Quan faces growing challenge head on

It's nothing new for teen talent in sports such as diving, gymnastics and artistic swimming. It's just the resilience to accept it, embrace it and beat it that sets consistent, true winners apart from the short-term bloomers.

Quan has braced herself for perhaps the biggest challenge of her career with a positive mindset.

"I've grown a lot physically. The way my body moves has changed, so, naturally, I cannot re-adapt as quickly as I need to," Quan said after finishing runner-up, beaten by her teammate Chen Yuxi, on the 10m platform at the Beijing super final.

"I am OK with that, and I think I've done a pretty good job today.

"I will work harder and add more fitness and strength training to my daily routine in order to help myself get used to my changing size. And, from there, I will try to perfect my dives again."

The silver finish at the Cup series' season finale at the Water Cube on Saturday was Quan's third consecutive loss to her close friend Chen, who is also her synchro event partner, since she outscored Chen by a small margin of merely 4.9 points from five rounds to retain her Olympic gold in Paris.

In fact, since her international debut in 2021, Quan had never finished runner-up three times in a row across all the meets she's ever contested in the Cup, world championships and Olympics.

The flaw that cost Quan a career-first Super Final gold in Beijing remained the same 207C routine — a dive involving three-and-a-half backward flips — that has forced her to misjudge her entry angle twice before at the earlier Mexico and Canada legs of Cup series.