Liu Xuan (gymnast)
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| Medal record | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Competitor for  China |
|||
| Artistic Gymnastics | |||
| Olympic Games | |||
| Gold | 2000 Sydney | Balance beam | |
| Bronze | 2000 Sydney | Team competition | |
| Bronze | 2000 Sydney | All-around | |
- This article is about the contemporary Chinese gymnast. She has played for china for a long time. For the Han Dynasty emperor, see Emperor Gengshi of Han.
Liu Xuan (Simplified Chinese: 刘璇) is a Chinese Gymnast. She was born on March 12, 1979 in Changsha, China. She was coached by Guo Xinming and Zhang Zhen.
Liu said she took up gymnastics with encouragement from her mom, who had to cease gymnastics training during her younger years because of the closure of the gym during the Cultural Revolution. In fact, Liu's decision to continue for another 4 years after a disappointing 1996 Atlanta Olympics (where she failed to make beam finals due to a fall in the team optionals) was partly to realize her mom's unfulfilled dream.
Liu was the first female gymnast to perform a one-arm giant swing on the uneven bars which is named after her in the Gymnastic's Code of Points; she also performed this skill into a Geinger release move. However, this skill was considered too risky for women gymnasts, and hence was given a ridiculously low "C" difficulty rating so as to discourage female gymnasts from learning it. As a result, Liu herself also stopped performing it after the 1996 Olympics.
Liu was also strong on balance beam, but weak on vault and floor exercise.
In 2000, she was China's first Olympic Champion on balance beam as well as China's first All Around Medalist (after Andreea Răducan was disqualified from her gold medal due to a disqualification for taking an unlicensed cold medication, Liu moved up from 4th to the bronze medal position). At the 2000 Olympics Liu Xuan also led her team to a bronze medal. This is China's first and only team medal for Women's Artistic Gymnastics in a non-boycotted Olympics. Liu Xuan retired after the 2000 Olympics. As of June 2005 she was filming a movie.
[edit] Results
- 2000 Olympics: 3rd Team, 4th All Around, 1st Balance Beam
- 1999 World Championships: 3rd Team
- 1998 Asian Games:1st team, 1st all-around, 1st beam
- 1998 World Cup:1st beam, 3rd bars
- 1997 World Championships:3rd team, 7th all-around
- 1996 Olympics:4th team
- 1996 World Championships:3rd beam, 9th bars
- 1995 Word Championships:2nd team
- 1995 USA/CHN/BLR:3rd team, 8th all-around
- 1994 DTB Cup:1st beam, 5th bars, 8th floor
- 1994 Asian Games:1st team, 2nd bars
- 1994 Team World Championships: 4th
