Chinese Olympic divers Shi Tingmao and Wang Han have retired from competitive diving per Chinese media company CCTV.
Shi, who is 30 years old, reportedly said that the Tokyo Olympics would be her last following the conclusion of the games last year. She will enter the next step of her career as an assistant coach for the Chinese national team.
Considered to be one of the greatest divers in history, Shi made her senior diving debut in 2008, winning gold in the three-meter diving at Chinese National championships. Since then, she has won seven world championship golds and competed in both the Rio and Tokyo Olympics, winning two golds at each games in the women’s three-meter springboard and the three-meter synchronized diving event. In addition, she was named FINA’s Female Diver of the Year six times, from 2015 to 2019 and then again in 2021.
31-year-old Wang Han, who was Shi’s partner in the three-meter synchro event that captured Olympic gold in 2020, will also retire after a 14 year career. Han will be returning to her hometown in the Hebei province, where she will coach the diving team there. In addition to Olympic gold in the three-meter synchro, Han also took silver behind Shi in the individual three-meter springboard event. She is also a three-time world champion- twice in the three-meter mixed synchro event and once in the individual three-meter springboard.
Although he is not retiring, 2019 and 2021 FINA Male Diver of the Year Xie Siyi said in a March 2022 interview that he was unsure of whether he would be competing in Paris or not. Xie won both the men’s three-meter springboard and syncro events at the Tokyo Olympics and is a four-time world champion.
Xie is 26 years old, and has been competing internationally since 2012. He said to Yangcheng Evening News in a Chinese interview that he was injury-riddled and didn’t quite know what his future would look like.
我其实也蛮纠结，主要是伤病的困扰。距离巴黎奥运会不到两年半了，如果我真的要比的话，是要下狠心的，当下就要马上练起来，因为它不会等你。”谢思埸说。
Translation: “I am actually very overwhelmed right now, especially since I have struggled through many injuries. The Paris Olympics are only two and a half years away, and if I really want to compete, it will take a lot of heart and I will have to pull myself together quickly because the Games will not wait for me.”
Previously, Xie missed the Rio 2016 Olympics due to injury as well.