Guo Jingjing, Fu Mingxia, and Gao Min: 3 Queens Compete, Jingjing More Legendary

Since the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, the Chinese Olympic team has only maintained a record of six consecutive championships in the women's three-meter board event. The ones who made the women's three-meter board project create an Olympic miracle are precisely the three generations of Chinese diving queens - Gao Min, Fu Mingxia, and Guo Jingjing. Unfortunately, it is impossible for the three to compete on the same stage, but many people are still debating their respective merits.

Today, we will compare these three generations of diving queens from several aspects: technique, psychology, achievements, the era they created, and their legends.

Technique: Equal Strength

As the leading figures of three generations of the Chinese diving team, Gao Min, Fu Mingxia, and Guo Jingjing all achieved technical invincibility in their respective eras. The only difference lies in their technical styles.

Gao Min's movements were characterized by beauty. Due to her elegant physique, her movements were light and steady, and her water-entry technique was particularly outstanding. She was the only female diver in the world to break the 600-point barrier.

Fu Mingxia's biggest characteristic was stability. She mainly relied on high-standard movements to win; from a stylistic perspective, she was also an athlete who placed great emphasis on the beauty of movements. However, her leg strength was insufficient.

Guo Jingjing, building upon her two predecessors, not only combined stability and beauty in her movements but also, with her excellent take-off, always gained sufficient height, giving herself more space to complete her movements. Moreover, Guo Jingjing's aerial movements had very good coordination, and she held the record for the highest difficulty level in the world multiple times.

From a horizontal analysis, Guo Jingjing slightly leads Gao Min and Fu Mingxia in terms of technique. However, given that the technology in each project is constantly improving, this aspect cannot be used as a basis for comparison, so the three are considered even.

Psychology: Fu Mingxia Wins

Besides technique, the key factor for athletes is undoubtedly psychology. As the leading figures of three generations, Gao Min, Fu Mingxia, and Guo Jingjing must possess superhuman psychological qualities. But who among them has stronger psychological quality?

Before the Barcelona Olympics, Gao Min once thought about retirement and even put this idea into action. Therefore, at the 1992 Olympics, she endured immense psychological conflict, even having thoughts of suicide if she did not win the championship. In an era when there were no psychologists in the diving team, being undefeated for seven years while enduring intense psychological struggles was already remarkable.

Fu Mingxia is widely recognized as the one with the best psychological quality among the three. In all evaluations of her, consistency is her greatest feature. Her coaches have stated that she never gets nervous in major competitions. For instance, her stable performance under pressure at the Atlanta Olympics led to the collapse of the then-outstanding Rashko, a scene that is often recounted by Coach Yu Fen as a tale.

At the beginning of her career, Guo Jingjing's psychological quality was questioned, but as her life experiences grew richer, she proved through her actions that she is not what rumors claim, but absolutely deserves the status of a generation's diving queen. It is easy to establish a kingdom, but hard to defend it. If Guo Jingjing did not have solid psychological quality, how could she continue to lead China's dream diving team in today's increasingly competitive diving arena?

Therefore, in this round of comparisons, Fu Mingxia slightly wins.

Era: Guo Jingjing "Wins Gold"

The leader of any world-class team must create an era belonging to themselves. These three generations of leaders of the Chinese diving team each had their own era, which is also the main reason why China's women's three-meter board has remained undefeated.

Gao Min's era began in 1986, when she won the women's diving championship at the fifth World Swimming Championships with the highest score in history. Subsequently, she also won multiple World Cup titles. In 1992, after completing the task of winning gold in Barcelona and wanting to focus on her studies, Gao Min completely left diving, maintaining her dominance for seven years.

At this point, Fu Mingxia took over from Gao Min. Her gold medal at the Barcelona Olympics was seen as the beginning of her era. From then on, she participated in three consecutive Olympics, including her retirement in 1997 and return in 1998. At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, like Gao Min, Fu Mingxia completed her last Olympic gold medal mission before retiring, her era lasting eight years (excluding the year of retirement).

After Fu Mingxia retired in 2000, Guo Jingjing immediately became the new core figure of the Chinese diving team and began her own era, although she had waited for this day for a long time. In nearly eight years, Guo Jingjing almost monopolized all the gold medals in the women's three-meter board at world competitions.

Although both Fu Mingxia's and Guo Jingjing's eras lasted eight years, Fu Mingxia retired at the age of 23, while Guo Jingjing, at 27, was already considered a veteran in the Chinese diving world. In this sense, her era was more valuable.

Achievements: Gao Min "Invincible"

Although the World Championships were changed to biennial events after 2001, making this competition less balanced for comparing achievements, Olympic achievements are absolutely fair for anyone.

Gao Min won the women's three-meter board gold medal at the 1988 and 1992 Olympics. Her gold medal at the Seoul Olympics was a breakthrough for the Chinese diving team, and she maintained a seven-year unbeaten record.

Fu Mingxia participated in three Olympics and won gold in every one, becoming the only member of the Chinese diving team to win gold in three consecutive Olympics. Moreover, she created a two-time champion record in the women's three-meter board, winning both the women's three-meter board and ten-meter platform golds at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

In comparison, although Guo Jingjing is a four-time Olympic veteran, her gold medals were only won at the Athens and Beijing Olympics. In these two Olympics, she won all four gold medals in the women's three-meter board singles and doubles, matching Fu Mingxia's four Olympic golds and achieving an astonishingly high efficiency in winning championships. In terms of participation experience and gold-winning efficiency, Guo Jingjing clearly surpasses the other two.

Despite being almost invincible, Gao Min and Fu Mingxia's advantage lies in creating records, while Guo Jingjing's advantage lies in efficiency. The three are almost evenly matched, with Gao Min, who maintained a seven-year unbeaten streak, slightly leading.

Legend: Guo Jingjing Slightly Wins

Possessing legendary qualities is also an indispensable element for all leaders. Gao Min, Fu Mingxia, and Guo Jingjing have each written their own legends in their respective eras in their own ways.

Gao Min's greatest legend is her seven-year unbeaten myth, a record unprecedented in the world diving arena and unlikely to be surpassed. Additionally, she was the first Chinese athlete to win an Olympic diving championship, the first grand slam winner, and her lead over opponents in competitions was always over 50 points.

Fu Mingxia, who won the World Championship title at the age of 12, is the youngest world champion in the history of the diving world. This record has been entered into the Guinness World Records. Moreover, she is the only Chinese double Olympic champion in both platform and springboard, the first Chinese diver to win gold in three consecutive Olympics, and the first athlete to appear on the cover of American Time magazine.

Guo Jingjing created an ageless legend in the Chinese diving world, easily winning gold at the age of 27 in the Olympics, and she is also the oldest diver on the Chinese diving team to participate in the Olympics. Moreover, she holds the following records: the most participations in the Olympics among Chinese female athletes (4 times), the Chinese diver with the most Olympic medals (6), and her 22 world championship titles rank first in the Chinese diving team.

Facing the unique legends of the three, Zhou Jihong, the head of the Chinese diving team, once publicly commented that Guo Jingjing's experiences are somewhat more extensive. Therefore, in terms of legendary qualities, Guo Jingjing slightly wins.