Gao Dianmin Celebrated for Humanity, Smile

(ATR) One week after he was stricken with a fatal heart attack at the World Press Briefing in PyeongChang, Xinhua editor and reporter Gao Diamin is honored in a memorial service in Beijing.

Gao, 62, was to be recognized at a dinner in PyeongChang Nov. 11 for his 20 years of service as a member of the IOC Press Committee, formerly known as the Press Commission. But in the afternoon he was found unconscious in his room and was taken immediately to hospital. Attempts to revive him failed.

"To lose Gao under such circumstances was a great shock to all of us," retired IOC member and former chair of the IOC Press Commission Kevan Gosper tells Around the Rings. He was in PyeongChang at the time.

"I’ve always regarded him as one of my closest and most trusted friends. I admired him for his professionalism and generosity with his knowledge. Nothing was too much trouble. He was easy with a smile," said Gosper, who is in Beijing for the memorial, along with IOC Olympics Media Operations chief Anthony Edgar.

Press operations expert Richard Palfreyman, who had known him since 1997, calls Gao "a trailblazer".

"He became the international face of Chinese sports reporting. He was loved and respected by his international colleagues as a journalist and as a diplomat for China's emerging presence in world sport. His ready smile and openness will be greatly missed," says Palfreyman who had prepared a tribute to Gao for his retirement dinner last week.

"When I first met you, I asked you how you preferred to be called. You said simply: Everyone calls me Gao," wrote Palfreyman. He said he had just learned that colleagues at Xinhua called him "Gao-sir" out of respect for his stature," says Palfreyman in the tribute.

"His secret weapon is tea – by now he must have set an individual record for exporting jars of tea as presents to friends all over the world," Palfreyman wrote.

Gao joined Xinhua News Agency in 1977 after graduating from Dalian University of Foreign Languages. In his career at Xinhua he served as sports director and London bureau chief in the lead-up to the London Olympics.

He covered every Olympics for Xinhua from 1984 to 2016. In Los Angeles in 1984, the first Olympics to include athletes from the People’sRepublic of China, he made his mark by being the first to report the country’s first gold medal.

"Before the judge declared the result, I ran 30 to 40 meters into the media center and made a phone call to the editor," said Gao in an interview during the Rio Olympics. "In a time without the electronic scoring system, I was the first one to report China's first Olympic gold," he said.

Gao also served as a member of the media committees of the International Association of Athletics Federations and the International Volleyball Federation. He was also a longtime member of AIPS. AIPS President Gianni Merlo says Gao was "the representative" of Chinese journalists.

Jackie Brock Doyle, former press spokeswoman for London 2012 and now with the IAAF, dispatched this tweet last week.

"Agentle soul with an instinct for a story & the integrity & wisdom to not inflict pain 4 short term gain. U lost a good one @XHSports ❤", she wrote.

Gao carried the torch in the relays for the Athens, Beijing, London and Rio Olympics.

AP reporter Steve Wilson, president of the Olympic Journalists Association, was in PyeongChang last week for the press committee meeting.

"For many journalists around the world, Gao was the friendly and welcoming face of China, especially when Beijing was hosting the 2008 Games. He was kind and thoughtful and always ready to offer help and encouragement to journalists, organizers and anyone else. Gao’s humanity and ever-present smile were infectious. We will miss him terribly. We send our deepest condolences to his family," says Wilson.

Gao is survived by his wife, Wang Ya, a daughter and a grandchild.

This reporter enjoyed the hospitality he delivered during my visits to Beijing ahead of the 2008 Olympics. I will always remember the dinner we had one night with some of his colleagues at a people’s restaurant: down a flight of stairs from the street, a bit cramped and smoky with beer flowing freely. There was no menu, just a giant fish, half a meter long, presented at our table before being dispatched to the oven.

Palfreyman’s tribute, meant to be delivered in person, includes a farewell that has now become a lamentation shared by all who knew Gao Diamin.

"Mr. Gao, Mr. Gao – how do I find the words to say how much we will miss you."

Written by Ed Hula.

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