Quan Hongchan, a 14 year-old diver scores perfect 10s on three dives 

By Edward Era Barbacena

Quan Hongchan became one of the big names at these Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.  The 14-year-old Chinese diver (she turned them on March 28) perplexed everyone present at the  Tokyo Aquatic Center  by  performing three perfect dives in his five attempts. A real madness.

The Asian, with a  total score of 466.20 , won the gold medal in the  women's 10-meter platform category  . Several points behind was his compatriot  Yuxi Chen , with a total of 425.40. The podium was completed by Australian  Melissa Wu  (371.40). The Mexicans Gabriela Agundez García and Alejandra Orozco Loza were within shot of the medal zone, finishing in fourth and sixth place, respectively.

Quan executed three perfectly qualified dives during her performance in the final of the women's individual 10-meter platform  (in the second, fourth and fifth turns). The athlete is the youngest of the Chinese delegation and is in the top 5 among the youngest of all the Olympic Games.

On one of his attempts, he performed a jump that consisted of three and a half inward somersaults with 3.2 degrees of difficulty. He received 10 qualification points from the seven judges and added 96.00 units.

In his third sample he scored a total of 95.70, the product of a jump to three and a half turns. Then, on his fourth attempt, he scored again 96 points thanks to a handstand complemented by double backflip with twist and a half.

Quan closed his participation with another perfect jump in his fifth turn, with a double jump and one and a half spins to score 96 more points with perfect grades. Although this time judge 2 "tarnished" his performance a bit by scoring it with a 9.5. However,  this rating was eliminated as it was the lowest in the series, leaving the 10 awarded as official .

The young athlete had finished second in the preliminary qualifying series in this jumping category, behind her compatriot Yuxi Chen. But already in the semifinals his name was installed at the top of the batch, as a preview of the historical performance in the definition.

According to Chinese media, the little Olympic star  started in the world of swimming when he was seven years old  and began to attract the attention of his country three seasons ago when he surprised in the regional competitions of his country. By October 2020, his name made noise worldwide in international competitions and in Tokyo he gave the big blow.

It is not by chance what happened to this country in this category. In these  Games he has already won ten medals between the men's and women's teams . Except for the synchronized 10 meters at the men's level - which had the victory of the British duo and the Chinese in second place - all the first places of the different specialties had representatives of this Asian giant. In total, six gold and four silver medals were hung  .

The tradition extends over time and representatives of China  also won seven of the eight gold medals available in this sport during Rio 2016 . At that time,  15-year-old Ren Qian also triumphed in the women's 10-meter jump category and was one of the youngest winners of the Games held in Brazil. From Los Angeles 1984 to now, China won at least one gold medal in jumping jacks at every Olympic event .