the dives were mediocre," Quan told newsmen, Reuters reported.
"Before the event I felt a bit nervous and some pressure. I didn't manage these emotions well," Chen said.
Quan has been dominating the sport, having won all-bar-one of the gold medals on offer at the past two Olympic Games.
At Tokyo 2020 in 2021, she secured three perfect 10s at the age of 14 to finish over 40 points ahead of silver medallist and compatriot Chen Yuxi in the women’s 10m platform and become her nation’s second-youngest diver ever to win an Olympic title.
The Guangdong native was so young, in fact, that she was only able to compete in Japan due to the year-long postponement caused by the pandemic.
Below, we take a closer look at the story behind Quan’s meteoric rise, and some of the lesser known facts about the diving prodigy.
1 - Motivated to pay for hospital bills
Quan was born as third of five children in the rural village of Maihe, which has fewer than 2000 inhabitants.
Her father was an orange farmer, and her mother worked in a factory until a car accident left her in poor health.
Aged seven, Quan was playing hopscotch at school with her friends, and her jumping ability was quickly spotted by a local coach from the Zhanjiang City Sports School, Chen Huaming.
“He said that I was tiny and swift, but able to jump higher and longer than the others. At that time, I was 1.20m tall and could jump as long as 1.76m,” Quan told Xinhanet.com.
“Coach Chen, who was doing his annual work to scout young talents all over the city and in rural areas, went to my home and spoke to my parents.
"He taught me diving at school in Zhanjiang. I had never tried any other sports before but I enjoyed playing in the water.
"It was a good start for me that I jumped from the platform into the water ahead of other kids without hesitation.
“I was not good at studying but I found confidence in diving.”
Quan’s motivation in sport was to get to compete at the Olympic Games and support her mother through paying for her hospital bills.
2 - Guangdong: A hotbed of Chinese diving talent
Quan's home province of Guangdong has produced an enormous amount of Chinese diving talent.
The area in southeastern China also produced the nation’s first diving world champion Chen Xiaoxia, in addition to Olympic champions Sun Shuwei, Hu Jia, Yang Jinghui, and Xie Siyi.
3 - Spicy snacks, arcade games, and supermarkets
Aside from her brilliance in sport, Quan has won the hearts of the Chinese public with her bubbly personality.
After looking perfectly serious during Tokyo 2020, the teenager burst into giggles after winning the gold medal, telling reporters that she would be celebrating by eating a spicy Chinese snack called Latiao.
“I want to eat my favourite snacks as much as possible, and I want to go to the amusement park and play the doll-grasp machine and grab many dolls,” she said.
“I had a wish to own a small grocery store in my hometown, but now my dream is upgraded to a supermarket.”
4 - A home comfort with a funny face
Tokyo 2020 was the first time Quan ever competed outside of China.
Being so young, it was important that she had some home comforts to settle any nerves and perform at her best.
That’s why she always brings a stuffed toy with a big grin on its face, which was a gift from her older brother.
"It kind of looks like me. We both have toothy smiles," she told China Daily.
5 - Quan Hongchan’s ‘desire for perfection’
Quan is frequently asked what she does differently to her peers and rivals.
A special technique? Ultra-modern training facilities? The answer to both is no. She simply trains as hard as she can, and dedicates her life to getting better with each session.
"Quan practices harder than other athletes around her age. She's the most engaged.
"She kept asking me whether her positions and flights were OK, whether she did well,” He Weiyi, the diving coach at the Guangdong Provincial Sports Team and Quan’s former mentor told CGTN.
6 - A Chinese word was created to describe Quan Hongchan's excellence
Sometimes, words simply don't do justice to particularly great performances.
In Quan's case, a new Mandarin Chinese word had to be created to describe her astonishing performances in diving.
The word is “水花消失术”, pronounced “shui hua xiao shi shu”, which literally means "water splash disappearance technique", reflecting her ability to meet the water with such precision that only small ripples are created.
After all, during Tokyo 2020, her second and fourth jumps were awarded a rare score of 10 from all seven judges. The last jump received 10 from six judges while the other gave 9.5.
Her final result of 466.20 is the world record in the 10m platform, and she has gone on to repeat the perfect 10s at the World Championships, Asian Games, and in the World Cup. - Facts sourced from olympics.com
