(Interview taken during the 1999 World Championships)

(SV's in prelims on beam were: Liu Xuan 9.7, Huang Man Dan 9.7, Bai Chun Yue 9.5)

source: http://sports.sina.com.cn/others/9910/117599.shtml

Liu Xuan who focused on beam before the World Championship started did not expect her prelim ranking to be at 27th on beam, due to the discrepancy of SV from the judges. In the Oct. 10 afternoon, I had an interview with this experienced girl.

Q: How do you think of your beam score?

A: I have no comments. That's the score determined by the judges.

Q: Did you expect this?

A: No. I was very confident (about the beam routine). I had expected some difficulties, but not on this (SV) issue in judging. I thought the worst case would be a low ranking in the top 8 (on beam), but I could still make it back in the final.

Q: Did you compete well (on beam in the prelims)?

A: I think I was fine. I did the same in the World Cup final last year and got gold. My score there was 9.8 (compared to a 9.45).

Q: The judges think that there were pauses between combinations in your routine.

A: My execution has no problem, and I didn't pause between combinations.

Q: Before the competition you said you wanted to get gold on beam, are you going to transfer your focus to the uneven bars now?

A: Comparing with the uneven bars, my chance on beam is better. On the bars, I only beat Khorkina once (who had a fall, but she also beat Bi in the same competition) in one of the World Cup series last year. I would only say that I will try my best.

Q: How did you feel right after the beam rotation?

A: I felt very uncomfortable (about the score), but there were more events to follow, and I still had to encourage other team members. I did my best to control the feeling.

Q: What are you thinking the most now?

A: The team finals. The (beam) results are determined already, all I can do is to accept it. But the competitions are not done yet, I hope to compete well with my teammates, and do well in the team finals.

Q: Are you considering retirement? How are you going to prepare for the Olympics?

A: I haven't considered about retirement seriously. For the Olympics, it all depends on my condition. If I can't meet the requirements or match the abilities, I may retire.

(end)

August 17, 1999

Global Sports Weekly

http://www.sport.gov.cn/paper/market/990817/d17.htm

Recently there is an article from a prestigious newspaper titled "Liu Xuan wants to retire this year." The Olympics is going to take place soon, why does Liu Xuan, the most important member on the women's national team, want to retire at this moment? I had an exclusive interview with Liu Xuan.

Q: Are you really going to retire this year?

A: No, no. If I want to retire, it would be after the 2000 Olympics. Last time when I had an interview with a journalist, it was my most depressing moment. Maybe I confused her.

Q: It's great to hear that. Can you tell us the reason of you being depressing?

A: I could not catch up in training. It was really frustrating. Sometimes I see that team members who are much younger than us seem to "challenge" us, I would think, is this the time for new members? (Laugh) After the Asian Games, all of the old members did not compete well. None of us had good results in competitions.

Q: How do the coaches think?

A: Coach Lu (Lu Shan Zhen) and Coach Liu (Liu Qun Lin) did not lose confidence in me. They told me to look further in future. There will be more important competitions ahead--World Championship and the Olympics. They said: "Your status is not good now. It's okay. You were at your peak the last two years. An athlete can not always keep at that peak--this is a phenomenon in athletics. It is very natural. Humans are like an elastic band. If you keep extend it, one day it will break." After the Asian Games, they purposely "relaxed" me. I only had qualitative training, instead of quantitative ones.

Q: You are the team captain on the national team, and you are also the oldest member. Do you have any pressure?

A: Yes, of course! I feel a lot of pressure. Especially when I don't do well in training, because I see no improvement. This is the most fearful thing to an old member. Gymnastics is easier for young people. If there's no improvement, your heart will feel older and older each day. Being the team captain, you have to go ahead of everyone in every aspect. But sometimes I can not achieve that, I just don't have the ability to do it, I would feel grey sometimes.

Q: How is your status now?

A: It's better now. I have a better shape, and a better mood.

Q: I remember you said attending the 2000 Olympics would be the greatest victory. Don't you want an Olympics gold medal as well, to fulfill your other dream?

A: Why not? But my desire of getting a gold medal is different from six years ago. It's not to say that I become satisfied and relaxed after I became a World champion. For sure I will strive to my best as before, but age and injuries also affect the chance. Also, the young members are improving very fast. I will be very excited if I get a gold medal in the Olympics, because I'm already 20 years old. But if I will not get one, I won't miss a lot, since I have tried my best.

A: What are you thinking now?

Q: To walk forward step by step. To compete to our best in Tianjin. We have never been the World champion team. Although we will compete at home, we will have some advantages, but we've got the bad lots. We can not relax at all.

(end)

June, 1999

http://sports.sina.com.cn/others/9906/061814.shtml

On the gymnastics team, Kui Yuan Yuan is famous for her frequent smiling. Inside the boring training room, in the rigorous competition fields, in the celebration parties, in the welcome parties for Sang Lan, you can always see that sweet smile.

