Hardship and hunger: it’s been a tough journey to the top for China’s diving golden girl Chen Ruolin

Diving queen Chen Ruolin’s journey to the top of the Olympic podium for a record fifth time has been one of hardship — and hunger.

For five long years, when the now 23-year-old heartthrob was growing up, she would eat only one meal a day to control her weight so she could nail the perfect dive.

Her discipline and desire was so strong that whenever she received a birthday cake she would watch her friends eat while she took photos.

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Not only that, she has suffered so many injuries she still has bandages and plasters all over her body.

“In the past four years there have been some injuries and also I had some prolonged recoveries. When you're injured you cannot participate in your normal training and your training will fall behind schedule. And that is a huge challenge,” she said after winning gold in the women’s synchronised 10-metre platform diving competition on the fourth day of the Rio Games.

It was her fifth Olympic gold medal, bringing her level with compatriot Wu Mingxia who also collected her fifth diving gold this week, the pair each breaking the record held by four-time Olympic gold-medallist Guo Jingjing.

China has long dominated the sport and this Olympics has been no different.

Chen and 18-year-old dive partner Liu Huixia took home gold in the women’s synchronised 10m platform – winning by a wide margin over silver-medallists Malaysia.