More Chinese News: Pang Panpan, Yang Yilin, Deng Linlin

Here’s another long overdue update from China...

The Chinese New Year has come and gone, and China’s gymnasts have thrown themselves into preparations for the 2009 competition season. Both the MAG and WAG teams are currently in the midst of winter training, an intensive period devoted to learning new skills, polishing old ones, and making any necessary adjustments for the new Code of Points. Everyone’s top priority this year is undoubtedly the 2009 National Games, to be held in Jinan, Shandong Province, in September (exact dates TBA). The gymnastics portion of this quadrennial multi-sport event is being held a month earlier than other events to avoid scheduling conflicts with the 2009 World Championships in London. A qualifying meet for the National Games will be held in Jinan from May 9-18. (Separate team/AA/EF and individual national championships will also be held this year, dates and locations TBA.)

Pang Panpan
Conspicuously absent from this year’s winter training is perennial fan favorite Pang Panpan, a key member of China’s historic 2006 World Championships team. Reports from China (among other reports, this Sina story) indicate that Pang has returned to the Hebei provincial team, where she is expected to continue preparing for the National Games. The reasons for her dismissal remain somewhat murky; official explanations suggested that she “needs to lose weight,” but since Pang has always been one of the slimmest members of the Chinese team, this rationale seems fishy at best. We think it has more to do with the chronic ankle problems that have hindered her career since late 2006. Whatever the case, we wish Pang Panpan all the best in her future endeavors, gymnastic or otherwise.


Pang Panpan, slender as a willow (photo: Xinhua)

Yang Yilin
We also have a small update on Yang Yilin, whose condition has been the subject of much speculation since she withdrew from the World Cup Final in December. Fans of the Olympic AA bronze medalist will be relieved to learn that, according to Sohu, she has resumed light training after undergoing treatment for what appears to have been a herniated disc in the lumbar spine. If she makes a full recovery, Yang will certainly be a force to be reckoned with at both the National Games and Worlds later this year.


Photographic evidence that Yang Yilin is alive and kicking: Yang and Li Shanshan at a celebration for Guangdong Olympians last month (photo: Nanfang Daily)

Deng Linlin
Also easing off the injured list is Olympian Deng Linlin, who underwent knee surgery in November. According to Ifeng, Deng told Chinese reporters last week that the knee is now pain-free and she’s training hard in the hope of achieving a “major breakthrough” on vault and balance beam, her two strongest events. She also voiced her intention to continue through the 2012 Olympics.

Despite rumors on several message boards, it does not appear that Deng Linlin will compete at the American Cup on February 21. Her name has not been mentioned in any official announcements from either USAG or the Chinese Gymnastics Association.


Deng Linlin in Beijing (photo: Sina)

Injury Report

--- According to Globoesporte, Jade Barbosa is currently in America (supposedly in Miami) for a second opinion on the osteonecrosis in her right hand. "The doctor over there is used to treating elite athletes, and he is studying the problem," said Elisete Chagas, Jade's stepmother and agent. "We hope that she won't have to leave the country for treatment, because that would be very costly."

--- Despite our best efforts, we haven't been able to find any information on the injury that kept Yang Yilin from performing at the World Cup Final, beyond Lu Shanzhen's initial statement that it was a "waist injury" (which may also be translated as "lower back injury"). As far as we can tell, there hasn't been any mention of Yang in the Chinese media recently. If anyone has any information on her situation, do share it - we're intrigued by the Chinese media's silence on the subject!


Sang Lan (photo: Sina)

--- Meanwhile, things are looking up for another Chinese gymnast who sustained a much more serious injury, Sang Lan. Sang, a Chinese national vault champion who got paralyzed when a timer vault went horribly awry at the 1998 Goodwill Games, is probably China's most famous disabled person. Sina reports that she was very busy in 2008, traveling around the world as an ambassador for the Olympics and Paralympics. She also carried the Olympic torch the day before the Games began. Sang recently told Chinese reporters that 2008 was a great year for her and that her main hope for 2009 is to be able to learn how to drive a car. "If it's possible, I'd like to try and drive my own car. That would make me so happy." She went on to explain that being able to leave the house on one's own is a great hope for any disabled person, but conceded that it might be difficult to fulfill her wish, as it's hard for disabled people in China to get an adapted car, or a driver's license for that matter. Yet Sang remains optimistic. "Things can only get better, right? I'm sure a day will come [that I can drive a car]." (Check out this link for a recentish New York Times interview with Sang Lan.)

