The changes in body shape after puberty make it difficult for her to complete movements as easily as she used to.
Movements that I thought were simple in the past are now becoming more and more difficult to master, and I have to make repeated adjustments and practice them all over again.
What’s more difficult to deal with are the voices outside the arena.
Discussions and ridicule surrounding her figure and appearance continue to impact her self-perception.
She was increasingly unable to accept herself, afraid to look in the mirror and afraid of the camera.
Family and friends were also implicated.
Her friends distanced themselves from her because they were afraid of being photographed and scolded.
This plunged her into deep loneliness and self-doubt.
This surprises many people.
That radiant, impeccable first-class athlete, world champion, talented girl on the platform.
In life, I bear such a heavy psychological burden.
This makes many people feel heartbroken.
Although during the interview, she spoke very restrainedly and attributed the main troubles to herself, saying that her mentality had not been adjusted well.
But soon, someone vaguely mentioned that in addition to the abstract "pressure" that caused her psychological trauma, there was also a specific source.
That is to say, there is a terrible WeChat group that has been targeting Quan Hongchan for a long time.
As more people came forward to confirm, relevant screenshots and chat records were gradually exposed.
A group chat with 282 members, the group name is "Splash Conquerors Alliance".
On the surface, it is a diving club, and the administrator will publish event information and industry trends.
But in the group announcement, there is an extremely glaring rule:
"No personal attacks, except Quan Hongchan."
"You can scold Quan Hongchan as much as you want, even to death."
(It is said that another target of online violence who can "swear casually" is Wang Chuqin)
Several pages of chat records that have been leaked show that the group has long used insulting names to refer to Quan Hongchan.
She also spreads rumors, forwards negative news, uses AI to take black photos, and extends a large number of humiliating remarks about her appearance, body shape and even personality.
A large number of extremely vulgar and cross-border expressions have gone far beyond the general sense of complaining or emotional catharsis.
The most shocking thing is the composition of the group members.
Not only ordinary diving enthusiasts, but also many people in the diving industry——
CCTV sports reporters, international referees, former divers, family members of athletes, and even many teammates who trained and fought side by side with Quan Hongchan…
They all either participated directly or stood by for a long time and acquiesced in such vicious attacks.
Some netizens also revealed that one of the reporters who frequently participated in attacks and made vulgar remarks once "considerately" comforted her in a public interview.
Soon, the incident fermented and the volume of discussion continued to expand.
As more details were revealed, many people in the industry also spoke out for Quan Hongchan.
Finally, on April 8, the National Training Center where Quan Hongchan worked issued a public statement:
This online violence incident has been reported to the public security organs for investigation.
It is said that after the incident, the group was disbanded overnight and some members also logged out and ran away.
If the people involved and the details reported on the Internet are true, this is far more frightening than an ordinary cyber violence.
Internet violence in the conventional sense mostly comes from the malicious intent of strangers.
Turning off your phone and cutting off the internet can at least temporarily cut off the damage.
But many people in this group are "people close to me" who have had indirect or direct contact with Quan Hongchan.
She also said in the interview that almost all of her social circle is in the diving system, and her best friends are all met through diving.
In other words, the world she has access to is not that big.
In such a relatively closed and close-knit environment, the people she knew best participated in brewing the most vicious siege against her…
Like most netizens, Uncle Yu is also confused.
Why on earth does this happen?
The official response pointed to the "abnormal rice circle culture" as the reason.
Many netizens expressed dissatisfaction with this.
Indeed, this term is too broad, and it is easy to push the responsibility to the abstract "network environment" and blur the specific boundaries of responsibility.
This incident was obviously led by industry insiders. They took advantage of the information in the circle to humiliate and belittle athletes such as Quan Hongchan for a long time.
It is obviously closer to industry exclusion and workplace bullying.
So, to understand the source of the malice, perhaps we can first look back at the industry itself and Quan Hongchan’s personal experience.
The special nature of Quan Hongchan is probably not as simple as what she said herself: "There are many people who are famous for their right and wrong".
There are many special factors superimposed on her.
First of all, she comes from a poor family and is a genius child who was accidentally chosen.
Unlike many athletes who follow a step-by-step process and have gone through layers of polishing, she entered the industry after being accidentally discovered.
He is also extremely talented and has risen to the top level in a very short time.
This kind of growth path can easily be projected as an inspirational story of "counterattack from a poor family", and it can also easily become a "special case" in the eyes of peers.
Secondly, diving is extremely cruel.
As a highly involved competitive event, it requires extremely strict physical and mental conditions.
Athletes who can successfully enter this industry have a very low starting point.
The real difference, apart from talent, is the high-intensity training day after day and the ultimate polishing of skills.
Quan Hongchan said in the interview that for her, "losing" means that she didn't work hard enough, and "winning" means luck."
She said that she didn't think she was that good, because there were many younger children around her who could dance better than her.
Such high demands on oneself and a deep sense of insecurity are not uncommon in the diving community.
What's even more cruel is that divers have almost no room for natural growth.
They rely on weight, size, aerial control and explosiveness.
Especially for female athletes, after entering puberty, they often need to re-adapt to their developed bodies and rebuild their technical systems and self-confidence.
In this process, latecomers may catch up or even surpass them at any time, and the risk of being eliminated is always there.
For the public and the media, this is a natural stage for making gods and destroying gods. It can easily be packaged into a conflicting topic of "how to make a difference when there is beauty" to attract attention and discussion.