"I don't know why, I smile when I have nothing to worry about, it was born." She answered the journalist when asked why she likes smiling.

Yuan Yuan is also an active girl. When She was little, she couldn't stay rest, she always "fiddled around", and kept jumping on the bed. Becoming a gymnast just fits her personality, but it was also a coincidence too. Once her parents brought her to the Bei Hai Park for fun. When they left the park through the side entrance, there was an athletic school that was recruiting members. Her parents walked closer and just wanted to be the audience, they didn't intend to register. But the recruiter's eyes caught Yuan Yuan, she then began her gymnastics career.

Yuan Yuan's special "happy face" captured her coaches, teammates and gymnastics fans' like. She said, maybe her parents care her very much, she has nothing to worry about, therefore she smiles so often. Even she was such a naughty girl, her parents have never beaten her once. (Beating children is very common in China, not in a violent way, although that could turn out to be the case. Many parents do that to make their kids remember the lesson. It's generally considered that if the parents never beat their child, it is likely that they spoil the kid.) Especially her father, who even treats her gentler than her mother. Sometimes she gets too naughty, her mother pretends that she is going to beat Yuan Yuan, her father would immediately comes out to "protect" her, and tells Yuan Yuan that he will fight for her. (IMO that is a bit over!) Although mother treats her more strictly, Yuan Yuan feels closer to mother. She said: "Many girls are closer to their father, but I tell my mother everything."

When talking about her parents, Yuan Yuan could not stop. She said: Her father is a taxi driver. The taxi business is having a very hard time now. It is not easy to earn money. Other than the "base money", the amount which his father has to give to the company everyday, there is not much money left. Her mother is working as a sales clerk in a mall in Beijing, and there is not much business there. Although none of these facts should make her happy, she still smiled when she was speaking. She said: when she first lived with the gymnastics team, she always missed her parents. Later she found out that she was the only member from Beijing, it would affect other members if she went home so often, she then tried to keep staying away from home. But her parents always come to visit her, this makes her teammates feel envious. Although her parents try their best to satisfy her daily needs, they have strict requirements for her. They rarely bring snacks for her. They know it is easy for a gymnast to gain weight. She said: "They wanted me to be the national champion. After that, they wanted me to be the World champion. Now they wish I could be the Olympics champion."

I asked her, wouldn't her coach lecture her if she is not serious in the gym? She said, the coaches allow them to have fun in the gym, it would not help a lot if training is boring.

The problem is, it is okay if Yuan Yuan only smiles to herself, but sometimes she plays with her teammates in the gym, and makes everyone laughs, then the coach will be mad at her: "Kui Yuan Yuan, how come you never seem to grow up?"

It could be lethal to a gymnast that he/she gets injured in training or competition. A coincidental injury would mean that years of hard practice are gone. But for Yuan Yuan, even when she is injured and unhappy, she still shows a smiley face. When her coach becomes worried: "You're injured, how come you still look so happy?" She would say it is hard to change her personality.

I then asked her: "Don't you have unhappy times?" She said: "Of course I have. Sometimes I have no improvement on an element, and the coach lectures me, I would cry. Just few days ago, when some teammates have to leave the national team and go back to their provincial teams, we all cried. The most difficult moment was during the Asian Games, I did very bad in AA. I didn't feel that sad during the competition, but later coach Zhang Jian lectured me: 'What happened to you? Were you cramping?' I was very sad and I cried. I felt ashamed of myself."

The Olympics next year will likely be Yuan Yuan's last competition. She said, her greatest wish for now is to earn an Olympic medal, so she can smile on the Olympic podium.

(end)

June 18, 1999

Chinese Sports Newspaper

http://www.sport.gov.cn/paper/tyb/index.html

("Ge Ge" is a title specially assigned for princess in the Qing dynasty in Chinese history. G is pronounced as in "good", e is pronounced as in "the".)

Grandmother Qi said: "The kid came with Qi Lin, how lucky she is! She is the only treasure girl in our family, just call her Qi Lin Zi." (Qilin is an imaginary lucky unicorn in Chinese, similar to dragon. This Qi is not the same word as the Qi for Qi Lin Zi.)

Phoenix, qilin, tortoise, and dragon were used in ancient history as symbols for successful people. Grandmother Qi wanted luckiness, but she didn't know her granddaughter could turn it to reality.

Qi Lin Zi is only 15 this year. Her coach Wang Qun Ce described her success as a surprise to many. In May, she just became the new national champion for China. This little girl has a bright future.

Flower from the Icing City Flourishes in the South

With a small body as southern Chinese, Qi Lin Zi is a gymnast in the Guangdong provincial team who came from northern China.

