Tokyo, Japan, August 5, 2021: China’s teenage divers put on an exhibition of their supreme talent at Tokyo Aquatics Centre on Thursday afternoon in winning gold and silver in the women’s 10m platform.
Quan Hongchan, only 14, was awarded a string of perfect 10s to earn her the perfect score of 96.0 in three of her five dives. The other two dives received 82.50 and 95.70 for a total of 466.20.
On two of her dives, she received 10 from all seven judges, while another was marked 10 by six judges and 9.5 by the other. The two highest and two lowest scores of the seven are discarded, leaving only three scores to count towards the total for each dive.
Her teammate Chen Yuxi, still 15, won the silver with 425.40, and Melissa Wu of Australia took bronze with 371.40.
It was China’s sixth diving gold medal out of seven so far at Tokyo 2020, with the men’s 10m platform coming up on Saturday.
Quan, from Guangdong province, was competing outside of China for the first time and admitted it took her a few days to adapt to the new conditions.
She said that her coach just advised her to relax before the competition and not be nervous.
Asked what she would tell her parents, she replied: “I want to thank them for encouraging me, encouraging me to relax and telling me to just go for my dives freely because it doesn’t matter whether I get a medal or not.”
However, she denied she was a child prodigy. “I’m not very bright,” she said. “I don’t do well in my studies. You ask me all these questions and there’s only a blank in my mind.”
Silver medallist Chen had this to say of champion Quan: “She has a carefree personality, but is meticulous in doing things. During competition, she holds herself well together. She was flawless today. She’s at a higher level than I am. I think I’m not at my peak form now, whereas she is.”
Bronze medal-winner Wu, a veteran at 29, had glowing praise for the Chinese duo: “I think they're amazing; they're amazing to watch and I've always looked up to all of the Chinese divers. I definitely try to emulate their work ethic and I'm so happy that they also had a really good performance today.”