--- Dutch national team members Suzanne Harmes and Sanne Wevers appear to be recovering well from the injuries that prevented them from shining at the World Cup Final. Both gymnasts performed at the Univé Gym Galas held in three Dutch towns just after the World Cup Final. Their heavily watered-down but none too painful-looking routines can be seen in this ten-minute, high-quality video, which takes a long time to load but does give a good impression of the galas. It also shows a rather heavy Chellsie Memmel performing her bar routine, as well as glimpses of several other performers strutting their stuff.


Yvette Moshage (photo: Iris van den Broek/Gymnasticsphotography)

--- Meanwhile, another Dutch gymnast, promising junior Yvette Moshage, seems to be less lucky. Moshage, second to Jordyn Wieber at Top Gym, twisted her knee on her dismount in the beam final of the Belgian competition. According to her website, Moshage has been diagnosed with a completely torn anterior cruciate ligament, a serious injury which will require a long recovery period. Ouch.

--- Finally, according to a print article we sadly can't reproduce here (L'Equipe, December 17), Russian-born French veteran Dimitri Karbanenko (aged 35!) underwent arthroscopy in Cagnes-sur-Mer on December 17. The article says Karbanenko has had problems with his left meniscus ever since the spring of 2006, but never had time to have it looked at. He wanted to shine one last time at the Beijing Olympics, but just missed out on a spot in the high bar final, and didn't make the all-around final either as he was outscored by his teammates Caranobe and Bouhail. He can't see himself performing at another Olympics. He may stick around for a little while longer to perform on a few events, but not for long, he insists: "I've never been able to do things just for the sake of doing them. I need a motivation, but I don't have one anymore. So I think I'll gradually retire."


Dimitri Karbanenko in Beijing, powerful as ever (photo: Reuters)

International News Roundup

We have a whole lot of news for you, plus a minor scandal which we'll post in a separate entry. Amazingly, hardly any of this week's news is injury-related!

--- The Belgian Gymnastics Federation has finally released the results of the Top Gym Event Finals. Click here to see them.

--- Much to our surprise, Sandra Izbasa didn't win Romania's Athlete of the Year Award. The honor was bestowed instead on Alina Dumitru, a judoka who won Romania's first gold medal of the 2008 Olympics. You can watch Dumitru accept the award (in a horrible ensemble featuring blue tights) here. Sandra doesn't appear in the video.


Isabelle Severino (photo: L'Equipe)

--- We can't find the press release anymore, but it's been confirmed that 2005 European floor champion Isabelle Severino, who was forced to retire from competitive gymnastics half a year ago after tearing her Achilles tendon, has been elected to the Directorate of the French Gymnastics Federation. We're not sure what Severino is going to do at the FFG, but it's great to see she'll stay involved in the sport. It sounds like she'll have her work cut out for her. The FFG has announced that it aims to win 3 to 5 gymnastics medals at the London Olympics, which will take some doing, we think.

--- International Gymnast reports that Oleg Ostapenko has accepted a job offer from the Ukrainian Gymnastics Federation, after also having received offers from the Russian and Brazilian federations. From January onward he'll be Ukraine's head coach. It is hoped that Ostapenko, who coached Lilia Podkopayeva to the 1996 Olympic all-around title and spent the last 7 years working with the Brazilian national team, will give the Ukrainian women's program a much-needed boost. Meanwhile, Ostapenko's Ukrainian co-worker at Curitiba, Irina Ilyashenko, will go on coaching the Brazilian girls.


