Cheng Fei

Cheng Fei (Chinese: 程菲; pinyin: Chéng Fēi; born May 29, 1988) is a retired 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.

Cheng Fei
Full name	Cheng Fei
Nickname(s)	Fei Fei (菲菲)
Country represented	China
Born	May 29, 1988 Huangshi, Hubei, China
Hometown	Wuhan, Hubei
Height	152 cm (5 ft 0 in)
Discipline	Women's artistic gymnastics
Level	Senior
Years on national team	2004–12 (CHN)
Head coach(es)	Lu Shenzhen
Assistant coach(es)	Liu Qun Lin
Former coach(es)	Yao Juying
Music	Yellow River Concerto (2008)
Eponymous skills	Vault: Yurchenko ½ on into 1½ twists off (6.0)
Retired	June 14, 2012
Medal record Representing  China Women's artistic gymnastics Event 1st 2nd 3rd Olympic Games 1 0 2 World Championships 5 1 0 World Cup Final 3 0 1 Asian Games 3 0 0 East Asian Games 2 1 0 Summee Universiade 1 1 0 Total 15 3 3 Olympic Games 2008 Beijing Team 2008 Beijing Vault 2008 Beijing Balance Beam World Championships 2005 Melbourne Vault 2006 Aarhus Team 2006 Aarhus Vault 2006 Aarhus Floor Exercise 2007 Stuttgart Vault 2007 Stuttgart Team World Cup Final 2006 Sao Paulo Vault 2008 Madrid Floor Exercise 2008 Madrid Vault 2004 Birmingham Floor Exercise Asian Games 2006 Doha Team 2006 Doha Vault 2006 Doha Floor Exercise East Asian Games 2005 Macau Team 2005 Macau Floor Exercise 2005 Macau Vault Summer Universiade 2009 Belgrade Team 2009 Belgrade Vault

Biography

Cheng Fei was born in central China's Hubei Province to a father who was a shipping clerk and a mother who worked in a tire factory, not a very wealthy background. Indeed, said her mother, "Our family was poor so we hoped Cheng Fei could in some way change her life...we thought maybe being a professional athlete is good for her." And so her parents approached a gymnastics coach about training her by the time she was three and her father practiced calisthenics with her every morning before school.[2] By the age of five, 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 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 Izbașa, 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.

She retired in June 2012 due to a ruptured Achilles tendon while performing a tumbling pass on the floor.

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 competed with the Chinese team at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece and although the team did not medal, she performed very well, scoring 9.475 on vault and 9.662 on floor. She also qualified for and competed in the floor exercise final, finishing 4th with a score of 9.412. She was the bronze medalist at the 2004 World Cup Final on floor exercise.

On 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 1½ somersault with a 540-degree turn in a straight body position, is now officially recognized in the FIG Code of Points as "The Cheng" which carries a D-score of 6.5 under the 2009 Code of Points. During Event Finals on vault in Melbourne, Cheng scored 9.725 in her first vault (S.V: 10.0) and 9.587 in her second vault (S.V: 10.0), the "Cheng".

At the 2006 World Championships in Aarhus, Denmark, she competed on vault and floor exercise, qualifying in first position for both event finals. Her performances on those two pieces of apparatus were instrumental in securing victory for China in the team championship, but they also earned her the individual vault and floor exercise world titles. 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 stepping 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. In the qualification, Cheng competed on three events, placing first on both vault and floor exercise, and fifth on balance beam. She was one of three female gymnasts to have entered 3 Olympic Event Finals in those Games, along with Nastia Liukin and Anna Pavlova. In the team final, She led the team to win China's first-ever women's gymnastics Olympic team gold medal in history. Individually, she won a bronze medal on vault (even after falling on her own "Cheng Fei vault"). She got 16.075 and 15.025 on her saltos. She won another bronze medal on balance beam (15.950) and placing 7th in the floor exercise event final (14.550), after an uncharacteristic fall. Cheng cried after the unfortunate vault and floor finals. After the Olympics, she said that she cried about her failure to capture the two gold medals 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.[4] In a show of respect she gave the winner of the balance beam final Shawn Johnson of United States a small box with silk inside it. After the Olympic 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.[5] Her last 2008 competition was the 14th Artistic Gymnastics World Cup in Madrid where she won two gold medals on vault and floor exercise.[6]

In 2009, she competed at the 25th Universiade in Belgrade and won a team Gold medal and a Silver medal on Vault.[7]

After a near two-year off from competitions due to a leg injury, she competed in the 2011 Chinese National Championships in May on vault and floor Exercise. She led the qualifications on vault and finished 2nd in the final. She announced her intention to compete in the University Games in August, but was reported to be suffering from leg injury again and retreated from the competition.

In April 2012, Cheng competed at the Zibo World Cup in her home country, qualifying second into the vault final behind the Dominican Republic's Yamilet Peña Abreu. She intended to compete floor as well, but withdrew prior to the qualifying round. Cheng won the gold medal in the vault final.

