I have a deep impression and love for the women's team in the 08 Olympic cycle, and here I would like to share with you the story of the "Golden Generation", and the historic battle between China and the United States on August 13th, 2008 to win the championship.
Freestyle gymnastics and vault have always been our big shortcomings, a great lack of strong players, in the training method is very difficult to train in these two items have the strength of the athlete. Even if the uneven bars and balance beam are excellent, it is difficult to make up for the gap between the free gymnastics and vault being left behind by others, and there is almost no possibility of competing for gold and silver medals.
And throughout the 05-08 Olympic cycle, as if God helped me, Cheng Fei came out of nowhere, the short board is no longer dragging the feet, at the same time, the traditional advantages of the uneven bars and balance beam is still solid and outstanding.
04 Athens, 16-year-old Hubei young Cheng Fei first Olympic Games. She entered the free gymnastics final with the second qualifying round and eventually finished fourth. Although there is no medal, but in this weak breakthrough, or become a single event competition that year, "a mess" of the women's team the only surprise.
05 Melbourne World Championships at the age of 17 Cheng Fei a surprise, became China's first (and currently the only) women's vaulting world champion, the FISA will she use the shuttlecock back handspring 180 + straight front flips 540 action named "Cheng Fei jump"
05 cctv sports figure of the year. The best female athlete of the year. This shows how significant Cheng Fei's vault gold medal is. That is China's gymnastics "zero breakthrough".
So there is an unprecedented situation:
Cheng Fei won the World Championships vault triple crown and World Championships gold medal in free gymnastics, so that the women's team can compete with the United States and Russia for the possibility of the title.
Moreover, that cycle of the old and new iteration of the development of Jiang Yuyuan, Deng Linlin, these can complete a certain degree of difficulty of the vault, free gymnastics movements of the excellent players. When the team competed, the two total scores were not so bad as to pull the crotch, and even managed to narrow the difference in points to a very small range.
This is the key to determining the competitiveness of our women's team.
In that cycle, the women's team, led by Cheng Fei, made history by winning the women's team gold medal at the '06 World Championships in Denmark, the first and only one in history, and the only and only women's Olympic gold medal in history in '08, which was an unprecedented event.
I still remember those two times when the championship, the television broadcast screen, the women's team girls and coaching staff tightly embraced into a group, excited shouting, tearful scene.
(From left to right) The Chinese women's team, consisting of captain Zhang Nan, Cheng Fei, Li Ya, He Ning, Zhou Zhuoru, and Pang Pan Pan, defeated rivals the United States and Russia in the '06 World Championships in Denmark with 0 errors, winning the title for the first time
(From left to right) The Chinese women's team, consisting of Jiang Yuyuan, Li Shanshan, He Kexin, captain Cheng Fei, Yang Yiling, and Deng Linlin, won the title for the first time at the '08 Beijing Olympics.
On the day of the final, we qualified second and ranked first in the U.S. team in the same group pk.
Cheng Fei has a coefficient of difficulty of 6.5 movements, and finished the highest score, Deng Linlin coefficient of difficulty of 5.8, Yang Yilin difficulty of 5.8, the completion of the quality of all good. And the United States side, the three difficulty respectively 6.3, 6.5, 5.8. This item, the United States team total score 46.875, the Chinese team total score 46.350, just a difference of 0.525 points ah! There is hope!
(And then look at the 08 cycle before and after the competition, our vault difficulty with a few other teams how much difference, how to play with others.)
Generally speaking, as long as you don't make any big mistakes and don't drop the bar, it's a handful for the Chinese women's team. At that time, there were 7.7 difficulty coefficient He Kexin, the same 7.7 difficulty Yang Yilin, 7.1 Jiang Yuyuan. Among them, He Kexin was more worrying because she made a big mistake in the qualifying round and almost couldn't even make it to the final of the single event. However, on this day He Kexin stabilized. All three of them played well.
