Chen Xiaoxia ( Chinese: 陈肖霞; born October 8, 1962) is a former Chinese diver and the first Chinese world champion in diving. She was dubbed "Diving Queen" by the US

Swimming World Magazine } ''Swimming World'' is a US-based quarterly swimming magazine that was first published in a magazine format as ''Junior Swimmer'' in January 1960. It concurrently runs online websites ''Swimming World Magazine'' and ''Swimming World News'' (kn ...

Early life

Chen was born in

Dongguan Dongguan,; pinyin: alternately romanized via Cantonese as Tungkun, is a prefecture-level city in central Guangdong Province, China. An important industrial city in the Pearl River Delta, Dongguan borders the provincial capital of Guangzhou t ...

Guangdong Province ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...

Career

Chen started diving training in 1973, and was recruited to Guangdong provincial team the next year. In 1976, she won 2nd place in national competition, and was admitted to Chinese national team the following year. In 1978, Chen competed at Asian Games and won gold medal in women's platform diving. Chen claimed gold medal at the

1979 Summer Universiade The 1979 Summer Universiade, also known as the X Summer Universiade, took place in Mexico City, Mexico from 2 to 13 September. Sports * * * * * * * * * * Medal table References {{Universiade 1979 U U U Multi-sport events in ...

, thus becoming the first Chinese world champion in diving. She also claimed gold medal at the 1981 and 1983

FINA Diving World Cup The FINA Diving World Cup is an international biennial diving competition that was first contested in The Woodlands, Texas in 1979. The 2012 edition served as Diving's test event for the 2012 Olympics, as well as the final qualifying event ...

. In 1981, she was selected as best diver by the US

. Due to China's boycott to the

1980 Moscow Olympics The 1980 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad () and officially branded as Moscow 1980 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 19 July to 3 August 1980 in Moscow, Soviet Union, in present-day Russ ...

, Chen didn't win Olympic champion at the climax of her career. Four years later, Chen competed at the

1984 Los Angeles Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and commonly known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the ...

and claimed 4th place. She retired after that. In May 1986, Chen moved to the US.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chen, Xiaoxia 1962 births Living people Chinese female divers Divers at the 1984 Summer Olympics Olympic divers for China People from Dongguan Asian Games gold medalists in diving Divers from Guangdong Divers at the 1978 Asian Games Asian Games gold medalists for China Asian Games divers for China Medalists at the 1978 Asian Games Summer World University Games medalists in diving FISU World University Games gold medalists for China Medalists at the 1979 Summer Universiade Medalists at the 1981 Summer Universiade 20th-century Chinese sportswomen