Gao Min, the diving queen, was born in the city ofZigonginSouthwest China'sSichuanProvince. She started to attend regular diving training at the age of 9, and entered theSichuanprovincial team two years later and the national team in 1985.
Gao Min made herself renowned as a world top class diver at the age of 16 when she claimed the women's springboard title in the 5th World Swimming Championships. One year later, Gao became champion of women's springboard in the World Cup. And in the 1988 Seoul Olympics, she beat all the opponents to win the springboard gold, becoming the first Chinese woman to win titles in three successive major diving competitions.
In 1989, she swept the championships in women's 3-meter and 1-meter springboard in the 2nd Goodwill Games. Ever since then, whenever she appeared at any of the three major world diving competitions -- the Olympics diving competitions, world diving championships or world cup, the springboard gold medal was Gao Min's sure trophy. No wonder a foreign commentator writes: "It is a tragedy for a woman diver to be a contemporary of Gao Min."
But to Miss Gao, the Barcelona Olympics gave her untold pressure. For that was her bowing-out performance and she could not afford to lose the gold medal. What's more, she had to overcome the difficulties resulting from the numerous injuries she had accumulated. When she placed third in the preliminaries, people could almost hear sighs from the crowd for her.
Then came the finals. She finished ninth after the first two dives and leaped to the second place after the third dive, a compulsory one, which left her only 5.64 points behind the leader. After the sixth dive, Miss Gao caught up with the leader. After thinking for a little while, Gao made a beautiful dive in the seventh round and was awarded 67.2 points for that dive. Her opponent did poorly under the pressure. Miss Gao, however, fought with the pains in her shoulders and back from her old injuries and succeeded in pulling ahead in the following dives to widen her lead.
The gold medal awarded her a precious full stop to her diving career. Her retirement from the springboard marked the end of an epoch of the world women's springboard diving.
After retirement, Gao migrated toCanada, and acted as the head coach of the Kinsman diving club inEdmonton. In 2001, Gao set up Gao Min International Group to put forward the economic and cultural exchanges betweenChinaandCanada.
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