China’s youngest athlete at Tokyo Games wins gold with THREE perfect 10s in women’s diving

August 5, 2021

Quan Hongchan is already an Olympic gold medalist at just 14 years old.

Young champ: Hongchan, China’s youngest athlete at the Tokyo Games, performed two dives that the judges scored unanimously as 10 in the women’s 10-meter (32.8 feet) platform diving to win her gold medal on Thursday, ESPN reported. She also received a third 10 after two judges’ scores were discounted.

Quan finished with a dominating score of 466.20, while her Chinese teammate Chen Yuxi won the silver medal with 425.40 points.
Quan is now the second-youngest woman to win gold in this event.
Fu Mingxia, also representing China, took the event’s top spot at age 13 in the 1992 Barcelona Games.
With Chen winning gold at a separate diving event last week, China has now claimed gold in all women’s diving events at four successive Olympic Games since Beijing 2008.

Slight nervousness: After her nearly flawless performance, the teen diving star later admitted that she was “a little nervous, but not very, just a little bit,” according to CNN.

Quan, who has been called a “diving prodigy,” said she does not think the label fits her.
“I don’t think I’m a prodigy,” she was quoted as saying. “I’m not very bright. I don’t do well in my studies. You ask me all these questions, and there’s only a blank in my mind.”
In celebrating her Olympic gold, Quan said she wants to “eat a lot of delicious things tonight! I feel like eating ‘latiao’ (a spicy Chinese snack) the most.”

Featured Image via BeIN Sports Asia

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