Stepping down from the champion podium, a Chinese women diver is
cheered by her elated parents and surrounded by her ecstatic
friends, relatives and team officials from her home town.
All the lips produce one sound: "You are the Olympic Games
champion!"
It might be a daily scene one year later at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The girl, or boy
diver, can be anyone from the Chinese diving team, tipped as the
Dream Team, which collected 20 Olympic gold medals from the
previous appearance at the Games since 1984.
However, what the Chinese diving team leader, Zhou Jihong
worried about is whether her divers can overcome the greatest ever
mental stress as being a host of the Olympic Games.
Zhou Jihong, women's 10 meters platform champion at the 1984
Olympic Games, admitted that mental stress may be the fatal factor
for the Chinese divers as one of the home disadvantage.
During the National Championships, served as one of the Olympic
Games trials, Zhou said here on Saturday: "Being a host does not
necessary go with more advantages and titles. It can be
disadvantages, especially to the events like diving, shooting and
gymnastics. "
According to a survey conducted by the Chinese shooting team
recently, all the host teams suffered a slump on their home turf
during the previous Olympic Games.
"Even a phone call, a chat from the family members before the
event takes place, athletes may loss their concentration and feel
overloaded pressure. It may force them to have unstable
performance," Zhou said.
Zhou pointed out that both veterans and inexperienced rookies
have the same mental stress problem.
"Olympic Games is different from other big world meets, and it
is being held in China. The pressure is everywhere. I can't prevent
my athletes from the reality, what I can do is to help them improve
their minds much stronger and tougher."
Several psychologists had worked with the diving team dated back
to 2004 before the Athens Olympic Games. Recently, YOGA class has
been added to the divers every Sunday morning.
"There are many ways to help divers improve their mental
stability and consistency during daily life. I hope they can put
the stress aside and perform their best in front of home crowd at
the Beijing Olympic Games," Zhou said.
(Xinhua News Agency September 22, 2007)