Paris, France, August 6, 2024: Quan Hongchan has done it again!
At the tender age of 17, Quan became Olympic champion in the women’s diving 10m platform for a second time, defending the title she won in Tokyo three years ago.
Quan won with a five-dive total of 425.60. Her teammate Chen Yuxi, with whom Quan won the women’s 10m synchro earlier in Games, took silver with a score of 420.70.
Kim Mi Rae of DPR Korea earned her second medal of Paris 2024 by finishing third for bronze with 372.10. She had earlier won silver in the women’s 10m synchro behind the Chinese pair.
Quan received her highest score of 92.40 for her fourth dive – back 3 and a half somersaults with a difficulty degree of 3.3.
When asked how she felt, Quan replied: “Hungry. Let’s get something to eat. I ate this morning at 8am, one energy bar, went back to sleep, woke up at 11am, had some milk tea. That’s all I’ve eaten."
She was more serious about her tears. “I spent three years that were very difficult. I overcame a lot of things. If I list all of them, we will never finish. I’m very happy to have this gold."
Quan said she would have given herself a mark of 50 out of 100 for her performance.
“Except for the first dive, the rest of the dives, I did not achieve what I wanted. I think I should give the best of myself.”
However, she said she felt more relaxed in Paris due to the Olympic lifestyle and regular competition.
"It's more relaxing here than back home, because I have less training. Back home, I train a lot, and I feel less relaxed. Here, I train less and feel more relaxed."
Asked about if she had enjoyed a good night’s sleep before the competition, she replied comically: “I was sleeping sitting next to my bed. I woke up sitting next to it. I was dreaming about falling, but not in a bad way.”