"Princess of the uneven bars" He Kexin, her ultra-high degree of difficulty standard Zhi sexual action "Ling Jie turn + Li Ya flip + split leg Ye Gel", thrilling and wonderful degree is comparable to the men's singles, every time caused the audience to gasp in surprise again and again
(Note: 1.Ling Jie 00 00 years, the first time the men's single event final, the audience was not even in the final. 1. Ling Jie 00 Sydney Olympic cycle of gymnastics celebrities, had been known as Liu Xuan successor. Won the silver medal on uneven bars at the Sydney Olympics.
2. Li Ya 04 Athens Olympics women's team member, 06 Denmark World Championships women's team gold medalist, with uneven bars. Controversial due to the refusal to compete fiasco).
Yang Yilin from the Guangdong team, also has a 7.7 high difficulty sets, but with He Kexin to the flip connection is different, Yang Yilin's uneven bars to a variety of difficult turn connection known
However, the uneven bars is the United States team's traditional weakness (relatively), only the Russian-American general Liukin 7.7 difficulty (spit it out, the FISU referees have always been in favor of this one, the stranglehold, big split leg still give her The IFSC judges have always favored this one, twisted leg, big split leg still give her a very high finish score, today everyone sprayed scoring bias with her compared to nothing, even the strength of aliens degree of Ms. Bay match is often pressured points).
The other two on the U.S. team were 6.8 and 6.4, losing us by too much on difficulty. In this item, the U.S. team received 47.975, while the Chinese team 49.625, the total score we overtook Russia and the United States, temporarily ranked first!!!!
Our traditional strengths are also recognized in the gymnastics world as the best practiced but hardest to compete in. China's Li Shanshan had the TOP1 difficulty 7.1 sets of all competitors at the time, and Deng Linlin was the balance beam champion at the next Olympics. However, the US is also strong! Shawn Johnson + Liu Jin group double insurance, Shawn also after the current Olympic balance beam champion.
The double insurance of the United States team, 16-year-old Sean Johnson and 19-year-old Nastya Liukin, both were superstars in the gymnastics world at the time, but also the most formidable rivals of the Chinese team members
The first to go on the team was the captain of the Cheng Fei, who, although she focuses on the freestyle gymnastics and vaulting, but the balance beam is the level of the World Cup champions, and the Olympic Games also won the bronze medal on the balance beam. As a result, in the completion of the "group body backflip body 360" this difficult action accidentally fall, this fall, is to deduct 0.8 points.
At that time, the commentator and the audience felt hung up.
But who would have thought it?
Ms. Sacramoni, the first captain of the U.S. team to go on stage, just stepped on the balance beam and fell off the apparatus, -0.8, and immediately gave us back a big gift.
21-year-old vaulting star Sacramoni. 05 Melbourne World Championships vaulting final, gold medal aspirations, she encountered the Purple Star descending Cheng Fei, was defeated by Cheng Fei with two close to full marks. In the years since, Sa and Cheng have been "rivals" on the vault, but Sa has never had a chance to win a gold medal
Whew... a close call, and the US and China are back on the same starting line.
Li Shanshan, who sadly has one of the world's best balance beams but always misses out on individual gold medals with major errors in the individual finals, resisted the pressure on the day of the team finals on August 13th and, with the US and China captains making successive errors, finished the set at a high level of quality and added another feather in the US-China caper.
Deng Linlin, the 16-year-old who had a steady hand in the balance beam in the team event, was the first of the two teams to win the gold medal in London four years later with her first-ever victory in the World Cup, and the second in the World Cup. Four years later in London, she played as a veteran + captain, and became the Olympic champion on balance beam as she wanted to be
Shawn Johnson was very clean on her feet in the balance beam, nailed to the wood like a nail, with not a bit of room for error. Incidentally, the red headband on her ponytail was said to be specially for the Beijing Olympics because of the festivities.
In the singles final, Sean was joined by her coach Qiao Liang, yes, the current head coach of our Chinese women's team. Qiao Liang, who succeeded Liukin's father as head of the U.S. women's team in the London Olympics cycle for producing gymnastics superstar Shawn Johnson, has produced another all-around Olympian, black sensation Douglas.
On the balance beam, the U.S. 47.250, China 47.125. We've got the difference in scores biting, and we're one point ahead of the U.S. in the three categories. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and we're one step closer to our dream!
