While accompanying her mother, who regularly took her older brother to diving training at a sports school in Zhanjiang, she played in the children's pool.

[1] In 1994, while still in preschool, Lao officially began practicing diving at the sports school in Chikan District of Zhanjiang.

[4] She also won multiple titles at the FINA Diving Grand Prix events in Spain, Canada and the United States.

[6] At the 2004 FINA Diving World Cup finals in Athens, Greence, Lao and Li won the 10 meter synchro platform with an absolute advantage, winning the second gold medal for the Chinese team.

[6] On 14 July 2004, the final list of the Chinese national diving team for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens was announced in Jinan, China and Lao was selected for the 10-meter individual and 10-meter syncho platforms.

[9] In 2006, she returned to the national team and in June 2007, she won the gold medal in the individual 10-meter platform at the FINA Diving Grand Prix in Madrid, Spain.

She briefly worked as a sports school teacher and a member of a diving team before eventually joining the Youth Volunteer Action Guidance Center under the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Communist Youth League of China, where she served as a senior staff member responsible for public welfare and charity.

[16] In early 2014, she resigned from her civil service position, and by June of the same year, she became a store owner, selling jewellery on the online shopping platform Taobao, which is owned by the Chinese multinational technology company Alibaba Group.

[21] In 2005, the city of Zhanjiang built a 12.8 meter diving goddess sculpture, commemorating Lao's Olympic gold medal performance.