China's Lin Yue credits parents for Olympic glory
Xinhua, August 9, 2016 Adjust font size:
The glamor of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro is a world away from his modest upbringing, but China's Lin Yue has not forgotten his roots.
The 25-year-old diver said on Monday that his triumph alongside Chen Aisen in the synchronized 10m platform in Rio would not have been possible without the sacrifices of his parents.
Lin and Chen posted an overall score of 496.98 to finish ahead of US pair David Boudia/Steele Johnson (457.11) and Britain's Thomas Daley/Daniel Goodfellow (444.45) in the final at the Maria Lenk Aquatics Centre.
Lin explained how, when he was a child, his parents had sold the family's house in Chaozhou, Guangdong province, to send their son to train in Beijing.
"The only thing in my mind is that I have to do all I can do for my family to thank them for supporting me," he said.
It was Lin's second Olympic gold medal in the event after his victory at the Beijing 2008 Games alongside Huo Liang.
Despite winning Monday's final by a comfortable margin, Lin said the performance was not without its faults, citing a mistake on the fourth dive, a triple backward somersault.
"We did really well in our performance today, very stable," he said. "We did our best, but I don't think it was perfect. All I can say is that we did our best. It was like a dream.
"The mistake we made is that we had a little bit of hesitation during our jump, so we did not handle it very well."
China have won both of the diving gold medals decided so far at the Rio Games.
On Sunday, Wu Minxia and Shi Tingmao took out the women's synchronised 3m springboard title. Endit