Hong Kong (CNS) -- Chinese breaststroke queen and Olympic champion Luo Xuejuan, a current graduate student at the School of International Studies, Peking University, joined the company of Hong Kong students and talked about her experience after retirement, September 6.
Luo was the winner and record breaker of the women's 100 meter breaststroke competition in the 2004 Athens Olympics. Retiring due to injury in January 2007, Luo did not feel fully-prepared for her decision to enter campus afterwards.
"It was not so easy to change my role from an athlete to a student. The former is required to keep a constant and repetitive training. While the latter, which I should have been engaged in during my teens, is a fresh start for me. I do not have a better memory or study ability than others, and thus, I have to work harder to conquer my weaknesses."
The exact hardship is yet to come. "The future years needs more planning. After a long period of serious consideration since my retirement, I still want to work in a field that can sustain my love for swimming."
The specific regimes of all sporting events vary greatly from each other. On the swim team, a female at her age can hardly be employed as a coach. But she would like to have a try.
During her professional life, a lot of things were preset, which is no longer the same in college. Besides study, she has to manage her own finances and dip into more social elements.
Speaking of her four-year college life, Luo didn't take her gold medal for granted. A lot of her classmates were provincial champions during the Gaokao (Chinese national college entrance exam). There are no better models for her to learn from.
It was "a pity that I didn't participate in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but lucky for me that I was the second Olympic torch bearer. When a door closes, another will open to you. That is life."
