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Cheng Fei Personal information Full name: Cheng Fei Country Represented:  China Date of birth: May 29, 1988 (1988-05-29) (age 21) Place of birth: Huangshi, Hubei, China Hometown: Wuhan, Hubei Discipline: Women's artistic gymnastics Level: Senior Head coach(es): Lu Shanzhen Assistant coach(es): Liu Qun Lin Former coach(es): Yao Juying Music: Yellow River Concerto (2008)

Medal record Summer Olympics Gold 2008 Beijing Team Bronze 2008 Beijing Vault Bronze 2008 Beijing Balance beam World Gymnastics Championships Gold 2005 Melbourne Vault Gold 2006 Aarhus Team Gold 2006 Aarhus Vault Gold 2006 Aarhus Floor Gold 2007 Stuttgart Vault Silver 2007 Stuttgart Team World Cup Gold 2006 Sao Paulo Vault Gold 2006 Shanghai Vault Gold 2006 Shanghai Floor Gold 2006 Lyon Vault Gold 2006 Lyon Floor Gold 2007 Maribor Vault Gold 2007 Maribor Balance Beam Gold 2007 Maribor Floor Gold 2007 Shanghai Vault Gold 2007 Shanghai Balance Beam Gold 2008 Madrid Floor Gold 2008 Madrid Vault Gold 2008 Tianjin Vault Gold 2008 Tianjin Balance Beam Gold 2008 Tianjin Floor Gold 2008 Stuttgart Vault Gold 2008 Stuttgart Balance Beam Gold 2008 Stuttgart Floor Silver 2004 Glasgow Floor Bronze 2004 Glasgow Vault Bronze 2004 Birmingham Floor Bronze 2005 New York Vault Bronze 2005 Ghent Vault

This is a Chinese name; the family name is Cheng.

Cheng Fei (pinyin: Chéng Fēi; born May 28, 1988 in Huangshi, Hubei) is a Chinese gymnast.^[1] She is a three-time World Champion on the vault (2005-2007) and 2006 World Champion on floor exercise. She was a member of the gold medal-winning Chinese teams for the 2006 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Aarhus, Denmark and 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China. She was also a member of the silver medal-winning Chinese team for the 2007 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Stuttgart, Germany.

Biography

Her father worked as a shipping clerk and her mother was a worker in a tire factory. Her father trained her in calisthenics before school every morning.^[2] At the age of 5, Cheng won her first competitive medal at a local competition. The 7-year-old Cheng was sent to Wuhan, where she joined the Wuhan Institute of Physical Education and officially entered the national sports program. Her first coach, Yao Juying remembered her as being uniquely 'hard-working' and extraordinarily focused.^[2] At the age of ten, she was invited to join the Hubei provincial team. In late 2001, at the age of 13, she was accepted to the Chinese National Team.^[1] Her coaches are head coach Lu Shanzhen,^[3] and Liu Qun Lin.^[1]

Cheng Fei is well-known in the sporting world for being highly consistent, powerful and elegant, as well as displaying a fine level of sportsmanship. Sandra Izbasa, 2008 Olympic Floor Champion has described her as a perfectionist, a great sport and a good friend. Shawn Johnson, 2008 Olympic Beam Champion, was also quoted to have called Cheng Fei 'inspirational' and 'a great competitor'. Cheng Fei's leadership abilities are of paramount importance to the Chinese Women's Gymnastics Team.

Competitive history

Cheng Fei is a vaulting and floor exercise specialist. She has had national success in gymnastics as a two-time Chinese National Floor Exercise Champion (2004-2005), a two-time Chinese National Vault medalist (2003 and 2005) and the 2004 Chinese National Balance Beam Champion.

Internationally, she has been very successful as well. She made herself into the 2004 Olympic Games team in Athens, Greece. She qualified in the floor exercise final. In the team final, she contributed heavily to the team, a 9.475 on vault and a 9.662 on floor, althoughter multiple falls of her teammates prevented her from getting a team medal.^[4] Individually, she finished 4th on floor exercise, with the score of 9.412.^[4] She was the bronze medalist at the 2004 World Cup Final on floor exercise.

In 23 November 2005, Cheng made history at the 2005 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Melbourne, Australia, for being the first gymnast ever to successfully perform one of the most difficult vaults ever attempted by a woman. The vault consisting of: a round-off onto the springboard, a half-turn onto the vaulting horse and a 1 1/2 somersault with a 540-degree turn in a straight body position, is now officially recognized in the FIG Code of Points as "The Cheng".^[5]

At the 2006 World Championships in Aarhus, Denmark, she competed on vault and floor exercise, qualifying in first position for both event finals. She contributed those exercises to the Chinese team toward their victory in the team championship and also went on to win the World titles on both vault and floor exercise. Cheng also won the gold medal on the vault at the 2006 World Cup Final in São Paulo, Brazil.

In 2007, Cheng began the year by winning the vault, balance beam and floor exercise titles at a World Cup event in Maribor, Slovenia. She was undefeated on vaulting and floor exercise in 2007 until the 2007 World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany. At those championships, Cheng was recognized as the leader for the Chinese women's team and though Cheng won her third World title on the vault, she made a serious error on the vault during the team championship where the Chinese team finished 2nd. She went on to finish 5th on floor exercise, with a score of 15.050, after getting out of the bounds with both feet in her final tumbling series.

Cheng fulfilled her goal of competing at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China as the captain to the Chinese team. She led the team to win China's first-ever women's gymnastics Olympic team championship. However, she faltered during the individual events and cried after the unfortunate Vault and Floors finals. She led the qualifications in both the Vault and Floor categories, also entering Beam finals with a ranking 5. She was one of the only three gymnasts to have entered 3 Olympic Finals (Nastia Liukin and Anna Pavlova). Individually, she won a bronze medal on vault (even after falling on her own "Cheng Fei vault") and another bronze medal on balance beam and placing 7th in the floor exercise event final, after an uncharacteristic fall. After the Olympics, she said that she cried about her failure to capture the two golds she wanted most until she could cry no more. However, she received great support from both her fellow countrymen and the international gymnastics community, who acknowledged her talents and abilities as an exceptional gymnast. ^[6] In a show of respect she gave the winner of the balance beam final Shawn Johnson of USA a small box with silk inside it. After the Olympics Games, she competed in various competitions. She won three gold medals on vault, floor exercise and balance beam at the DTG World Cup in Stuttgart^[7]. Her last 2008 competition was the 14th Artistic Gymnastics World Cup in Madrid where she won two gold medals on vault and floor exercise.^[8] She is now recovering from a leg injury and has expressed hopes to compete again at the London 2012 Olympics

Routines

As of 2008, Cheng Fei performed the following skills on these apparatuses:

Competitive highlights

Floor Music

• 2004: Variations from Don Quixote
• 2005-2007: Mas Zarzuela
• 2008: Yellow River Concerto

References

• 2008 Team China Profile

External links

• Cheng Fei Profile
• Cheng Fei biography from NBC Olympics site
• Cheng Fei at Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique
• Cheng Fei's photos at GymBox

Gymnastics portal