BY Guardian Unlimited,

Double Olympic diving champion Guo Jingjing has come under scathing fire from Chinese state media for snubbing the press during last weekend's Olympic diving test event.

Guo, one of China's most popular sportswomen and a leading gold medal prospect at August's Games, was criticised for behaving like a "showbusiness star" after competing at the Diving World Cup in Beijing over the weekend.

"Who gave the diving queen Guo Jingjing special privileges?" was the headline of one article by Xinhua news agency, while another thinly veiled attack accused a "certain super star" of being "supercilious" and "ill-mannered".

"As a professional athlete she represents not only herself, but the team, the sport and even the country," Xinhua said.

"No matter how brilliant her achievements or how popular she is, she still needs to... respect others."

Xinhua contrasted Guo's curt responses to reporters -- she used just 20 words to answer four questions -- to her answering every question with a "lovely smile" for the television cameras.

Other newspapers put pictures on their Web sites of the 26-year-old platting a piece of string to make a bracelet during a news conference after she lost out to team mate Wu Minxia in the individual 3-metre springboard event on Saturday.

BASIC EDUCATION

"It is unbelievable that at the same time when all the Chinese people are improving their manners and athletes receive comprehensive scientific, physical and psychological training, some stars are still short of the basic education on how to treat others," said the Xinhua article.

Guo's coach later appealed to the media for "understanding", saying the diver was "under great pressure".

But the response merely drew another critical article from Xinhua, widely quoted in the Chinese media, which accused the coach of overprotecting her divers.

Such criticism is still highly unusual in a country where national sporting heroes were once inviolate.

China's national soccer players have become used to being pilloried in the media for their failings over recent years but Olympic champions have rarely, if ever, been subjected to such attacks.

Guo was kicked off the national team with fellow Olympic diving champion Tian Liang for undertaking too many "commercial activities" in the wake of their successes at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

She later apologised and was taken back but Tian refused and retired last year. (Reporting by Nick Mulvenney and Liu Zhen, editing by John O'Brien)

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