Fu Mingxia Wins Record-Tying Fourth Gold

S Y D N E Y, Australia, Sept. 28, 2000 -- China’s Fu Mingxia dove into Olympichistory today, winning the 3-meter springboard and joiningAmericans Greg Louganis and Pat McCormick as the only divers toclaim four gold medals.

Fu, 23, also became the first woman to win five medals.

Her first gold came as a 14-year-old competing on springboard atthe 1992 Barcelona Games. She swept the springboard and platformevents in Atlanta, then won silver in 3-meter synchronizedSaturday.

Louganis, Klaus Dibiasi of Italy and Xiong Ni of China are theonly men with five medals.

Fu finished first with 609.42 points. Her teammate, GuoJingjing, earned silver with 597.81.

Doerte Lindner of Germany took bronze with 574.35.

American Jenny Keim wound up eighth, while teammate MichelleDavison was last in the field of 12 finalists.

Tricky Dives Earn Guo Silver

Guo led going into the final and remained in front until thefourth round of the five-dive final. Fu received marks ranging from8.5 to 9.5 for a reverse 2½ somersault pike that moved her intofirst.

Guo, who performed the most difficult dives of anyone, waslimited to mostly 7.5s and 8.0s on her fourth dive, a forward 3½somersault pike.

Fu earned five 9.0s for her final dive, a reverse 1½ somersaultwith 2½ twists. She climbed out of the water and bowed, and asmallsmile crossed her face as she walked toward her coach.

Keim, a two-time Olympian from Miami, Fla., had 534.18 foreighth. Davison, of Columbia, S.C., finished at 510.48 aftercreating big splashes during the entries on her final three dives.