Paris Olympics 2024 ｜Chen Yuxi: determined to win the Diving Championship

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Chen Yuxi Chinese Athlete Diving Paris Olympics

Published on : 01/07/2024

Editor︰Prince Kit

Embracing the Olympics, the whole city is feverish!

As the highly anticipated Paris Olympics 2024 will be held from July 26 to August 11, athletes from the Chinese national team and Hong Kong team are all ready to make new records.

"Our China Story" website has launched a special series on the Paris Olympics, capturing the wonderful moments of athletes, while also sharing interesting stories alongside.

This article tells the story of Chen Yuxi (陳芋汐), the main player of the Chinese national diving team.

Paris Olympics 2024｜Chen Yuxi showed her sports talent from a young age

Speaking of China's "Dream Team" in diving, Chen Yuxi is undoubtedly one of the captains who is in the spotlight at this year's Paris Olympics.

Growing up in a gymnastics family, Chen Yuxi can be described as a prodigious athlete. She combines her talent and effort perfectly to create a championship journey that everyone envies.

As a weak child, Chen initially took up gymnastics to strengthen her body. (Web Image)

Chen Yuxi's grandfather was a famous gymnast in Shanghai; her father was a senior gymnastics coach, and her mother was an associate professor at the sports academy.

Her family's influence led her to gymnastics at the beginning rather than diving, the sport that has made her famous today.

Chen Yuxi started practicing gymnastics at the age of 3, just to get fit and healthy at first. Her father did not force Chen to practice well, as long as she could exercise her body.

Grown up in a gymnastics family, Chen often won prizes when she participated in gymnastics competitions as a child. (Web Image)

However, at about the age of 7, Chen Yuxi fell in love with diving and decided to practice diving.

With excellent athletic talent, she managed to learn the basic movements of swimming in just a few tries, when the coach started teaching. Several coaches at the sports school were very surprised and all wanted to "poach talent".

Eventually, the first Chinese female springboard world champion, Shi Meiqin, got what she wished for and took Chen under her wing.

At first, Chen Yuxi's parents did not approve of her learning diving. It was not their intention to let her practise gymnastics for winning. The only reason was her poor health, which often led her into severe illness.

They had no intention at all of making Chen Yuxi a professional athlete. They simply wanted her to have fun and exercise to be healthy.

Little did they know that the young Yuxi already had great ambitions, seeing the "diving queen" Wu Minxia as her goal, hoping to become an Olympic champion like her.

Paris Olympics 2024｜Special training helped Chen Yuxi overcome difficulties

Even if the training puts a lot of strain on her body, Chen still insisted and worked hard. (Image Source: VCG)

Despite her talent, Chen Yuxi's road to championship hasn't been easy. Her "special" physique gives her coach a lot of headaches.

To become an outstanding athlete, the amount of training is not something ordinary people can easily bear. Chen Yuxi, often sick, had a special plan made by her coach who carefully arranged the amount of training.

Sometimes, when she got sick, she had to "train once and rest for triple times", which means three weeks of rest after one week of training.

Chen Yuxi is one of the Olympic gold medal hopes for the Chinese diving team. (Image Source: VCG)

With her coach's care and attention, as well as the gradual increase in difficulty and challenge, it allowed Chen's training at each stage to run smoothly, giving full play to her talent..

After joining the Shanghai diving team, Chen Yuxi won the national championship within a year, and became world champion in the World Championships the next year.

Paris Olympics 2024｜Chen Yuxi was rigorously self-disciplined to maintain physical condition

In the 2024 Diving World Cup, Chen Yuxi won two gold medals and was awarded "Athlete of the Year". (Image Source: VCG)

Talent and diligence are part of the important factors of Chen Yuxi's success, but not all. Her self-discipline must also be mentioned.

Chen' body is in the growth stage, and a little more height or weight can greatly affect her diving movements.

In order to maintain her condition, Chen Yuxi always tries to control her diet. Even when eating at home, she only eats a small amount of vegetables. On the one hand, she is afraid of unsafe ingredients mixed in meat, and on the other hand, she wants to control her weight.

In the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Chen was overshadowed by the emerging Quan Hongchan and lost the women's 10m Platform championship.

Three years later (The Tokyo Olympics was postponed to July 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic), Chen Yuxi, who excelled at the Asian Games, World Championships, and Diving World Cup, has clearly regained her confidence.

This time, Chen will once again make a run for the Olympic champion, even though it is a path destined to be full of thorns.

"Now that I am involved, I will go ahead and make this thing work, even to the best of my ability. Anything is possible", Chen Yuxi still adheres to the determination and perseverance in her heart.