Gao Min
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Olympic medal record | |||
| Women's diving | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Gold | 1988 Seoul | 3 m springboard | |
| Gold | 1992 Barcelona | 3 m springboard | |
- This is a Chinese name; the family name is Gao.
Gao Min (born September 7, 1970) is a Chinese diver who won gold medals in the springboard event of the 1988 and 1992 Olympic Games.
Born in Zigong, Sichuan, Gao learned how to swim at the age of four. At nine, she started gymnastics training, before she was spotted by a diving coach and persuaded to switch to compete in diving. She won her first major international competition - on the 3-meter springboard - in the World Championships in 1986. Nicknamed the "Diving Queen", Gao is widely regarded as one of the finest - if not the finest - woman springboard diver in the history of the sport.[citation needed] She is also the only female diver to surpass the 600-points mark in the event.
Gao was chosen as the World Best Diver of the Year by US magazine Swimming World from 1987 to 1989 and the Woman's World Springboard Diver of the Year for a record seven consecutive years from 1986 to 1992.
In 2003 Min Gao was inducted to the Women's Sports Hall Of Fame.
Min Gao coach in Edmonton Alberta for many years for the Edmonton Kinsmen Diving club, producing many national team divers and helping to further the sport of diving in Canada.
In 2005 Gao left Canada to return to china to promote her auto-biography. The book is currently only available in Mandrin, but it will be available in English in early 2007.