Cheng injured her Achilles tendon in June 2012, taking her out of the running for the 2012 Chinese Olympic Team. In June 2012, she announced her retirement from elite artistic gymnastics, trying to switch from being an elite gymnast to a gymnastics coach.[8]

Skills

Eponymous skills

Vault: Yurchenko ½ on into 1½ twists off (6.0)

Competitive Routines

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

Apparatus	Skills	A Score (2008 Code of Points)
Vault	1. Yurchenko 2½ (Amanar)	6.5
	2. Round-off flic-flac with ½ turn on – stretched salto forward with 1½ turn off (Cheng)	6.5
Uneven Bars	(Has not competed on this apparatus since 2005)	-
Balance Beam	Free jump mount; Full turn with leg at horizontal; Flic-flac + Salto bwd tucked with 1/1 twist; Pike Back Salto; Split jump + Sheep jump; Switch split ring leap + Back tuck salto; Aerial Walkover + Rulfova; Front tuck salto; flic-flac + flic-flac + 2.5 twist back salto	6.8
Floor Exercise	Double twisting double tuck back; Piked Full In; Triple Spin; Whip + Triple Twist 3/1; Back Layout 3/2 + Front Full 1/1; Switch split ring leap + split leap; Round-off + Two and a half twisting dismount	6.6

Competitive highlights

Year	Competition Description	Location	Apparatus	Rank-Final	Score-Final	Rank-Qualifying	Score-Qualifying
2004	World Cup	Ghent	Vault	5	9.287
		Glasgow	Vault	3	9.187
			Floor	2	9.550
		Birmingham	Vault	5	9.362
			Floor	3	9.562
	Olympic Games	Athens	Team	7	110.008	3	151.085
			Vault			16	9.375
			Floor	4	9.412	2	9.650
			Beam			43	8.925
2005	World Cup	New York	Vault	3	9.331
			Beam	5	8.937
		Ghent	Vault	3	9.312
	World Championships	Melbourne	Vault	1	9.656	1	9.631
			Floor			28	8.637
2006	World Cup	São Paulo	Vault	1	15.600
			Floor	5	14.625
		Shanghai	Vault	1	15.125
			Floor	1	15.400
		Lyon	Vault	1	14.987
			Floor	1	14.975
	World Championship	Aarhus	Team	1	182.200	2	239.525
			Vault	1	15.712	1	15.975
			Floor	1	15.875	1	15.475
2007	World Cup	Maribor	Vault	1	14.812	1	14.750
			Floor	1	14.825	1	15.050
			Beam	1	15.675	1	15.750
		Shanghai	Vault	1	15.462
			Beam	1	16.150
	World Championship	Stuttgart	Team	2	183.450	2	241.175
			Vault	1	15.937	1	15.625
			Floor	5	15.075	1	15.375
			Beam			15	15.300
2008	World Cup	Tianjin	Vault	1	14.975
			Floor	1	15.550
			Beam	1	15.925
	Olympic Games	Beijing	Team	1	188.900	1	248.275
			Vault	3	15.562	1	15.912
			Floor	7	14.550	1	15.750
			Beam	3	15.950	4	15.875
	World Cup	Stuttgart	Vault	1	14.900	1	14.962
			Floor	1	15.250	1	14.975
			Beam	1	15.425	1	15.525
		Madrid	Vault	1	15.050
			Floor	1	15.375
			Beam	6	13.825

Floor music

• 2003: Lord of the Dance from Riverdance
• 2004: Variations from Don Quixote
• 2005–2007: Mas Zarzuela
• 2008: Yellow River Concerto

References

1. "Athletes > Cheng Fei > Bio". NBC Universal. 2008. Retrieved April 20, 2009.
2. David Barboza; Chen Yang (August 4, 2008). "A life of sacrifice for a vault of gold" (New York ed.). The New York Times. p. h5. Retrieved April 20, 2009.
3. "Chinese Women Win Big At CCTV Awards". International Gymnast Magazine Online. Paul Ziert & Associates. April 7, 2007. Retrieved April 20, 2009. '... honored was Lu Shanzhen, Cheng's personal coach and the Chinese women's team head coach, who shared ...'
4. "Women's Floor Final". NBC Universal. August 17, 2008. Retrieved April 20, 2009.
5. "26th DTB Pokal Stuttgart 2008 Artistic Gymnastics World Cup". 2008-11-16. Archived from the original on 2015-05-27. Retrieved 2008-12-28.
6. "14th Artistic Gymnastics World Cup Final". 2008-12-14. Archived from the original on 2008-12-17. Retrieved 2008-12-28.
7. "25th Universiade". Archived from the original on 2009-07-05. Retrieved 2011-10-23.
8. "25岁"跳马女皇"程菲退役转型当教练". 2013-07-01.

• 2008 Team China Profile

External links

• Cheng Fei profile at Gymnastics.About.com
• Cheng Fei biography at NBC Olympics site
• Cheng Fei at the International Gymnastics Federation
• Cheng Fei's photos at GymBox at the Wayback Machine (archived May 28, 2006)
• Cheng Fei (vault animation)