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Diving diva Fu first woman with five medals by winning fourth goldPosted: Thursday September 28, 2000 12:00 AMUpdated: Thursday November 09, 2000 12:39 PM
SYDNEY, Australia (CNNSI.com) -- Eight years ago a teenage Fu Mingxia won her first Olympic title. But the 23-year-old rallied on her next-to-last dive to claim the 3-meter springboard title Thursday, joining Americans Greg Louganis and Pat McCormick as the only divers with four gold medals. "Maybe I have a lot of gold medals, but I don't consider myself special," she said. "I consider myself equal to my teammates and a lot of other divers." Fu also became the first woman with five career medals. After her Barcelona victory, Fu swept the springboard and platform events in Atlanta, then won silver in the synchronized 3-meter Saturday.
Louganis, Klaus Dibiasi of Italy and Xiong Ni of China are the only men with five medals. Louganis won double gold in 1984 and repeated in '88. McCormick swept the golds in '52 and '56. "I'm not quite sure who they are," Fu said of the Americans. "I've never thought of comparing myself to any of those athletes because it wouldn't be too meaningful to me. I only want to do what's best for myself." Fu retired after the 1996 Games, gained weight and went to college. She eventually returned to diving, but didn't defend her platform title in Sydney. Fu finished first with 609.42 points. Her teammate, Guo Jingjing, earned silver with 597.81. The women had teamed in the 3-meter synchronized event. Doerte Lindner of Germany took bronze with 574.35. "I've never dived against them before, but I knew they would be perfect," said Lindner, who studies Fu on videotape. "I knew it would be very, very hard to pass them." American Jenny Keim concluded a bitter day by finishing eighth, and teammate Michelle Davison was last in the field of 12 finalists. Keim, a two-time Olympian from Miami, Fla., totaled 534.18. She was ninth in Atlanta four years ago. Also Thursday, Keim and teammate Laura Wilkinson finished fifth in the synchronized 10-meter platform. Both were left sobbing at their results, which clearly shook up Keim about 11 hours before she had to compete on the springboard. "It took me most of the day to get over it. I don't think I have," Keim said. "The hardest part was the emotional drain on me. I had a hard time feeling spunky up there." Davison, of Columbia, S.C., finished at 510.48 after creating big splashes during the entries on her final three dives. "It was a tough contest. Everybody went over 500 points," she said. "At our senior nationals we didn't even have one person go over 500." Guo led going into the final and remained in front until the fourth round of the five-dive final. That's when Fu took over. She received marks ranging from 8.5 to 9.5 for a reverse 2 1/2 somersault pike." Fu is well-respected by her teammates, including the 18-year-old Guo, who was fifth on the platform in Atlanta. "She's a very nice person outside of diving and she looks after the younger divers as well," Guo said. Guo, who performed the most difficult dives of anyone, was limited to mostly 7.5s and 8.0s on her fourth dive, a forward 3 1/2 somersault pike. Fu earned 9.0s from five of the seven judges for her final dive, a reverse 1 1/2 somersault with 2 1/2 twists. She climbed out of the water and bowed, and a small smile crossed her face as she walked toward her coach. "They're very consistent. They hit all their dives," Davison said. "They have a huge list. They do a lot more degree of difficulty than we do." The American women haven't won a springboard medal since Kelly McCormick -- Pat's daughter -- earned bronze in 1988. Jennifer Chandler captured the last U.S. gold in 1976. "The U.S. still has a long way to go," Davison said. "I guess you could say we planted the roots. We're going to try to get back on our feet again." The Chinese, meanwhile, won their eighth diving medal of these Games, and third of the day. Xiong teamed with Xiao Hailiang to dominate the men's synchronized springboard, and Li Na and Sang Xue overwhelmed seven other teams to win the women's synchronized platform. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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