A new diving era of China

By Chen Xiangfeng (China Daily)

Updated: 2004-12-24 09:13



For China's diving team, nothing speaks louder of their "dream team" aura than the results during the Athens Olympics.



China's Tian Liang dives in a preliminary round of ten metre platform diving at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games August 27, 2004.

The traditional diving powerhouse, which won five gold medals at the Sydney Olympic Games four years ago, justified it can still call itself the "Dream Team" by winning six gold medals in Athens.








But for a stunning last diving blunder from Peng Bo and Wang Kenang in men's synchronized springboard, which handed the gold to a Greek pair, China could have swept an unprecedented 7 gold medals.



Chantelle Newbery of Australia staged a surprise win in the women's 10m platform final when she beat two Chinese favorites Lao Lishi and Li Ting.

To a team that was under great pressure after a lacklustre performance at last year's Barcelona World Championships, a marked improvement at Athens was all but timely to help boost the team's confidence to fend off the growing number of rivals.



At Barcelona the squad took only four titles, a shocking result that plunged them into deep soul-searching.



The dilemma between demanding a higher degree of difficulty and maintaining consistency of technique has hampered the team as foreign divers, with help from overseas Chinese coaches, have frequently bettered China.



"I am so happy. I didn't expect we could be so successful at these Games because there are a lot of strong opponents," said Chinese team leader Zhou Jihong, women's platform winner at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics after the Athens Olympics.



"Diving in other parts of the world is developing really fast and China can no longer enjoy comfortable wins in competitions," Zhou said.



"We just accomplished a hard task and the outcome was surprisingly good. I am proud of my athletes and thank the coaches for their hard work," she added.



Under-fire Zhou, did have reason to be relieved.



At the Athens World Cup in February, the most important test in the international pool before the Athens Games, the star-studded squad garnered five gold among the eight events and China finished first in the medal standings, but it was still considered less than stellar for failing to avenge the big blow they suffered last July in Barcelona.



Fortunately, China did not make any more mistakes at Athens.



"The fierce competition requires the divers not to make mistakes. Many foreign athletes are able to handle very difficult dives well now and the one who makes least mistake during the competition will be the winner," said Zhou.

最后由 雨过天未晴 于 2006-11-17 20:27 编辑


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