Like many others, I’ve been awaiting news on how Christine Peng-Peng Lee‘s (minor) injury was improving. If healthy, I’d call her a shoe-in for the Canadian Team to World Championships. She has many different potential Bar and Beam routines with over 6.0+ start score.
Jenn Isbister:
Gymn.ca: Just a day or two before CBC was due to visit you for a profile piece for their 2011 Canadian Nationals coverage, you injured your knee. What happened, and how is the knee doing?
Lee: I was training on vault doing my new skill Yurchenko double twist and on my tenth vault my knee cap dislocated. I had landed awkwardly on the landing but also the mats were very wobbly so it was a combination of both. My knee is doing really well! I am very happy with how I am progressing we are still cautious with it but I am almost back to full training. I am doing watered down routines for trials but I am happy with where I am today.
I most definitely want to continue to compete Elite for Canada. The goal of going to the 2012 Olympics is what has kept me going during my hiatus. I am following my dream and I want to work hard and stay healthy so I can fulfill my goal to going to the 2012 Olympics in London.
Gymn.ca: What made you choose UCLA, and when will you start? What are you planning to study?
Lee: I chose UCLA because even though I had my back injury and I wasn’t training Miss Val always believed that I was going to come back and do gymnastics. She has been so supportive and I didn’t know if I was going to get any other offer as great as hers due to my back injury. Also, I love the atmosphere at UCLA and how the athletes get treated there, I love it. I will go to UCLA in 2012 because I want to focus on the Olympics that year. I haven’t quit decided what I want to study yet and I’m hoping the year off I will figure out my career choice/path.
read the entire interview on Gymn.ca
Performing at the 2010 Doha World Cup
She’s simply wild on Beam, capable of near any skill. (VIDEO 2008)
Peng-Peng had the same injury as Chelsea Davis at Worlds Rotterdam.
5 comments ↓
“I was diagnosed with spondiolesthesis and spondiolysis in the L5 vertebrae. This injury is when the vertebrae in the spine slips a little past one another. Being out of gymnastics due to my injury was really hard because I wasn’t allowed to do any physical activity besides my 4 exercises that the doctor had told me. Not only did my back injury effect my hiatus from gymnastics, but it also changed my lifestyle as well. I had to focus on sitting properly with good posture, picking things off the floor a certain way etc. The decision to return to gymnastics was hard because I wasn’t sure if I would be able to do gymnastics again. I didn’t want to injure my back any further and when they told me if I continued and my back was not stable, there was a chance of my spine hitting a nerve so that terrified me. I knew I always wanted to come back and my goals ultimately drew me back into the sport.”
By returning to competitive gymnastics is Ms. Lee risking paralysis?
I was at her gym, speaking to her personal physio during morning training. Her back was GREAT at the time, right after competing at the World Cup.
Her description of things seemed, well, bleak.
Ms. Lee is like Awesome Again (no pun intended)! And if this is the case, she will stun the world in Japan.
“Awesome Again (born 1994) is a Canadian Hall of Fame Thoroughbred racehorse.
Racing at age three, Awesome Again competed in the United States and in Canada, where he won that country’s most prestigious race, the Queen’s Plate … His 1997 racing season ended after he suffered a back injury while finishing fifth in the Super Derby.
In 1998, Awesome Again went undefeated. He won all six races he entered, in the process defeating Champions Silver Charm and Skip Away. He came from far back to win over one of the best-ever fields assembled in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.” – Wikipedia
Yay! I love to hear about Peng-Peng!
[...] Rebecca dislocated her kneecap (surgery Aug 25th), much like what happened to Christine (Peng Peng) Lee in May. [...]
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