Chinese Olympic champion Quan Hongchan reveals she nearly retired due to mental health struggles and intense public scrutiny over her weight.
BEIJING: China’s three-time Olympic diving champion Quan Hongchan has revealed she seriously considered retiring from the sport. The 19-year-old said the immense pressure and public scrutiny over her weight pushed her to a mental and physical breaking point.
Quan shot to fame by winning gold at the Tokyo 2020 Games at just 14 years old. She added two more gold medals at the Paris 2024 Olympics, cementing her status as a national sporting icon.
This fame brought intense public attention, with crowds mobbing her at hotels and descending on her rural hometown in Guangdong province. In a tearful interview with Chinese magazine Renwu, Quan described the overwhelming pressure she faced after Paris.
She explained that starting her menstrual cycle post-Olympics led to weight gain, even when “eating a little”. “After the Olympics I actually thought about retiring,” Quan told the magazine. “I really, really wanted to, but in the end I still wanted to keep going and continue diving.”
Her decision to continue thrust her into a relentless cycle of training and dieting to manage her weight under the public eye. “During that time, not just within the team but also in public opinion outside, I saw people every day saying I was fat,” she said.
Quan stated she dieted to the point of near collapse in response to the criticism. “I was already starving myself — I dieted to the point where I felt like I was about to collapse,” she added. “Everyone knows weight is a nightmare for female divers.”
The combination of intense scrutiny, pressure to perform, and existing injuries became overwhelming. “I had reached my limit. I was exhausted — physically, mentally, emotionally — everything piling up together,” Quan said, admitting the attention made her afraid of cameras.
State media outlet China Daily noted in November that Quan had returned from a six-month hiatus with a “larger body frame” for the National Games. Her candid interview sparked a wave of support on Chinese social media platform Weibo.
“Whether or not you want to continue diving, that decision is entirely up to you. Do whatever you want to do. You don’t owe anyone anything,” one supportive user posted. This public adulation towards Chinese athletes has sometimes veered into obsessive “toxic fandom”, which authorities have vowed to crack down on.
