Always a seemingly carefree, almost naive, prodigy in the spotlight, China's diving sensation Quan Hongchan has revealed that a painful inner struggle, largely due to cyberbullying over her appearance, is pushing her to the brink of retirement.

Quan, a back-to-back Olympic champion in the women's 10m platform, in a tearful interview with Renwu magazine opened up about her crippling battle against nature — her rapid growth in 2025 that has significantly affected her competitive form.

She shared previously untold stories about the mental toll, caused by relentless public scrutiny — even prompting abusive social media comments — on her dramatic bodily changes, has taken on her over the past year.

In one shocking revelation, Quan said she only started her period at the age of 17, one month after successfully defending her individual Olympic title in Paris, due to years of rigorous training without enough caloric intake that had delayed puberty.

Then, following Paris, how the sudden growth spurt that pushed Quan's physique into adulthood caught her off guard, making the pull of gravity feel much stronger, and her spins, velocity and entry angles harder to control.

The harsh response on social media, however, in the form of degrading comments and body-shaming posts, proved to be a much heavier blow for Quan than messing up a dive or two.

"After I returned to the national team at the end of 2024, every day I met people who were like: 'Oh my God! How come you've gained so much weight?'" Quan, who just turned 19 last month, told the magazine.

"Then, trying to lose weight became my daily routine. I've even been starving myself, eating just one meal a day," she said, weeping.

"For a long time, I didn't dare to wear the skirts or shorts I like, always trying to hide my body in long sleeves and pants," she admitted.

"I tried not to look in mirrors and avoided cameras in public, because I couldn't bear seeing the growing bulk of my body either.

"But there's nothing I can do. I felt like I got fatter just from drinking water."

Errors on dives she'd never messed up happened more frequently in training.

Quan's once effortless "splash-disappearing technique" — her ability to almost eliminate water displacement upon entry thanks to delicate body control — became harder to achieve.

Long hours of aerobic exercise in a bid to shed the kilos, mostly running, slowed down the rehabilitation of older injuries to her right tibia and ankle joints.

For the first time in her career, Quan started to question whether she should carry on, having won almost everything that there is to win as an elite diver.

"I actually thought about retiring (at the end of 2024)," said Quan, who's grown at least 15 centimeters taller and 10 kilograms heavier than the diminutive wunderkind who left the crowd in awe and judges stunned on her Olympic debut in Tokyo.

"I really, really wanted to (quit), but, in the end, I still wanted to keep going and give it another try."

Quan's determination to continue was supported by her national team coach Chen Ruolin, who had overcome similar challenges across three Olympic Games — Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio 2016 — winning a record five gold medals.

"It's the natural process of puberty that every teen athlete has to experience. She's so talented, so demanding of herself and always works hard," Chen said of Quan's return at the World Cup series' Super Final in Beijing in May last year.

"I have full confidence in her ability to navigate through it."

After completing all the three legs on the 2025 World Cup series, Quan took another long break of six months to recover from her ankle injury and spared no effort preparing for last year's National Games, held in her home province of Guangdong, as the grand finale to a year of struggle, or, so it now seems, a possible farewell to her athletic career.

Cheered on enthusiastically by her home crowd at the Guangdong Olympic Sports Center Swimming and Diving Hall, Quan did not disappoint in her first event.

She maintained the convincing quality of her dives to help the Guangdong provincial squad defend the women's 10m platform team event on Nov 2.

The hashtag "Quan Hongchan returns to win" garnered nearly 62 million views on Weibo after the victory, and she was among that day's top-trending topics related to the National Games on social media.

"I am awesome," Quan posted as encouragement to herself on her Weibo account, where she has over 5.9 million followers.

Quan, however, skipped the individual event at the National Games, saying she was not 100 percent recovered from her injuries, missing out on the chance to challenge World Aquatics' "Best Female Diver of 2025" Chen Yuxi, Quan's national teammate whom she'd beaten twice in a row in individual finals at the Olympics.

Chen, 20, a close friend of Quan, has emerged as a favorite for the individual title at the 2028 Olympics, after she claimed a record-extending fourth world championship title in 10m platform last summer.

She said she would always support Quan, no matter what decisions her struggling teammate made.

"We are close, and we talk about everything all the time. We always have each other's back, no matter what," said Chen, who represented Team Shanghai at the National Games.

Despite quite an encouraging comeback attempt, the growing pains have not eased for Quan, as she confessed during the interview with Renwu that her efforts to keep fit didn't work out as expected.

Nor did her attempts to block out online abuse.

"I hope those attacking me will stop cursing me, my family and my friends," said Quan, who added that returning to the diving pool still brings back a feeling of "oppression and fear".

She has, however, said that she won't make any rash decisions about her future.

"Everyone's been asking what I will do next, whether I'm done with diving or not," she said.

"I just want to take it one step at a time. I am not sure though (whether to keep diving).

"I want to get enough rest and then make a decision that I won't regret later."