Hidden secrets of Huang's success

Decorated Olympian reveals why she prefers to keep past glories out of sight and out of mind

Huang Xuechen isn't one to dwell on past glories. So much so that the veteran artistic swimmer even keeps her bulging medal collection hidden out of sight.

For most athletes, a haul of five silver and two Olympic bronze medals－as well as dozens of world championship honors－would take pride of place in a display cabinet at home. Not so for Huang.

"I put all the medals in a box under my bed, and I always tell myself and my friends that we need to look to the future and move forward. We cannot live in the past and always focus on what we have earned," Huang told China Daily during an exclusive livestream interview on Weibo on Thursday after winning her latest medal－a gold for the united team at the National Games in Xi'an.

"These are all my precious memories. I don't want these medals and achievements to define or limit me," the 31-year-old added.

"Also, I just tell my daughter that mom needs to work and compete, because I don't want her to always brag that her mother is a famous Olympian.

"I hide the box under my bed, so my daughter doesn't even have the chance to get those medals out. I know that I won them once, and that's enough for me."

Huang strongly hinted at retirement in the wake of her National Games campaign, describing it as "possibly the last show" of her career. At the very least, she is looking forward to a long rest after an arduous summer of competition that began with the Tokyo Olympics.

As a veteran of the sport and a mother, she admits that traveling for months away from family can be challenging.

"Even though we needed to complete the 21-day quarantine after the Tokyo Olympics, we still kept training in the hotel room. We couldn't train in the pool during that time. But as a veteran, after all these years of training, I'm able to handle these situations and maintain my condition," Huang said.

"However, I was a little bit nervous at the National Games, because I barely had time to train together with my teammates in the buildup. So I worried about our synchronization. Now that we actually have a chance to train together, I just want to thank my younger teammates who tolerated me a lot when I made mistakes."

Olympic odyssey

Huang made her Olympic debut at the 2008 Beijing Games, winning a bronze. After the 2016 Rio Games, she took maternity leave but returned two years later with Tokyo 2020 in her sights.

"I returned to compete after 2016 due to my responsibility to the national team and also my dream of seeing our national flag raised again at the Olympics. I aimed for the highest podium," Huang said.

"Although I didn't win the gold, what matters more for me now is the entire process. I gained more confidence. I remember I weighed almost 100 kilograms at one point before I returned. The process of how I pushed my limits was very rewarding for me."

Remarkably, Huang defied age and injuries to shed 30 kilograms and was soon back on the medal trail.

"The secret to losing 30 kilograms was my responsibility to the national team. I was representing our nation, so I told myself that I needed to be in my best condition. Indeed this is a lot pressure, but this is a special motivation," she said.

"It was pretty tough. Sometimes I just couldn't resist eating more, so then I would simply add more training sessions to stay in good shape. In a way, we represent the spirit of Chinese female athletes, so I would not allow myself to make mistakes.

"I need to have great physical form and strength, which forms the basis of good performance in the pool. I pushed myself hard. I almost quit eating any carbohydrates at all for about half a year to lose weight."

Huang paid special tribute to the national team and the Shanghai Sports Bureau for their support throughout her comeback. Shanghai Sports Bureau even paid for a rented apartment in Beijing, enabling her to stay with her daughter while she trained in the capital.

"I had a long conversation with my family before deciding to return to the pool, especially with my husband. They didn't support me at first, as they thought I had achieved everything I could have achieved already, so there was no reason for me to return," said Huang.

"I was thinking, when I was a kid the country gave me everything to nurture me. So now that I had the ability and experience, I wanted to help the national team when it needed me."

Giving back

Fans shouldn't expect to see Huang back in the Olympic pool in Paris in three years' time, but she still hopes to give more to artistic swimming by helping to nurture the next generation of talent.

"After I retired in 2016, I became a youth coach for a while. That's when I found out that the coaches who trained me were still in their positions. They devoted their entire lives to their careers, which touched me a lot. I coached the kids who were under 10 years old at that time," she explained.

"I first thought about retirement in 2013. At that time, I had won medals at the Olympics and world championships. My coach had a long conversation with me, after which I realized the responsibility on my shoulders.

"That's when I started to consider myself a veteran, and I began to help more young athletes. Prior to that, I just thought I need to be myself and do my own things right."

Decades-long powerhouse Russia remains the country to beat in artistic swimming. Huang reckons China's new breed has what it takes to challenge the Russians' ascendancy.

"Each year we would study videos of the Russian team's performance over and over again. We always wanted to have a stunning performance to wow the judges at international events. And we always wanted to devise new routines for higher points," said Huang.

"Honestly speaking, the Russian team is more creative than us, but in terms of technique, we are very close. This year, the Chinese team had many new sequences at the Olympics, which impressed the judges.

"I'm confident that one day the younger generation of Chinese artistic swimmers will reach and even surpass Russia's level and stand on the highest podium."