Fu Mingxia

▪ 1997

      One month after capping her career with two gold medals at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Ga., Chinese diver Fu Mingxia announced her retirement, explaining, "I am already too old." These might seem like hoary words for an 18-year-old, but such was the accelerated pace of an athlete who began diving (at age 7) before she knew how to swim and became the youngest diver ever to win a world championship (at 12) and an Olympic gold medal (at 13). Her retirement, however, needed the approval of the government sports commission. Throughout the 1990s Fu remained a standout on the Chinese team, which gradually eclipsed the U.S. and former-Soviet teams as the most dominant in the sport. Standing at about 1.5 m (5 ft) tall and weighing 45 kg (100 lb), the tiny veteran loomed large at the 1996 Games, where she accomplished a rare Olympic sweep of the 10-m platform event (521.58 points) and the 3-m springboard (547.68), outscoring the field by more than 42 and 35 points, respectively.

      Born on Aug. 16, 1978, Fu was raised in the city of Wuhan in the central Chinese province of Hubei. At the age of nine, she was recruited by coach Yu Fen, who shepherded her into a strenuous state-sponsored diving program in the capital city of Beijing. At the national training centre, she developed technical grace and distinguished herself as a fearless and disciplined worker, regularly devoting more than 40 hours a week to the grueling regimen. She first plunged into international competition at age 11 and scored a win in the 10-m platform at the 1990 Goodwill Games in Seattle, Wash. The following year, at the world championships in Perth, Australia, she posted a score of 426.51 to capture the platform event, edging out Yelena Miroshina of the Soviet squad by just over 23 points.

      Fu's victory at the world championships led to the institution of a rule requiring that competitors, at the minimum, must turn 14 years old in the year of a given international meet. Fortunately, her 14th birthday arrived shortly after the conclusion of the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain, where she became the second youngest gold medalist in Olympic history. Fu won the 10-m platform with a score of 461.43, drowning second-place Miroshina by nearly 50 points and executing one of the most difficult dives of the program—a 3 1/2 back tuck. Despite growing 7.5 cm (3 in) and gaining 9 kg (20 lb) between Olympic appearances, Fu remained at the top of her field, successfully defending her title in the 10-m platform at the 1994 world championships in Rome. (TOM MICHAEL)

* * *

▪ Chinese athlete

born August 16, 1978, Wuhan, Hubei Province, China

 

 Chinese diver, who was a standout on the Chinese diving teams that dominated the sport in the 1990s. She became the second youngest gold medalist in Olympic history in 1992.

      Fu entered the state-sponsored diving program in Beijing at age nine. Under the guidance of her coach Yu Fen, Fu quickly mastered the technical aspects of the sport and developed a fierce competitiveness. She debuted in international competition at age 11, when she won the 10-metre platform event at the 1990 Goodwill Games in Seattle, Washington. The following year she won the platform event at the world championships in Perth, Australia. Fu's victory at the world championships led to the institution of a rule requiring that competitors, at the minimum, must turn age 14 in the year of a given international meet. She fulfilled this requirement narrowly at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain, turning 14 less than a month after winning the gold medal in the 10-metre platform event.

      Fu successfully defended her title in the 10-metre platform at the 1994 world championships in Rome, and at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, she accomplished a rare sweep of the 10-metre platform event and the 3-metre springboard. One month later, at age 18, Fu announced her retirement, explaining, “I am already too old.” Nevertheless, she returned to the Olympics once more at the 2000 Games in Sydney, Australia, winning the gold medal in the 3-metre springboard event and the silver in the 3-metre synchronized diving event.

* * *