Maihe –
Quan Hongchan, gold medalist Tokyo 2020 Olympics, making the Chinese public sympathize. Despite living a simple life, he refused housing and money.
Hongchan became one of the highlights at the 2020 T0kyo Olympics, which just finished last weekend. He brought China to win gold from the diving branch.
He won the gold medal in the 10 meter plank category. And amazingly, the female athlete is still 14 years old, and is undergoing her first Olympics.
Despite the success in Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Hongchan became the new idol of the Chinese public because of his personality. That was after his life was exposed.
Hongchan apparently has a simple life background. Her mother is a housewife, and was sick due to an accident in 2017. Her family only lives on her father, who works as an orange farmer.
After being successful in the Olympics, Hongchan received a lot of help because many people cared about him. It went viral in China.
The village where he lives in Maihe, Guangdong Province, suddenly became a tourist village because many wanted to visit it. Vloggers and fans have flocked to this little-known village and dizzying Quan’s family and neighbors along the way. The crowds have disrupted the city’s daily routine and hampered epidemic control efforts as China struggles in its biggest Covid-19 battle since last year.
His house is also constantly flooded with gifts thanks to his success at Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Starting from snacks, until someone gave his family a house and cash up to 200 thousand yuan, or equivalent to Rp. 443 million.
“I thank them for coming. But I didn’t take anything. I didn’t take a penny,” Quan Hongchan’s father Quan Wenmao said, as reported by Asia One.
“They just send their greetings. There’s no need to come here. It interferes with their lives and ours too, doesn’t it?” he said, worried about the spread of the corona virus in the midst of a pandemic.
Hongchan himself admitted that he learned to jump because he wanted to help his mother. He began learning to dive at the Zhanjiang Sports School in Guangdong when he was 7 years old and is said to have practiced diving up to 400 times a day.
“My mother is sick. I don’t know what illness she has because I don’t know how to pronounce the character,” he said.
“I just want to make money for treatment. I need to make a lot of money to cure the disease,” he said.
(then / krs)
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