There is no doubt that the USA's strength, the overall strength is as present as our uneven bars.
The U.S. is up first.
At this point, I don't know if it's a bit of a breakdown, but the U.S. captain, Ms. Sacramoni, Cheng Fei's old rival, made a big mistake, taking a 14.100 for a set with a coefficient of difficulty of 6.1.
Sean Johnson, who has a 720 spin + back straight turn 1080 like Cheng Fei, had a mediocre set with a score of 15.100.
Liujin scored 15.200.
In the televised picture, Sacramoni, who was watching the Chinese competition from the sidelines, showed a look of despair, and her teammate Sean Johnson came to her ear and comforted her jokingly
The competition came to the hottest stage. China's girls were chomping at the bit to make a final push for the team gold that countless generations of gymnasts have dreamed of.
Deng Linlin, who was the first on the floor, was not very difficult, but the good thing was that she finished with a high score of 15.1000, brushing off Ms. Sa, who was the first U.S. captain on the floor.
Then, Jiang Yuyuan dedicated the classic program "Lift Your Cover", the whole audience applauded together to beat the beat for her, should impress many people, right? This set of movements is not very difficult, but the completion of excellent, and she is also very expressive, got 15.200 points, not to lose the two superstars of the U.S. team.
Jiang Yuyuan's free exercise routine, "Lift Your Cover," set off the climax of the atmosphere. In the set, with the Uyghur style of dance moves intimate and lovely. By this point, the suspense falls on the captain Cheng Fei.
As mentioned before, she is the only world champion of free gymnastics in China. As long as she doesn't make too many mistakes, our gold medal is assured.
I'm sure that those who love gymnastics will be impressed by this set of "Yellow River", her free routine, which is a classic among classics, combines both the highest level of difficulty for women competitors at that time and excellent quality of completion. I've seen a lot of people say that their impression of gymnastics is that it's elegant and feminine, and it's hard to appreciate the style of "kuang kuang kuang kuang" (naming a certain beauty).
However, Cheng Fei is unique.
She has the leg strength to do a kuang kuang kuang kuang flip like the Americans, but she can do it in a standardized, graceful way. When the familiar music of the Yellow River Cantata played, Cheng Fei was like a horse riding on a huge wave, open and wild, and the atmosphere was pouring. The enthusiastic response of the audience is the best proof.
At the end of the last movement, Cheng Fei clenched her fists and waved them on the field, and her expression told us - it's done! Cheng Fei has always been a low-key and cautious person, especially as the core of the team, as the captain, she can seldom show her excitement like other junior players.
The Yellow River gave Cheng Fei the highest score in the competition, 15.450, and put China more than a point ahead of the United States in this category.
In the end, China won the gold medal in the women's gymnastics team at the Beijing Olympics with a total score of 188.900, while the United States won the silver medal with a total score of 186.525. With a difference of more than 2 points, we are the undisputed champions!
The five first-time Olympians cried tears of joy on the sidelines, waving to the crowd. The moment of victory was too good to be true, and the process of victory was too hard to be true
(Picture comparing paste) Cheng Fei celebrated with her mentor Lu Shanzhen on the sidelines. Lu Shanzhen is to Cheng Fei what Qiao Liang is to Sean Johnson, what Bole is to a thousand mile horse. And even more than that. When will we have the next Cheng Fei? Before asking this question, perhaps it is more appropriate to ask: when can we have the next Lu Shanzhen guidance.
The team and coaching staff celebrated their victory. The gold medal belongs not only to the six players who fought on the court, but also to this entire amazing team, and to everyone who has worked so hard to add to the 08 Olympic cycle
Even though the opponents may have initiated mistakes, and the game may have had a huge turnaround - such as this time in the US
So there is a long way to go. Let's look forward to another peak for the Chinese women's team in the future.
From left to right: Cheng Fei, Yang Yilin, Li Shanshan, He Kexin, Jiang Yuyuan, and Deng Linlin. 08's gold medal is called Gold and Jade, which is really memorable. Jade is made of stone.
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