Andrew Thornton’s popular Smooth Skills video series is now a regular feature posted every Monday on Gymnast.com:
… I’m sure many of you have recently read that the current investigation of the ages of some of the 2008 Chinese Olympians has now been expanded to include two members of the bronze-medal winning Chinese team from Sydney in 2000 – Yang Yun and Dong Fangxiao. This was largely prompted by the recent public acknowledgement by Yang Yun herself that she was only 14 years old in Sydney, where she not only helped lead her team to bronze but also won a bronze on the uneven bars and placed 5th in both the all-around and floor exercise.
Yang Yun’s spectacular performance at the 2000 Olympic Games caught the attention of virtually everyone, especially because she had never competed at a world championships or Olympics before. She arrived in Sydney as the newest member of the Chinese Olympic team, and shocked many by immediately establishing herself as an all-around threat as well as a medal contender on several individual events. Her smile and personality were just as charming as her gymnastics, and she performed as if she had been competing on the world stage for years. Not only were her bars and beam up to the typical Chinese standards, but she was one of the best vaulters in the world (rare for the Chinese at that time) and had a floor routine that was well received by the judges for its beauty and choreography. In fact, had Yang Yun not suffered a rare fall off beam in the all-around finals, she would have been the Olympic all-around champion.
Here’s a look at Yang Yun’s two vaults from the team finals at the 2000 Olympics, which I consider among the best vaults ever done by a female gymnast. …
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
see more of her routines on Smooth Skills – Part 9
Gymnastics Coaching.com 