"I am from the Haerbin city of the Heilongjiang province (one of the provinces in China that is contiguous to Russia, Haerbin is the capital of the province). Mamma took me to the sports school of the city when I was five. In 1993, the Heilongjiang team was to be dispersed. A Guangdong coach training in Beijing heard the news and came to our city to select some gymnasts. I then became a member of the Guangdong team, and I became a citizen in Guangzhou (capital of the Guangdong province)."

Qi Lin Zi's parents were technicians of medical equipment in Haerbin. To taking care of their child, Mrs. Qi decided to work at Guangzhou. In 1996, Qi Lin Zi was chosen to train at the national team in Beijing. Since then, Mrs. Qi has to travel frequently between Haerbin and Guangzhou, and sometimes stop at Beijing.

"We are afraid of getting lost. Usually we only shop at places nearby. Every time mamma comes to visit me, I can go out to buy some clothes." In Qi Lin Zi's photo album, there is dignified Mrs. Qi. Qi Lin Zi said her mother used to be a skater, therefore she also likes skating besides gymnastics. "Of course on real ice, but I only had the chance to do it once at hometown." She sighed.

"Ge Ge" wants to be a fashion designer

When I was chatting with Qi Lin Zi in the dorm, sometimes her teammates yelled at her at the door: "Ge Ge, phone!" "Ge Ge, coach Wang is looking for you!"

I was very curious, Qi Lin Zi was a bit shy: "My father's brothers all have male kids, I'm the only girl, everyone in the family then calls me 'Ge Ge' ".

The "Ge Ge" in the national team is different from the "Ge Ge" in TV programs. The largest difference is that the latter Ge Ge always has a pair of big eyes, and the former Ge Ge has thin eyebrows and small eyes. She's a cute and outgoing girl.

The main coach of the women's team Lu Shan Zhen described Qi as: "Very active, outspoken, these are her advantages. She has a flexible mind, she's perceptible to new concepts." When I first knew her, I always got mixed up about her and Chen Miao Jie, Qi Lin Zi loudly corrected me: "Remember, the chubby one is Chen Miao Jie, the thin one is Qi Lin Zi!" Similar to many girls, Qi Lin Zi's least favourite subject is math. Her most favourite subject is Chinese. Besides her bed there's a magazine "Stories".

I asked her: "Lan Lan wants to be a journalist, Xuan Jie ("jie" means elder sister) also wants to go to U. of Beijing to study journalism, how about you? Want to be a writer?"

She laughed: "No, I can't. I think I would like to be a fashion designer after I quit gymnastics."

How does spinach look like?

Qi at young age has already been competing in many places, comparing to children at the same age, she has many abnormal experience. But since she's so concentrated to gymnastics, her general knowledge is poor. She knows little about food. This is very similar to a real "Ge Ge".

Since she likes skating, very naturally I asked her: "How do you think of Chen Lu's ability to express artistry?" (Chen Lu is a former figure skating World champion in 1995, now a professional skater in the U.S.)

"Chen Lu? Who's she?"

I also have interviews with the diving team, since the diving team and the gymnastics team have training centers side by side. They also share academic classes. I asked Qi: "The leader of the diving team Zhou Ji Hong is very nice to journalists. Are you familiar with her?"

"Zhou Ji Hong? ... I don't know her well."

All these remind me a trivia about Mo Hui Lan. Once Lan Lan went to buy food and she was looking for spinach. Since the spinach displayed was a bit wrinkled, she asked for fresher ones. When the storeowner took out fresher spinach, Lan Lan shouted: "You're lying, this is different from the ones outside, this is not spinach!" Later Lan Lan told me, she didn't know how spinach looks like, and the storeowner felt so angry. She said: "I bet, most teammates don't know what spinach is."

I made a test on Qi Lin Zi, and Lan Lan didn't exaggerate. "I can't tell what spinach is. I only know there's celery."

"Do you cook?"

"No, we all eat in the cafeteria. If we're hungry, we would buy refreshments downstairs."

"Do you wash your own clothes?"

"No, we have washing machines."

I thought of Chen Cui Ting. Her father was a worker. Her mother was living in the countryside. She had to cook meals for the whole family when she was little.

I seriously talked to "Ge Ge": "Although training and competitions are very tense, you can't ignore other skills. Your parents and the gymnastics team won't support you forever, you have to start learning how to take care of yourself."

"Ge Ge" sensibly nodded.

Want to be the AA champion again

Back to gymnastics, she's not weak at all. The leader of the gymnastics team Qian Kui praised her: "She is light and flexible. Her form is clean. She has good sense and keen feeling."

I asked her to rank herself. She first tried to be modest: "Xuan Jie and 'Big Head' both have more experience, and they maintain a high technical level. My advantages? Maybe I'm light, my perception is okay."

"What's your next goal?"

"Worlds and Olympics are still far away, there's competitions in June, and I will compete at my best."

"Do you have confidence in AA?"

She was confident this time: "I have the confidence to be the AA champion again."

(end)