(From unattributed source cited on http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~bochen/ming.htm)
Wuhan, China - birthplace of Fu Mingxia. Her nickname - "beautiful sunrise." With her victory in Wednesday's women's springboard final following her platform win earlier in the Games, Fu became only the fourth female diver ever to sweep both events at the same Olympics and the first since Germany's Ingrid Kraemer did it at the 1960 Rome Games.
She exploded into the diving world in 1990 in the Goodwill Games. Characterized by unseen precision and control, she won the platform diving competition at the Goodwill games at only 12 years old. She competed at age 14 in the 1992 Olympics at Barcelona, facing a strong field of divers, some of whom were more than twice her age, Fu became the youngest gold medalist in the history of platform diving. She beat runner-up Yelena Miroshina of the Unified Team by a whopping 49.8 points. Rather than enjoying her success, she resumed training almost immediately. With Coach Yu Fen at her side, she had focused on a new goal:
Winning both women's diving events at the 1996 Olympics.
Fu started diving at age seven - before she even knew how to swim - but Yu Fen is the mentor who is credited by Fu herself as the key to her success. In 1987, she discovered Fu as a nine year-old diving star in Wuhan and made arrangements for her to move to Beijing, where Fu could train at the country's best facilities. Fu has lived with Yu since then, and doesn't get to see her parents very often. In fact, after winning the gold in Barcelona, she faced an embarrassing moment when reporters asked her what they did for a living: she couldn't tell them. Four years later, an older Fu noted that her parents watched her win gold on their living room television.
There was a lot of pressure for Fu to continue her dominance after the '92 games. "I was prepared psychologically," said Mingixa about the springboard win.
When the Olympics come to Australia in four years' time, Fu will still be younger than most of her competitors were this year. She could add an exclamation mark to her career achievements by becoming the first diver in history to win five gold medals, but isn't ready to commit to another Olympics just yet. "I have to take this step by step," she says of the future. "It's hard for me to make any predictions."
Regardless of her decision, she will be remembered as one of diving's best. Fu said about the '96 olympic experience - "I've grown a lot in terms of experiences." And she has definitely shown it.