A multi-sport athlete in high school, Guo was inspired to attend the Olympics after hearing about Liu Changchun's participation at the 1932 Summer Games.
In either case, he attended high school in Port Arthur and participated in basketball, association football, and track and field, most prominently in the discus throw.
It was in this sport that he was crowned champion at the 1935 Chinese National Games, where he also finished fourth in the pentathlon and competed in the shot put event.
[2] In May 1936 Guo set a new national record in the discus throw with distance of 41.07 m, which qualified him to join the Chinese delegation to the 1936 Summer Olympics.
[1] Soon after returning from the Olympics he began attending the University of Tokyo, graduating in 1942 with a degree in agricultural science and technology during the Second Sino-Japanese War.