Career
Guo took up diving when she was six years old at the Baoding Training Base. She started training in competitive diving in 1988, and was selected to dive for the Chinese national team in 1992. Guo first competed at the Olympics in 1996. Her coach leading up to the 2008 Olympics was Zhong Shaozhen.
During the 2004 Summer Olympics Guo got a gold medal in the 3 meter women’s synchronized springboard along with Wu Minxia, before winning her first individual Olympic gold in the 3 meter women’s springboard.[2]
After the Athens Olympics, Guo became a Chinese national sports figure in the public eye, with a contract with McDonald’s, as well as multiple other endorsement contracts. She was later banned by the national team for excessive commercial activities, but was later accepted back to the team when she agreed to focus on diving and give up many promotional activities.[3] Guo is the leading member of the Chinese national women’s diving team, and is known in China as “The Princess of Diving”. Guo announced on November 23, 2006, that she would retire following the 2008 Olympic Games.[4]
Guo won two more gold medals at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. At the end of the Beijing Games, Guo became the most decorated female Olympic diver[5], and tied fellow Chinese athlete Fu Mingxia, and Americans Pat McCormick and Greg Louganis with the most gold medals (four).[6]
2008 Olympics
Guo Jingjing won the gold medal in the women’s 3-meter springboard with a total of 415.35 points. The silver medal was awarded to Yuliya Pakhalina of Russia, whose score was 398.60, followed by Wu Minxia of China with 389.85 for the bronze medal.[7]
In synchronized diving, the defending champions Guo, and Wu, who won the event in the 2004 Athens Olympics and three World Championships, had lead the entire competition in Beijing, winning the gold medal, with Yuliya Pakhalina and Anastasia Pozdnyakova of Russia, who posted 323.61, winning Silver.[8][9]
Personal life
Guo’s social activities after the Athens Olympics were the subject of scrutiny in Mainland Chinese and Hong Kong media news outlets.[10] Guo made entertainment headlines in China when the paparazzi published a photograph of her dining with Kenneth Fok Kai-kong, the grandson of the late Hong Kong business tycoon Henry Fok. Guo did not deny the relationship, and has been photographed many times with Kenneth Fok in public.[11]
Guo, along with other divers on her team, suffers from diving-related health problems such as poor eyesight.[12]
Major achievements
1995 World Cup – 1st Synchronized Platform & 3m Synchronized Springboard
1996 Olympic Games – 5th Platform
1998 World Championships – 2nd 3m Springboard
1999 World Cup – 1st 3m Synchronized Springboard; 3rd 3m Springboard
2000 World Cup – 1st 3m Springboard; 2nd 3m Synchronized Springboard
2000 Olympic Games – 2nd 3m Springboard & Synchronized Springboard
2001 World Championships – 1st 3m Springboard & Synchronized Springboard
2002 World Cup – 1st 1m & 3m Springboard; 2nd 3m Synchronized Springboard
2002 Asian Games – 1st 3m Springboard & Synchronized Springboard
2003 FINA Diving Grand Prix (Australia/China) – 1st 3m Springboard & Synchronized Springboard
2003 World Championships – 1st 3m Springboard & Synchronized Springboard
2004 World Cup – 1st 3m Synchronized Springboard; 2nd 3m Springboard
2004 Olympic Games – 1st 3m Springboard & Synchronized Springboard
2005 World Championships – 1st 3m Springboard & Synchronized Springboard
2006 Asian Games – 1st 3m Synchronized Springboard
2007 World Championships – 1st 3m Springboard & Synchronized Springboard
2008 Olympic Games 1st Women’s 3m Synchronised Springboard
2008 Olympic Games 1st Women’s 3m Springboard
2009 World Championships – 1st 3m Springboard & Synchronized Springboard
