At 14 she won gold at the Olympics: "I did it for my sick mother, her treatments cost a lot"
Many times sport is inextricably intertwined with the personal life stories of athletes. Often, it's their background that motivates them during their hard training; there are those who do it for fame and success and those who, on the other hand, have much deeper and more rooted reasons for wanting to dedicate their lives to sport. The very young Chinese athlete, Quan Hongchan, winner of Olympic gold in diving in Tokyo 2021, had very clear reasons: the young girl's mother is sick and her care costs a lot. Perhaps it was her love for her mother and for her extremely poor family that activated the spark of her talent.
Young Quan Hongchan is only 14 years old, but she has already climbed to the top step of the podium in one of the most important sports competitions of all time: the Olympics. A great little athlete who, already at her young age, can say that she has defeated most of the competition in her discipline, that is, diving. To be honest, her result at the Tokyo 2021 Olympics was truly extraordinary, as the gap between her and the other competitors on the podium proved to be very large. Two dives performed to perfection, which allowed her to achieve victory and her greatest goal: to have the money to pay for her mother's expensive care.
Quan was born in 2007 in a village in the district of Mazhangha, Maihe, into a family of farmers who were certainly not well off. The young woman started diving in 2014 and, since then, she hasn't stopped. Quan stated that all her sacrifices have to do with sport up to a certain point: her love and commitment are mainly employed in helping her family.
"Treatment for my mother costs a lot of money," said the 14-year-old, bluntly, "so I feel I have to do it too, so I can help her." And it is precisely because of the story behind this great little athlete that her victory is worth double.
