I wonder if everyone remembers Gao Min? She is the only female diver in the world to break the 600-point mark, and is known as the "queen of diving".
Gao Min is the first generation of our diving queens, from 1986 to 1992, 7 years to maintain the record of all international competitions, creating a myth in the diving world.
Someone once commented on Gao Min: "She is light, her diving movements are very beautiful, and the "Splash Disappearance Technique" is also extremely skillful, watching her compete is simply watching a visual feast." "The words are full of appreciation and praise.
However, behind the flowers and applause were various pains such as a cracked elbow, perforated eardrums, pulmonary hemorrhage and vomiting blood for three months, and a shoulder injury that almost crippled his right hand.
After Gao Min retired, there was very little public news, what is Gao Min doing now?
How is she doing?
Today, we will share the life story of the diving queen Gao Min.
In 1970, Gao Min was born in Sichuan Province in a scholarly family, his father Gao Jiahua and mother Jiang Zhonghua both graduated from Southwestern University of Finance and Economics and are senior intellectuals.
Gao Min has a younger brother below.
Gao Min's father loved to swim when he was in college and won the city championship.
Perhaps the name Chengdu University may seem unfamiliar, but in fact, Chengdu University was renamed Sichuan University of Finance and Economics in 1985, and has been used until now, and it is a double-first-class university.
With parents who graduated from prestigious schools, Gao Min's family conditions when he was a child were actually not bad, and studying step by step to follow his parents' old path is a good choice for most people.
Gao Min began to learn to swim at the age of 4 and practiced gymnastics at the junior gymnastics school at the age of 6.
In 1979, when Gao Min was swimming in the water, he was discovered by Yang Qiang, a diving coach of a major sports school passing by.
After a round of elimination and selection, Gao Min entered the Zigong City diving team at the age of 9, entered the Sichuan Provincial Diving Team at the age of 10, and won the National Diving Championship at the age of 12.
Gao Min's career debut is the peak.
In 1986, 16-year-old Gao Min rose to prominence on the international stage, and after winning the foreign diving open and Canadian diving open, Gao Min won the springboard diving championship at the fifth World Swimming Championships in March.
This gold medal is the first diving gold medal in the history of our team in the history of the swimming world championships, Gao Min not only set the highest diving score in the history of swimming championships, but also cooperated with his teammates to win the diving team championship.
In March 1987, in the World Cup diving competition, Gao Min won the gold medal in springboard diving again.
At the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games, Gao Min won the gold medal in women's springboard diving with an absolute advantage, becoming the first women's springboard diving Olympic champion in mainland China.
At the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, Gao Min won the individual championship of 3-meter springboard diving.
Gao Min diving action is light, stability is very good, pressurized water spray technology is outstanding, her technical difficulty and stability exceed the athletes of the same period by a large margin, in the era of Gao Min, she is a powerful ruling level of existence, is a well-deserved "diving queen".
"I laugh as soon as I come out of the water", is the instruction of Gao Min's mother, and it is also the best label for Gao Min's athlete period.
Gao Min debuted in international competitions in 1986 to the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, 7 years, outstanding results, swept the arena, no one can stand out, whether it is the Asian Games, World Cup, World Championships or World University Games and Olympic Games, wherever Gao Min participates, the gold medal has never fallen.
Gao Min won a total of 72 gold medals in her career, becoming our first generation of "diving queens".
After the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, due to injuries such as cracked elbow joint and perforated eardrums, the 22-year-old Gao Min chose to retire. In 1998, Gao Min made a brief comeback to compete in the World Diving Grand Prix, but did not win an award.
In 1998, in recognition of Gao Min's outstanding sporting achievements, the International Swimming Federation inducted Gao Min's statue into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in Florida, abroad.
Gao Min is a person with great love.
In March 1992, Gao Min auctioned 770,000 yuan of the gold medal he won at the World Swimming Championships, part of which was donated to our bid for the Olympic Organizing Committee, and the rest was set up in the name of his own to set up the "Gao Min Scholarship" in Chengdu Sports Institute to help more young people realize their sports ideals and promote the development of our basic sports education.
After Gao Min retired, she first studied in a domestic university to improve her foreign language level, as a hero who once won glory for the country, Gao Min actually had many choices after retiring, but she chose not to cause trouble to the country and studied with her friend Su Dong.
In 1995, the two chose to marry and soon had children. Su Dong is a child born in an ordinary family, very frugal, meals are generally only economical, she hopes that Su Dong can help her tutor English, Su Dong agreed, so, on the rest day or when she has no class, go to Su Dong to make up lessons for her.
In 1994, Gao Min studied graduate school in the United States, while Su Dong graduated from graduate school and went to a cable sports channel as an anchor, responsible for the commentary of sports projects.
In 1995, the two married in the United States and rented an apartment.
The following year, Gao Min gave birth to a son, and after maternity leave, he was hired to coach a diving club in Canada.