But for the athletes involved, it means a continued high-pressure environment and a heavier psychological burden.
Zhang Jiaqi, who is also a famous diving star, once described the friendship among the team members this way:
"Those who know you well are your enemies."
In addition, and of course the most important point:
A national myth created by Quan Hongchan.
In two Olympic Games, she became famous with her "splash disappearing technique" and became a national idol.
Under the combined effect of national narrative and traffic mechanism, she has become a symbolic existence sought after by the whole people.
The outside world's attention to her has spilled over to the diving event itself. During the competition, trivial matters such as "likes turtles", "bought toys live on live broadcast", "lost toys", etc. became hot searches, and her home was also mobbed during the offseason…
The external aura reflects on the inside, causing other athletes to be dimmed.
Because of her popularity, her losses are more easily discussed than the successes of other athletes.
When interviews, reports, and cameras repeatedly focus on the same name, others are inevitably marginalized.
Looking back at many post-game interviews in the past, you will find that even when interviewing other athletes, the questions often centered on Quan Hongchan.
In this case, dissatisfaction may not be expressed directly, but the sense of gap must slowly accumulate…
So, from this, back to the original question.
Why on earth is there such a group? Why is there so much malice from "people around me" directed at Quan Hongchan?
The reason behind it is not difficult to understand.
The diving industry is highly competitive and has a large reserve of talent, and every selection is accompanied by high pressure.
Internally it is the pressure of competition, externally it is the simple judgment of public opinion based on a single standard.
Achievements have long been highly tied to resources, exposure, and interests, and their distribution is extremely uneven.
Various factors are added together, as shown in the TV series "Olympo: Extreme Clash". In a relatively closed circle, the complex emotions accumulated over a long period of time around a few star athletes can easily be released in a twisted and pathological way.
The long-term existence of group chats has strengthened group identity and further amplified this abnormal ecology.
Participants may follow the trend and blend in, unconsciously following and echoing, gradually forming a regularized attack atmosphere.
The public opinion environment is also continuing to play a role, and many people's rebellious psychology towards "traffic" will directly affect "top streams".
When Quan Hongchan first became popular, she was dissatisfied by a reporter because of her excessive exposure, criticizing her as "crazy" and "idiot-like".
Just like in the Japanese drama "Class 3: Class A: From now on, everyone is a hostage", the whole class excludes, spreads rumors and bullies the most popular girls.
In a small circle that lacks rules, the individuals who receive the most attention and are the most favored are often the most vulnerable to becoming the target of collective violence.
At the same time, the industry lacks timely and effective protection mechanisms.
There is insufficient isolation from public opinion, and the psychological support system is not sound.
The documentary "Gymnastics Queen: Simone Biles" revealed that the sports circle has for many years recognized that athletes' psychological pressure is also a necessary factor in success, and can be overcome by oneself just like physical training.
As a result, many athletes' psychological problems cannot be relieved, and their malice is easily vented in the form of attacks.
In the eyes of some colleagues, Quan Hongchan is probably different from the "national sister" in the eyes of the public, but a person who is favored by the media and the public and has traffic immunity.
Many people certainly don't really hate her personally.
Instead, he attacked her to express his dissatisfaction with the allocation of internal resources, his resentment at being ignored for a long time, and his distrust of the industry's evaluation mechanism.
Since we cannot attack the system directly, we choose to attack the most dazzling beneficiaries.
This is no different from the campus bullying and workplace bullying that many of us ordinary people experience in reality.
Just like employees in a company don't dare to scold their boss, but they can exclude the boss's most valued colleague because he has become a stand-in for power projection.
Many bullies may just want to integrate into the group to avoid being excluded, or they may express their dissatisfaction with the industry and the environment by stepping on the safest targets.
Just because of Quan Hongchan's special status, her experiences were even more extreme.
Fortunately, there is a solution to everything.
It may be difficult to completely eliminate the grayscale of human nature, but industry bullying is a structural malady that has clear boundaries between right and wrong and can be regulated.
First, the industry can put in place prevention and protection mechanisms.
In "Queen of Gymnastics: Simone Biles", Biles also experienced the pressure from peers and the outside world after a talented superstar was overly mythologized.
During the Tokyo Olympics, she emphasized the importance of mental health and then retired in style.
This attitude was extremely rare in the Olympic arena at the time, and directly contributed to the establishment of a mental health support system within the industry to provide athletes with specialized psychological treatment to avoid injuries in advance, instead of only emphasizing performance.
Secondly, accountability and restraint afterwards.
We have talked about many sports scandals, such as coaches being banned or suspended for inflicting physical or mental harm on athletes; athletes being permanently banned for misconduct; sexual assault scandals driving judicial intervention and institutional reform…
These are enough to show that when industry mechanisms and external supervision truly operate, inappropriate behavior can be rectified and the perpetrators can pay the price.
Quan Hongchan chose to call the police this time and promote an investigation instead of just a public opinion war, which is already a good signal.
As many people have said, Quan Hongchan's circle over-consumed her but failed to protect her. As a result, she was caught in the wave of polarized public opinion and became lost before she truly came into contact with society and grew up independently.
Although she leaves this system and moves into the wider society, she may still encounter the same harm.
But at least, I will no longer be trapped in a small circle with no exit, punishing myself with other people's mistakes.
I sincerely hope that Quanmei can be held accountable successfully, and I also hope that she can regain the simple joy she felt when she first jumped into the water.
