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I’ve not heard much about Yang Wei (杨威, pinyin: Yáng WÄ“i) since his All-around victory in the Olympics. He must be one of the biggest Olympic celebrities in China.

larger original – flickr

And what about his wedding plans?

Yang Wei has a long-time relationship with former gymnast, Yang Yun, who is a two-time Olympic bronze medalist (in team and uneven bars) for China, and now a CCTV reporter.

In June of 2006, Yang Wei asked Yang Yun to a news conference, which turned out to be a ploy for him to surprise her with a proposal. In his training for the Beijing Olympic Games, the two had very few chances to be together, and keep in touch through text messaging.

After his Olympic gold in the All-Around in Beijing on Thursday, Yang Wei faced the camera and mouthed the words, “I love you,” to his fiancee. Yang Yun, who was watching said victory on television, shouted “I love you, too!” back to the screen.Yang Wei: “Gold Medal for my Love!”

The two plan to get married after the Beijing Olympics, receiving a professional okay from Yang Wei’s coach.

Wikipedia

Yang Wei of China competes on the parallel bars during the artistic gymnastics event held at the National Indoor Stadium during Day 1 of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics on August 9, 2008 in Beijing, China.

larger original – flickr – kinneyking

Leave a comment if you know what Yang Wei is doing now that he met his Olympic dream.

I believe this is Misha Koudinov, the up and coming gymnastics star from New Zealand.

http://gymnast.com/flashplayer/FlashPlayer.swf?v=http://www.gymnast.com/media/gymnast/0/pub/u/8/6//86/1/3/e/9/u-189c4e49-11c348dc13a–7fb1.flv&eb=1&ap=1&av=sportnet.gy.videos&pv=video&szv=320×240&apv=doubleclick

His Peach is done with what is sometimes called the “free hip” style. (Very little pike.) Much like a “free hip” on Horizontal Bar.

Much more common is the “Stalder style” peach here shown by Cal Berkeley’s Colin Christ:

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I prefer the Stalder style as it has the potential to be more powerful. But the straight body free hip style may be easier for some boys.

Related post: gymnastics Parallel Bars spotting belt

The Paralympics in Beijing have ended. The Boston Globe posted 36 amazing photos from the spectacular event.

2008 Summer Paralympic Games photos – Boston Globe

No gymnastics sports are included in the official 20 sports of those Games.

Zou Kai has decided to auction one of his three Olympic gold medals and donate the earning for his hometown Sichuan that was ravaged by an 8.0-magnitude earthquake on May 12.

…

The Sichuan native Zou claimed the titles of men’s horizontal bar, free exercise and group competitions at the Beijing Games.

The initiative came out right after the youngster grabbed his third gold in the horizontal bar event, saying it’s a return for the good luck brought by his countrymen.

Champion to Auction Olympic Gold for Sichuan – CRI

This personable young man is destined to be the “face” of Men’s Gymnastics in China.

Politically powerful, that is.

Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel:

In an interview with a woman’s magazine Merkel said she wished she could be a gymnast and conquer the art of turning and leaping on the beam, the 1.25m-high apparatus used in women’s gymnastics and which requires a great deal of elegance, endurance and precision. …

Merkel, 54, who was voted the most powerful woman in the world for the second time by Forbes magazine last month, has admitted in the past that she was often terrified of sports lessons, especially jumping and gymnastics. …

Angela Merkel: I wish I’d been a gymnast – Guardian

Trailer for the forthcoming film release of All Together Now, the story of the making of Love. Love is the music and stage collaboration between The Beatles and Cirque Du Soleil.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

‘All Together Now’ faithfully recounts how the “LOVE” project came into being, borne from the personal friendship between George Harrison and Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte. George saw how the twin talents of Cirque’s artistry and The Beatles’ music could be fused into something new and totally original. …

The Beatles

Last night I went to see the Canadian premiere of a Chinese gymnastics documentary called The Red Race.

It’s the worst of the many similar features I’ve seen in the run up to the 2008 Olympics.

Clearly the editors neither understand nor care about gymnastics.

The movie had nothing to say about our sport nor much to say about the Olympic obsession in China. Nothing redeemed the movie for me.

The Shanghai coaches featured in the film were not only harsh but also inefficient, bad instructors. The female coach should be thrown in prison.

There must be many bad coaches in China along with some brilliant ones. In the Chinese coaching tradition they’ve yet to discover “progressions”. Shaping skills with drills.

The Soviet school of coaching is far more sophisticated.

Skip this movie unless you want to see much of 70 minutes devoted to footage of very young children crying.

Some clips from the film are included in this very depressing YouTube montage: Little Chinese gymnasts – Training

Related: A thread of outraged commentary on Chalk Bucket.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

(via Straight to the Bar)

Looking for a hideously cluttered new template page for Myspace?

Gymnastics Myspace Layouts: Tribute to Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin

There seems to be a backlash to all the allegations that China falsified official documentation in order to qualify underage gymnasts to their 2008 Olympic team.

Most experts assumed those charges were highly likely to be true based on the many verified cases of age falsification in the past.

Commenter pommy pointed us to an important new video.

Here’s the best evidence I’ve seen that gold medalist Jiang Yuyuan (also Yuyan; traditional Chinese: 江鈺源; simplified Chinese: 江钰源; pinyin: Jiāng Yùyuán) was actually old enough in Beijing.

This video is an excerpt from the documentary film “Dream Weavers 2008” (筑梦2008, Zhu Meng). It was the opening film of the 11th Shanghai Film Festival that ran from June 14-22, 2008 …. The documentary, which took director Gu Jun seven years to make, captures events leading up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics and how various lives were affected by this major international event in China. …

Footage from 2003 shows two of the eventual Beijing Olympic Team training:

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

[01:09] The Chairman of the National Gymnastic Association, Gao Jian, states that the purpose of the training event is to “select women gymnasts of the appropriate age for the 2008 Olympics.”

[01:21] Four of the gymnasts state their names: Jiang Yuyuan, Nai Ruoyu, Shi Juan, Li Hanghai. Of the four, only Jiang Yuyuan eventually competed in the Olympics.

[01:26] The interviewer actually asks the girls for their ages!!! Their answers are: Nai Ruoyu “10”, Jiang Yuyuan “12”, Shi Juan “13”, and “11” for Li Hanghai. The girls have absolutely no reason to lie at this point. None of them are on the National Team yet and the age controversy is still many years away. …

If Jiang Yuyuan was 12 in 2003, that would make her at least age-16 in 2008, age eligible.

While far from conclusive, it’s far stronger evidence than any documents published by the People’s Republic of China. Leave a comment below if you have an opinion.

Olympic teammate Deng Linlin (邓琳琳) is shown in the 2003 footage, as well, but does not give her age.

He Kexin is still most suspected of being underage.