Titan Front Page: Golden Guo
Thursday, 23rd July 2009 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
As expected, Guo won the 3-meter springboard competition at the FINA World Championships in Rome, crushing the competition with a total score of 388.20. The runner-up, Emilie Heymans of Canada, was nowhere near Guo with her score of 346.45. The text below goes on to recount some of Guo's career highlights, and crown her as the woman to beat if she decides to compete in the 2012 Olympics in London. A piece on the inside called simply "Guo Jingjing: I want to go to London," answer the question of whether the 28-year-old plans to continue diving.
Guo, one of four Chinese athletes who commands big-time marketing appeal, also occupies the ad space on the page, shilling for a Chinese dairy producer.
Titan Sports is China's leading sports newspaper, putting out issues every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It is published jointly by Hunan Art and Culture Publishing House and Titan Publishing House (Danwei).
Tags: diving, Guo Jingjing, sports marketing, Titan front page
China denied diving sweep at world championships
Monday, 20th July 2009 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
China also ceded the women's 1-meter springboard title, which was claimed by Julia Pakhalina of Russia, with Wu Minxia taking the silver. Qin Kai won the men's 1-meter springboard competition, with Zhang Xinhua coming in second. Australia's Matthew Mitcham, the platform diver who spoiled China's diving sweep aspirations at last summer's Olympics, came in third. Qin also won the 3-meter synchro springboard competition the following day, with partner Wang Feng.
One of China's biggest sports stars and the most-decorated Olympic female diver of all time, Guo Jingjing, opens competition today in the 3-meter individual event, and is expected to be a contender in the finals tomorrow. The diving competition ends Saturday, July 25, with the men's 10-meter synchro event. A complete list of starts and results can be seen on the FINA Web site.
Water polo and synchronized swimming
Water polo play kicks off Monday as well. The Chinese women opened against Hungary, losing 10-7 after coming out to a strong start that had them in a 4-4 tie in the second quarter. China came out of nowhere last summer to place fifth in Olympic competition, with surprising wins over Russia and Italy, and one-point losses to powerhouses Australia and the United States. The men are not as strong--expect them to get walked over by Montenegro (population 678,000, to China's 1.3 billion) Tuesday.
In synchronized swimming, China took bronze in the team technical event Sunday. There are six more competitions to go, with one gold medal awarded every day from Monday through Saturday.
Image: FINA.org
Tags: Chen Ruolin, diving, FINA World Championships, Guo Jingjing, Qin Kai, Wang Feng, water polo, Wu Minxia, Zhang Xinhua
Bad timing for Guo and national diving championships
Wednesday, 20th May 2009 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Why, oh why, does the Chinese sports world insist on squandering its best products? Today is the last day of the national diving championships in Xian, and "Diving Queen" Guo Jingjing appearing in her first individual springboard final in China since winning the gold medal at the 2008 Olympics. It's only her second time in competition since August--about 10 days ago, she won the gold at a FINA Diving Grand Prix event in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Guo, the best female diver of all time and China's third biggest star after Yao Ming and Liu Xiang, makes her dramatic made-for-prime-time return today--at 2:30 p.m. Beijing time. Couldn't she at least dive during the lunch hour?Granted, tonight's prime time slots on China's sports channel, CCTV-5, are eaten up by some other popular events—AFC Champions League football/soccer, and Asian Cup table tennis—but surely there's a way to get better placement for the top Chinese athlete competing today. The whole national diving championship series has been relegated to afternoon TV. This is just silly. Not only is the series a chance to see gold medallists like Qin Kai compete, but it's a chance to glimpse emerging talent like Li Shixin (李世鑫), a promising young springboard diver who was dubbed the "Degree of Difficulty King" (yes, I know, a terribly unwieldy nickname) after nailing a 3.9 degree of difficulty dive in the men's finals yesterday.
Tags: diving, Guo Jingjing, Li Shixin, Qin Kai
Guo Jingjing back in the pool
Thursday, 7th May 2009 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
And, just in time for her return to the pool, a new set of fashion photos of Guo, who is as much tabloid star as she is sports star, have been released. See them here.
Guo Jingjing image: sports.scol.com.cn
Tags: diving, Guo Jingjing, sports marketing
Swine flu keeping Chinese divers home
Wednesday, 29th April 2009 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
This means that Guo Jingjing, China's runaway top female sports figure and one of its top three sports stars period, will delay her return to the pool. She hasn't competed since the Olympics.
