Quan Hongchan became a two-time Olympic champion in women’s 10m diving at age 17 on Tuesday, defeating her teammate, Chen Yuxi, 18, for the second straight Games. Quan’s victory gave the People’s Republic of China its fifth diving gold medal through five events in Paris. Kim Mi-Rae captured a historic bronze for North Korea.
On Tuesday in Paris, Quan Hongchan, 17, began the defense of her Tokyo Olympic gold medal on the women’s 10m platform with a perfect forward 3½ dive, garnering 10s from all seven judges. From there, she led after each of the five rounds to show prove why she is the reigning world champion in this event. And when it was over, the humble farmer’s daughter was a two-time Olympic champion and a double gold medalist in Paris. (She had already captured gold in the women’s synchro 10m event last week.) Quan was also responsible for giving China a five-peat in the women’s 10m discipline, and for keeping China undefeated through five diving events in Paris.
“I’m very happy to have this gold,” Quan said, saying the last three years were “very difficult. I overcame a lot of things. If I list all of them, we will never finish.”
Quan added that Olympic pressure wasn’t much of an issue “because of my teammate. I have a strong teammate,” and that, overall, “It's more relaxing here than back home, because I have less training.”
Quan’s teammate, Chen Yuxi, 18, came just 1.60 points from overtaking Quan after the third round, and despite having a slightly harder dive list that included a pair of 3.3 DD dives, Chen never broke the 90-point barrier on any of them, and the three-time world champion claimed silver, 4.90 points behind Quan, with a total score of 420.70.
Bronze medalist Kim Mi-Rae, 23, of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, held third place all day with precision and consistency to give North Korea its first Olympic medal in an individual diving event. Last Wednesday, July 31, she and her synchro partner, Jo Jin-Mi, had already given North Korea its first diving medal in Olympic history when they took silver together in 10m synchro. Paris marked Kim’s first Olympics since Rio 2016.
“When I realized this was the bronze medal, when I realized that I wasn’t able to do better, I felt sad,” Kim said, “At the same time, it’s an Olympic medal. And because I had such determination to do better, of course, I didn’t feel the guarantee that I’d get the bronze medal. I was able to get the medal at the end.”
"I'm very happy with today's result. I wasn't happy with my result in the women's synchronized 10m platform final. That's why I was very nervous and stressed about today's competition."
Fourth and fifth place remained unchanged through the last three rounds. Caeli McKay, 25, of Canada, placed fourth, 7.60 points behind Kim. Mexico’s Gabriela Agundez Garcia, 24, placed fifth. Great Britain’s Andrea Spendolini Sirieix, 19, finished sixth among the 12 finalists.
"I'm very proud of myself,” McKay said of her finish. “[I] didn't hold back and didn't miss anything. Getting fourth twice at the same Olympics and getting fourth three times in my Olympic career [including 10m synchro in 2016 Rio] is a little bit tough. But I have no regrets. I have nothing I would have changed."
Next: The next Olympic diving medals will be awarded in men’s 3m springboard on Thursday, 8 August. China will go for gold No. 6 in Paris as Xie Siyi, 28, seeks to defend his Tokyo 2020 gold. Wang Zongyuan, 22, will try to upgrade his 2020 silver. And Great Britian’s Jack Laugher, 29, will aim for his third consecutive Olympic podium in this event.