November 22, 2008

Chinese News Roundup

While certain Chinese gymnasts were competing in Europe at the Massilia Gym Cup and the Milan Grand Prix, life went on in China for others. A quick, injury-free roundup of Sina stories from this weekend...

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--- On November 21 Olympic all-around champ Yang Wei received China's Best Athlete of the Year Award. In his acceptance speech a calm and collected Yang praised and thanked his teammates for their collective effort, which apparently meant a lot to him, then expressed his gratitude to his bride, Yang Yun. We're guessing the award means that the powers that be have forgiven Yang for his extremely lavish wedding, for which he came under a lot of fire in China.

--- Not surprisingly, Yang's coach Huang Yubin was voted Best Coach of the Year, not just in gymnastics, but overall. Huang couldn't personally accept the award as he was in Taiwan, but his fellow coach Wang Guoqing expressed his gratitude on his behalf.

--- Meanwhile, Jiang Yuyuan has won an award of her own, albeit a less formal one. According to her coach, Zhang Xia, Jiang is the "most intelligent, cutest and cleverest" member of the Chinese women's team. We'll second that!

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Jiang Yuyuan in front of a character that means "number". That'll be No. 1 then.

--- Finally, on a visit to Hong Kong University, Cheng Fei indicated that she might like to get a degree there after her retirement from gymnastics, whenever that may be. She also said she hoped to be back in Hong Kong next year, when the East Asian Games will be held in the city. We hope so too!

1 comment:

  1. How did Deng Linlin lose the cutest gymnast award???

    ReplyDelete