Word: fu
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...point was that there was always something for the eyes to feast on. Today's Olympics have the same carnival-like atmosphere. For a TV watcher, this spectacle makes for great viewing. Watch some javelin during the lull between 100-m heats. Cut away to the Aquatic Centre, where Fu Mingxia, triple gold medalist, will dive for China. Flip to a few rounds of the legendary Cuban heavyweight fighter Felix Savon. Here's Marion Jones--she wants to be the first woman to win five track-and-field golds in one Olympics--warming up for the long jump, but before...
Triple gold medalist Fu Mingxia doesn't expect anyone to remember her. Sure, China's mop-haired diving diva was the youngest gold medalist in Barcelona, at 13, and a double winner in Atlanta. But when she ducked out of the limelight at 18, her whispery voice citing mental exhaustion, the former child prodigy figured her glory days were done. Even today as she trains for Sydney, Fu downplays her talents. "I'm old and a little fat now," jokes the 22-year-old. "I'm yesterday's news...
Until next week, anyway. Despite her doubts, beating the waif who enchanted Barcelona and dazzled Atlanta represents a high degree of difficulty. Fu's jumping-bean antics have matured into an aquatic elegance that could raise this veteran above a crop of agile young rivals, some of whom perform the scary dives that were once her exclusive domain...
...Fu never expected to be training for the 2000 Olympics. She left competition in 1996 and dived into normal life, studying management science at Beijing's prestigious Qinghua University. For two years, not once did she clamber onto a board. "The last thing I wanted to do was dive," she recalls. "I just wanted to be a kid without any pressures...
Childhood is expendable for China's sporting machine, which churns out young athletes to boost the country's image. Flexible first-graders are packed off to gymnastics and diving camps while their lankier counterparts head for the volleyball courts. Fu joined the diving assembly line at age 7 and was shipped off to a Beijing sports school a couple of years later. Homesick, she cried for the first few months. But during nine-hour practices she was trained to empty herself of all emotion, particularly fear...