For Chen, the next phase is about more than academics; it's about redefining her path. "Whether in diving, or elsewhere, I want to become a better version of myself," she says. "I hope to forge new paths in different fields, carving out a space that belongs uniquely to me."

Born in 2005 in Shanghai, Chen started her sporting life as a gymnast, with her earliest memories drawn from fragments of stories shared by her parents.

At the age of three, while attending kindergarten, she would often spend her afternoons either training with her father and the local gymnastics team, or waiting for her mother to pick her up after school. Restless and energetic, she almost always opted for the former. Even at that young age, she was already able to perform a handstand.

In 2011, at six years old, Chen entered her first gymnastics competition, but by then, her focus had already shifted toward diving.