What a bummer for sports fans who had hoped to see the world's best compete in Florida next month. But what a bonanza for the rest of the divers, who might finally get to win something with the dominant Chinese not in attendance.
Related: China divers finish World Series on top
Guo Jingjing image: Ent.wuhan.net
Tags: diving, Guo Jingjing, swine flu
China divers finish World Series on top
Tuesday, 28th April 2009 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Due to the swine flu outbreak, divers performed in an empty house at the Mexico City stop on the FINA Diving World Series. Chinese divers won every event in Mexico City, except for the men's 3-meter springboard synchro event, in which it did not medal at all. This was the last event in the four-event World Series, with the others taking place in Doha, Qatar; Changzhou, China; and Sheffield, England. China won all but two of the series' 32 gold medals. Next up is the Diving Grand Prix, for which 3-meter gold medalist Guo Jingjing has said she will return to the pool. Events are in Montreal (April 30-May 3), Ft. Lauderdale (May 7-10) and Madrid (May 29-31). The FINA World Championships run over one week, beginning August 18, in Rome.Tags: diving, FINA Grand Prix, FINA World Championships, FINA World Series, Guo Jingjing
Chinese diving association to start pro league
Thursday, 19th February 2009 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
As the Premier League, NFL, MLB, and International Cricket Association all try to carve up the scraps left behind by the NBA in China, one has to wonder how sports that are more distinctly Chinese will capitalize on all the new energy around professional competition. Here's one answer: The Chinese Diving Association is working on creating a professional league, Chinese diving coach Zhou Jihong said Wednesday.The league would be open to divers from all over the world—and given the sport's popularity here and China's dominance of it (the host won seven out of eight diving gold medals at the 2008 Olympics) it would seem that a league here stands a chance of attracting top talent. The announcement came shortly after the FINA Diving World Grand Prix in Shenzhen. China swept the gold medals at last weekend's event.
With Guo Jingjing (郭晶晶) and He Chong (何冲) absent, China began to show off some of its younger up-and-coming diving talent and groom the next generation of stars for major international competition. Here's a closer look at the results:
Women's 10-meter platform individual and synchro
Get to know this face: 16-year-old Chen Ruolin
Chen Ruolin (陈若琳), who took the gold medal in the women's 10-meter platform at the Beijing Olympics, won her event at the Grand Prix. Chen had to come from behind to win, just as she did in the Olympics. She narrowly beat out Kang Li, with whom she later took first in the women's 10-meter synchronized event.
Women's 3-meter platform individual and synchro
He Zi and partner Wang Han also won the women's three-meter springboard synchro event. This is Guo's event, and before the competition began coach Zhou Jihong confirmed that the four-time gold medal winner has returned to training.
Men's 10-meter platform individual and synchro
China swept the top two positions in both the individual and synchro events. Lin Yue and Huo Liang (火亮) won the pairs competition, and Zhou Luxin (周吕鑫) won the individual, with Lin Yue taking silver.
Men's 3-meter springboard individual and synchro
Zhang Xinhua beat out two-time world champion and Beijing Olympics bronze medalist Qin Kai for the men's three-meter springboard title. The most recent Olympic gold and silver medalists, He Chong (China), and Alexander Despatie (Canada), did not compete. Zhang is 21 years old and won the springboard competition at the World University Games in 2007. Together, Qin and Zhang won the three-meter synchro event.
Chen Ruolin image: 9k8y.com
Tags: Chen Ruolin, diving, Guo Jingjing, He Zi, Huo Liang, Lin Yue, Wang Han, Zhang Xinhua, Zhou Luxin
Guo second in USSA Female Athlete of the Year vote
Wednesday, 31st December 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Known as the "Diving Queen" in Chinese media, Guo was second to no one, man or woman, in a favorite athlete poll of Hong Kong school children, conducted by the Boys and Girls Club of Hong Kong. The question on her fans' minds now is, what will Guo do with her fame, talent and good looks? At 27 years old, she's just young enough to consider one last Olympic appearance. There were rumors in the fall that she'd suit up for Hong Kong in the 2012 Olympics, and there's always speculation about her pursuing a career in modeling or acting.
Rounding out the top five in the schoolkids' vote were, in order Liu Xiang (track and field), Lin Dan (badminton), Yao Ming (basketball) and Yang Wei (gymnastics).
Guo Jingjing image: 163.com
Tags: diving, Guo Jingjing, Lin Dan, Liu Xiang, Yang Wei, Yao Ming
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