Yang Bo

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (February 2007)

This article does not cite any references or sources. (February 2007)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

Yang Bo (born July 8, 1973) is a Chinese gymnast. She is known for her work on the balance beam for which she created a move known as the "Yang Bo", which is rated as a D element in the Code of Points. She competed at the 1992 Summer Olympics, placing 25th in the all-around and 7th in the beam. Her greatest accomplishments in gymnastics include winning the 1990 World Cup Final on Balance Beam and winning the bronze medal with her team at the 1989 World Championship.

It is often said that she was the "best beamer" to never win gold as she would often complete some of the most difficult and artistically graceful routines perfectly in team and all-around competition, but would then have numerous problems in event finals. Yang Bo's inconsistency often stemmed from her dismount.

At the 1989 World Championships in Stuttgart, Yang thrilled the crowd with an innovative beam routine during the team and individual all-round competitions (where she placed a very respectable 5th). In the event finals, she was equally perfect on the beam, but an under-rotated dismount dropped her to 7th place.

The following year she under-performed at the Asian Games in Beijing, finishing 6th in the AA and 3rd in beam (but did win the team gold). Later in the year, she claimed her (only) beam world title at the World Cup Final in Brussels. The 1991 World Championships in Indiannapolis was yet another disappointment: she miscalculated her beam dismount again and placed 5th at 9.887.

Great things were expected from Yang in the lead up to the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, as no other international competitor at that time was so prominently well known to be strong on balance beam, and it was thought that the experience from two World Championships should have benefited Yang to avoid having problems on her beam dismount --- Yang did stick her dismount in the Barcelona beam finals, but made the more disastrous error of falling from the apparatus, which carried a 0.5 deduction. She placed 7th with a score of 9.300. The only other gymnast to fall in the event finals was Romania's Lavinia Milosovici, whose 9.262 placed her 8th after Yang.

Yang retired from gymnastics in 1993 and pursued her university studies in journalism. She went on to enter the showbizz and has been seen in TV shows with singing and acting performance in the 2000s.