Chinese Coaches Training Athletes Around the World

AUSTRALIAN Chantelle Newbery, the 10-meter platform diving gold medal winner at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, was very excited when she received the medal and let a reporter in on a secret. "I would not have won this gold medal had I not been trained by my coach Wang Tongxiang over the past nine years. Diving is not an advantageous event for Australia, and it is all because of my coach Wang’s hard work that I’m able to win this gold medal. I am very grateful to him. Thank God that I was given the opportunity to be trained by such an excellent and outstanding coach," she said.Wang Tongxiang was formerly a coach on the Chinese diving team, and he helped the then head coach Xu Yiming to train many world champions, including universally well-known athletes such as Gao Min and Xiong Ni. Fourteen years ago, Wang immigrated to Australia, becoming the head coach of the Australian diving team and training several outstanding athletes, including Chantelle. Over the past 50 years, China has sent out a total of 2,547 coaches in 36 events at the invitation of 123 countries and regions.