With the idea of husband and wife successively, Gao Min went to Canada with her husband Su Dong after graduation.
It's just a pity that Su Dong didn't find a satisfactory job here, and basically relied on Gao Min to support his family.
This made Su Dong's self-esteem a little unbearable, so he chose to accept Singapore's invitation to serve as a coach.
Both parties could not afford each other, and in the end they could only regret the divorce.
After arriving in Canada, she met Canadian-Chinese Chen Zhigang, the other party also had a history of marriage, is a diving fan, admires Gao Min very much, every time she has a world competition, he will watch, the first time they met, learned that Gao Min divorced, he immediately had an idea of protecting Gao Min.
The second time they met, he confessed to Gao Min.
Chen Zhigang is 10 years older than Gao Min, personable, knowledgeable, successful in career, and a fan of Gao Min, both were attracted to each other and quickly warmed up in love, and the two returned to get married in 1998.
After marriage, Gao Min gave birth to another child, and her two children, one who likes literature and the other who likes sports, have become Gao Min's pride.
After marriage, she was invited by the national diving team to hope that she would return to compete, so she returned to the national team, this competition, she failed to win a medal, after the competition, she returned to Canada to coach.
In 1999, she gave birth to her youngest son.
In 2005, the family of four returned to Beijing to settle down. Chen Zhigang went to teach in a university, and Gao Min was engaged in public welfare and charity.
Whenever she goes out to work, Chen Zhigang takes care of her two sons and keeps the housework in order. In March 2023, Gao Min is 53 years old and has been married to Chen Zhigang for 25 years.
Their eldest son, Su Chao, graduated from graduate school quickly, and the younger son is studying at university.
Gao Min has never complained about her ex-husband, when Su Dong remarried, came to visit her son, or took her son to reunite at home, she never objected, and never said that her ex-husband was not good in front of her son, so Su Dong's father and son had a good relationship.
After returning to Beijing to settle down, Gao Min campaigned for public welfare and charity.
In 2008, after the 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck Wenchuan, Sichuan, Gao Min immediately went to the disaster area to offer condolences.
She takes care of the children in the tent, and her full mouth of Sichuanese makes the children feel very close. During the summer vacation, she also brought several children from Beichuan to Beijing to play.
Gao Min sponsors 10 children in remote mountainous areas of Sichuan to study every year, and for more than 10 years, she has never left her name, and many sponsored children will never know that Gao Min is donating money to them.
Someone asked Gao Min: Why do you do good deeds without leaving a name? Gao Min replied: "I just want to give the children a little real help, there is no need to publicize it all over the world." ”
Usually, the organizer organizes public welfare activities, and the first thing that comes to mind is Gao Min. No matter how busy he is, Gao Min will always find time to participate.
In recent years, she has been enjoying the idyllic life, farming her own land at home, walking barefoot on the ground, her yard is planted with all kinds of common fruits and vegetables, and even cucumber trees, she will step on a stool to pick cucumbers.
She also participates in outdoor swimming activities and has set up her own foundation to help students complete their studies and enjoy sports.
She also started a school aid program to guide children to learn physical knowledge and share the secrets of success.
Solve school attendance challenges and improve school hardware.
Although he is 53 years old, Gao Min still looks very young, and his figure is quite good, under the favor of men, Gao Min enjoys the happiness of life, and in the eyes of sports fans, Gao Min is still the diving goddess.
Gao Min has already achieved wealth freedom, often participates in some variety shows, and in his spare time, he will also participate in activities organized by the Soong Ching Ling Foundation, our Poverty Alleviation Foundation, and our Red Cross, making his own contributions to society.
Recently, Gao Min posted photos of himself enjoying his idyllic life on social media, not only planting flowers and vegetables, but also picking up hoes to plow the land, and even cutting sugar cane, enjoying himself and enjoying it.
Gao Min, who has passed the year of knowing the destiny of heaven, still has a sweet smile, and many people say that Gao Min's state is really good.
On the other hand, after the Tokyo Olympics, she also used her experience to make a lot of suggestions for Quan Hongchan's future development.
From physical development to technical strength, and how to digest honor, these have helped Quan Hongchan.
In addition, Gao Min also called on the public to be rational and not to put too much pressure on Quan Hongchan, and hoped that people would change to "strong" when calling Quan Hongchan a genius.
From the 1988 Seoul Olympics to the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, Chinese diving has always had a monopoly in the women's 3-meter springboard event in nine sessions in the past 33 years.
5 diving queens were produced.
They are:
1988 Seoul Olympics, Ko Min, champion
1992 Barcelona Olympics, Gao Min, champion
Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games, Fu Mingxia, champion
2000 Sydney Olympics, Fu Mingxia, champion
Athens 2004 Olympic Games, Guo Jingjing, champion
2008 Beijing Olympics, Guo Jingjing, champion
London 2012 Olympic Games, Wu Minxia, champion
Rio 2016 Olympic Games, Shi Tingmao, champion
Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, Shi Tingmao, champion