Quan Hongchan skipped the World Aquatics Championships. Where is China’s diving ace?
Does growth spurt and ankle injury mean we are now in the twilight of Olympian’s glittering career?
As China continues to dominate diving at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore, one glaring omission is three-time Olympic champion Quan Hongchan.
Quan was originally listed in the squad to compete at the world championships, but had to withdraw because of what she called “a serious ankle” injury.
While her teammates continued the country’s long-held diving domination, picking up seven from a possible nine golds in Singapore, Quan has returned to training, vowing to come back for the 15th National Games in Hong Kong, Guangdong and Macau.
However, a video of Quan being unable to complete an exercise in training sparked discussion on Weibo this week as to whether she is capable of remaining among the very best.
A hashtag related to the video and her recovery has been viewed more than 70 million times.
The video showed Quan not being able to perform as many hanging leg raises as her male training partner. The video did not show how many she had completed before she had to stop.