Excellent article in Sports Illustrated by E.M. Swift examines the relationship between the World Gymnastics Champion and her Head Coach: East Meets Midwest
… “I’ve been with Chow since I was six, and I’ve trusted him with my life,” she says. “He’s like my second dad.”
Eric Risberg/AP
… Chow accepted a scholarship two years later to a place he’d never been, the University of Iowa, to study English and help coach the gymnastics teams. In doing so, he left behind a world of relative wealth and privilege for the spartan life of an American college student. “I was pretty famous in China,” says Chow, who was making more money than his father, a senior electrician. “He was a pretty tough guy. I’d never seen him cry before, but he cried when I left.”
Chow was 23 when he arrived in Iowa City with a suitcase and a kindergartner’s grasp of English, but he relished the adventure. “Gymnastics trained me, not just for gold medals, but for life,” he says. “There is no fear in gymnastics. If you can do a double backflip, you can do anything. It was hard at first, but later on, Iowa seemed like heaven to me. I love this country and this system because if you have the talent and the knowledge, you can use it.” …
click through to read the entire article – Sports Illustrated
(via Live.Breath.Love.Gymnastics – Shawn Johnson, The Poet?)
Gymnastics Coaching.com 