Ren Qian, the youngest gold medalist in Rio across all sports at age 15, was left off China’s deep roster for the world diving championships that begin next week in South Korea, according to Chinese media.
Ren became the youngest Olympic diving champion since countrywoman Fu Mingxia in 1992 when she captured the platform in Rio. She also earned world silver in 2015 and bronze in 2017, finishing behind countrywomen at the 2017 Worlds and the biggest event of 2018, the World Cup. She was then not on the team for the Asian Games in August.
Ren, a Sichuan Province native, was a gymnast before switching to diving at age 6 and by her early teens succeeding 2008 and 2012 Olympic platform champion Chen Ruolin as China’s best.
China’s other individual Rio gold medalists are on the reported roster -- Chen Aisen, Cao Yuan and Shi Tingmao.
China won five of the eight Olympic events at the last worlds in 2017, its lowest gold-medal percentage at an Olympics or worlds since 2005.
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