Rotterdam's Erasmus Bridge, where Yuri van Gelder will perform a routine

--- Two years from now, Dutch ring specialist Yuri van Gelder will be seen doing something quite spectacular: Performing his ring routine while suspended from Rotterdam's Erasmus Bridge, so as to promote the 2010 World Championships, which will be held in Rotterdam (also site of the 1987 Worlds), October 17-24. The stunt was announced yesterday at a press conference given by the championships' organizing committee. Reportedly, Rotterdam Alderman Lucas Bolsius, who seems keen to promote the championships in an unusual way, said to Van Gelder at the press conference, "Let's make a deal here, right now. Around the time of the 2010 Worlds, you'll be hanging from the Erasmus Bridge. We'll make sure there's a set of rings suspended from the bridge. This great footage will be shown the world over, both on TV and on YouTube. That's my dream. I'm going to make all the necessary arrangements with the Assistant Secretary." Van Gelder was up for it: "I'll definitely give it a shot. It would be a unique situation for me." It was later revealed that the two meant it and had in fact agreed on the stunt before the press conference.

Meanwhile, in China...


Xiao Qin (photo: Sohu)

--- Remember we told you a while ago that the Wuhan Institute of Physical Education, where Cheng Fei and Yang Wei learned the tricks of the trade, had received such an influx of new students after the Olympics that the club didn't have enough coaches to go around and had even asked Cheng Fei's father to become a coach? Well, it seems not all Chinese clubs are doing that well. Last week Sina posted an article about Xiao Qin's former club, the Zhongshan East Road Sports Academy in Nanjing, which back in the early '90s received 1,500 prospective students a year but saw its popularity plummet in the late '90s, among other things because of the Sang Lan accident. Since then, while sports like basketball, tennis, and table tennis have become or remained popular, the club's gymnastics program has dwindled, and apparently not even Xiao Qin's achievements have been able to restore it to its former glory. The Head of the gymnastics club recently told Sina that the club had distributed 400 recruitment leaflets to local kindergartens after the Beijing Olympics, only for 3 (yes, three) parents to show up with their children for the club's selection day. We're guessing Xiao Qin is a less appealing role model than Yang Wei and Cheng Fei then. Could it be because nobody really understands pommel horse?


Li Shanshan in Beijing (photo: Getty Images)

--- Meanwhile, the Guangdong Institute of Physical Education, which gave us Yang Yilin and Li Shanshan, has been commended by the local authorities. Sina reports that the Zhongshan National Torch High-Tech Industrial Development Zone (how's that for a mouthful?) has donated 800,000 yuan ($116,300) to the Institute to help it to produce more champions. We look forward to seeing what else will come out of that program.

And then there's some German news...

--- Financial Times Deutschland, which takes a surprising interest in gymnastics, has confirmed that vault specialist Matthias Fahrig will be the only German competitor at the World Cup Final. Fahrig was ranked 12th after the World Cup circuit but will be allowed to compete because Leszek Blanik and Anton Golotsutskov have retired. We're confused now - didn't the FIG just say Golotsutskov had confirmed his presence in Madrid?


Matthias Fahrig, who has since thankfully stopped bleaching his hair (photo: Peter de Jong/AP Photo)

--- The Schwaebische Zeitung has published Fabian Hambüchen's response to his world-record-breaking performance on the high bar at last weekend's Straubenhardt match. "I wasn't planning on doing it," Hambüchen said, referring to his new Pineda, a G-rated part which will carry a 0.8 value under the 2009 code. "Before the one-touch warmup my father asked me if I felt like doing the Pineda at the start of my routine. I was feeling good, so I thought to myself: 'Come, this is a good place to give it a try.'" Hambüchen missed the skill in warmup, but hit it beautifully when it counted. "Totally cool. It was fantastic to do the thing right at the start. I felt so happy [when I got it right], and you're just really proud afterward. At the end, when things get tough, it's just a matter of trying to get through your routine." But the fact that he had hit that routine didn't mean he was fit enough to go to Madrid: "I couldn't tell you now if I could do that routine the same way again tomorrow. But I can help Straubenhardt even if I do a slightly less difficult routine."

--- As to Marian Dragulescu, according to the same article in the Schwaebische Zeitung, he's giving the World Cup Final a miss because "the Bundesliga is simply more fun." Wow!