Tokyo Olympics: 14-year-old diver Quan Hongchan is China’s youngest athlete

Name: China’s Tokyo Olympics delegation will be nation’s biggest yet for an international sporting event
Uploaded: 2021-07-17T06:00:20.000Z
Duration: 1 min 32 s
Description: China’s Tokyo Olympics delegation will be nation’s biggest yet for an international sporting event

Guangdong native is 28 years younger than oldest Chinese athlete and only one of 10-strong diving team not to be a world champion

She won two of three qualifiers to burst onto scene as 13-year-old, dedicating the wins to her sick mother

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China’s Quan Hongchan (left) and Chen Yuxi will compete in the women’s 10m diving at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Quan is the youngest Chinese Olympian. Photo: Weibo

Jonathan White

Published: 2:00pm, 17 Jul 2021Updated: 10:20am, 5 Aug 2021

There will be 431 Chinese athletes at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, its largest ever overseas contingent, and the youngest will be 14-year-old diver Quan Hongchan.

The Zhanjiang, Guangdong native is seen as a medal hope for a country which has long dominated the sport.

State news agency Xinhua said China expects to win golds in diving, as well as table tennis, badminton, gymnastics, weightlifting and shooting.

Quan and 15-year-old Chen Yuxi will compete in the women’s 10-metre platform. Of the 10 divers picked for Tokyo, Quan is the only one who has not been a world champion.

The Olympics will be Quan’s debut international competition. She is 28 years younger than China’s oldest Tokyo Olympian, 52-year-old male equestrian rider Li Zhenqiang.

Quan took up diving in 2014, aged seven, and joined the Guangdong provincial team in 2018.

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China’s Tokyo Olympics delegation will be nation’s biggest yet for an international sporting event

She seized her chance at the Olympic trials, no doubt benefiting from the year-long delay because of Covid-19.