Healthy Baby Boy for Kryukov and Kovalyova

Turns out there's more to report about Nikolai Kryukov than his plan to stick around for another year! According to the Novgorod site, the 1999 world champion has just become a father. Kryukov's wife, former Russian national team member Anna Kovalyova (aged 25), gave birth to a healthy boy on December 27. Mother and son are reported to be in good health. Kovalyova was quoted as saying that the boy will be "yet another gymnast in our family." He'll have the genes to go far...


Former Russian national team member Anna Kovalyova, now mother to a healthy baby boy (photo: www.novgorod.ru)

Yang Wei and Yang Yun Tie the Knot... Finally

Lately, the Chinese press has been all over the preparations for Yang Wei and Yang Yun's upcoming nuptials. First pre-wedding photos were released that showed the Yangs posing gymnastically in different kinds of wedding attire. Then photos were released of Yang Yun trying on a golden wedding gown that was apparently worth 30 million yuan ($4.4 million). And then, finally, on November 6, the big day itself arrived.

And it was big, all right. Like, seriously big.

Sina reports that the Yangs treated their guests to a three-part wedding in the Sanya beach resort on tropical Hainan Island, off China's southern tip.

According to a Sina report, the ceremony started at 9:30 AM on Hainan's Tianya beach, where guests had to wait a while for the bride and groom to arrive. The groom was the first to arrive on the scene - by speed boat, no less. Along with his Olympic teammates Huang Xu, Li Xiaopeng (the best man), Xiao Qin, Chen Yibing, and Zou Kai, Yang was brought on shore to wait for his bride, who arrived a bit later in... a hot air balloon.



Yang Yun didn't get on shore at once. She first made Yang Wei prove his skill as an all-around gymnast by throwing him some cables and making him climb twelve feet through the air to the basket where she herself was waiting. He apparently did so without any great trouble.





Once the couple had safely made it to the ground, they were married by Chinese men's team head coach, Huang Yubin.





It was a relatively short ceremony which lasted about 25 minutes and included a funny interlude where Yang Yun asked her husband three difficult questions. They were as follows:

Yun: "How long have we loved each other?"
Wei: "For eight years now. Over 2400 days."
Yun: "Do you know my breast, waist and hip measurements?"
Wei: "I know they're the most beautiful ones of the year!"
Yun: "Can you get me a BMW Mini Cooper?"
Wei: "Not at present, but I can give you a real horse and a knight on a white horse. I'll definitely present you with those later if I can!"

Which made Yang Yun and the guests laugh. (Note: "real horse" is a play on BMW's Chinese name, which literally translates as "valuable horse.")

After the ceremony, Yang Yun changed into a more traditional Chinese red dress.





At 12:18 PM, the official wedding banquet started in the Yangguang Hotel. This was a fairly formal occasion where Yang Yun wore the stunning $4.4 million dress whose pictures had previously been leaked by the media, and which will reportedly be returned to its Japanese designer, Yumi Katsura, today. There was champagne, there was cake, and there were speeches. According to Sina, both Yang Yun and Yang Wei's mother got quite emotional at one point.


Double happiness (Photos: Sports.Sina)


(This picture and the one below were taken in Shanghai a few days before the wedding.)


Part three of the wedding was an open-air reception which started at 7 PM. This was a much more casual affair where both bride and groom dressed casually. Apparently, Yang Wei hardly drank anything during the reception; he was too busy setting off fireworks and posing for photos with guests.

Sina described the day as both romantic and lively. It certainly looks that way from where we're standing...

We hope the Yangs enjoyed their big day, and wish them lots of happiness in the rest of their life together.