Chinese May Make Big Splash in Seoul

When Olympic diving competition begins this summer, keep your eye on the team that has chartered an Orient Express to Seoul.

After traditional excellence in gymnastics and volleyball, Chinese athletes have been taking the plunge off the 3-meter board and the platform. A recent two-week exhibition swing through Florida offered a primer on just how far Chinese divers have progressed.

“The Chinese have come on real fast and improved a lot ... that’s obvious,” says LSU diving coach Don Craine, who led an eight-member U.S. squad in a dual meet against the Chinese at Largo, Fla., in May. “They can do some spectacular things, but what I don’t think they can do against us is compete. When you’re diving in college, you have a meet every weekend and you get used to the tension. Being nervous can take away from your performance, if you’re not used to it.”

Chinese divers showed little springboard fright in Largo as Li Hongping won the men’s 3-meter -- becoming just the fourth diver to top 700 points -- and Li Qing topped the women competitors. The next day, less than a week after her victory against an international field in Boca Raton, China’s Chen Xiaodan placed first in women’s 10-meter.

“When you watch the Chinese, you see a new era of diving in the making,” says 25-year-old Megan Neyer, who holds 14 U.S. National springboard titles. “It’s scary, it’s very scary. You’ll see a little 14-year-old boy (Chen Yingjian) and a little 14-year-old girl (Chen Xiaodan) doing the hardest tricks you can do; that’s the wave of the future.”