China's Diving Domination Has Olympic Rivals In Awe But Also Wary

Tokyo, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 29th Jul, 2021 ) :China's unrelenting domination of Olympic diving has rivals in Tokyo wondering not just how they can beat them, but also whether the country's approach is desirable or even healthy.

China have more or less cleaned up in Olympic diving over the last 30 years and even though their hopes of winning all eight golds at the Tokyo Games have gone, they can still match the seven from Rio in 2016.

So far at the pandemic-delayed Games they have taken three out of four diving titles, with Britain springing a surprise by grabbing the other.

Chinese divers competing in the Japanese capital have consistently talked about the hard work they put in and the support from the country's sports authorities, without going into much more detail.

But after winning the men's synchronised 3m springboard on Wednesday, Xie Siyi gave perhaps more insight than he intended when he talked about "very boring" training day after day and living with his team-mates in dormitories.

In unusually blunt terms for China's often guarded athletes, Xie added: "Every day we go from the dormitory to the training centre, then we go back to eat, then we go back to training, then we go back to sleep again.

" On Tuesday, China easily won the women's 10m synchronised platform thanks to two teenagers: Chen Yuxi, 15, and Zhang Jiaqi, 17.

Eden Cheng, who along with partner Lois Toulson finished seventh of eight for Britain, is slightly older at 18.

Cheng believes China's success is down to the sheer number of hours that they train. But she has other considerations because she knows that her life will not always be diving.

"I've just finished school with my A-Levels (final school exams) so I have been a full-time student as well as diving," said Cheng.

"For them, they don't do much education, they are very focused on their sport.

"They do live at the pool. I've been to the national pool that one of the (Chinese) girls dives at and I've seen the facilities and what their life is like.

"It's nothing compared to what we do in Britain. They are definitely next level."