| Jiang Yuyuan | |
|---|---|
 Jiang at the 2008 Olympic Games | |
|
Country represented |
|
|
Born |
November 1 1991 |
|
Years on National Team |
2003-2013 |
|
Coach(es) |
Xiong Jingbin & Zhang Xia |
|
Current status |
Retired |
Jiang Yuyuan (also Yuyan; simplified Chinese: 江钰源; traditional Chinese: 江鈺源; pinyin: Jiāng Yùyuán; born November 1, 1991 in Liuzhou, Guangxi) is a retired Chinese gymnast. She is the 2008 Chinese all-around senior National Champion and a member of the gold medal-winning People's Republic of China team for the 2008 Summer Olympics. Jiang was a member of the silver medal-winning Chinese team at the 2007 World Championships, the bronze medal-winning member at the 2010 World Championships and 2011 World Championships, and the all-around gold medalist at the 2007 Good Luck Beijing Olympic test event. In 2010, she replaced Cheng Fei as the captain of the Chinese national team (due to Fei's leg injury). She won silver medal in the all-around competition at the 2010 World Championships, which is the highest position that Chinese women ever placed in all-around competition at World Championships or Olympic level.
Personal Life[]
Jiang Yuyuan is from Guangxi. Her father is a taxi driver and her mother is unemployed with no regular income. Jiang's family was under a lot of financial pressure when she was little. Jiang has a keen interest in photography, digital gadgets, cars, fashion and cosmetics. She also likes listening to English songs. Team members Cheng Fei and Yang Yilin singled out Jiang as the most beauty-conscious and trendy member in the national women team. Jiang was responsible for teaching other female members of the national team about make-up technique. Jiang said in one of her interviews that she is sometimes "a little bit of a rebel". Her Headcoach in Chinese national team, Lu Shanzhen, agreed that she would become rebellious occasionally and said that Jiang has the "most character" among the female gymnasts in the national team. Jiang's idol is her fellow gymnast, Cheng Fei.
Gymnastics Career[]
Junior Career[]
Li Ning's cousin was Jiang's neighbour when she was little. After noticing that the little Jiang Yuyuan was very energetic for a little kid, he suggested Jiang's parents to take her to gymnastic lessons. And her parents took his suggestion and enrolled Jiang in gymnastic classes before she was four. She was once selected by the Guangxi Provincial Team to participate in a three-month training camp but her parents received a call from the Provincial Team asking them to bring Jiang home less than two months after the training began. Her coach at that time insisted that Jiang had talent and persuaded Jiang's parents to leave Jiang under her care and she would train Jiang personally. But it would be a dead end for a gymnast's career in China if one could not join the Provincial Team, so when opportunity came, Jiang was transferred from Guangxi to join the Zhejiang Provincial Team.
In the 2002 Provincial Gymnastics Championship, Jiang won the all-around title for the Zhejiang Provincial Team, and that made the coaches of the National Team to take notice of her. Jiang then joined the National Training Camp in 2003. But the Training Camp was forced to disband due to the outbreak of the disease, SARS. Jiang joined the National Team 2 in 2004, and was selected from a list of 300 hopefuls of Team 2 to join the National Team 1 in 2006.
2007[]
She made her senior international debut in 2007. She was a member of the Chinese team that won the silver medal in the team competition at the 2007 World Gymnastics Championships, and placed 4th on floor exercise in the individual event finals. In November 2007 she won the all-around at the Good Luck Beijing Olympic Test Event.
2008[]
At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Jiang helped the Chinese team to win the team gold medal at the Olympics. Individually, she came in 6th in the all-around due to a fall on vault; and finished in 4th place in the floor exercise event final. Jiang competed at the Olympics with an elbow injury, specifically periosteum inflammation. Her coach disclosed that the injury greatly affected her performance at the Olympics, particularly on vault, where pain prevented her from successfully executing her 2.5-twisting Yurchenko (Amanar), which was crucial for her success in the individual all-around final. As a result of the injury, Chinese coach Lu Shanzhen also decided to pull Jiang from the vault rotation in the team finals, replacing her with Deng Linlin 20 minutes before the competition began.
2009[]
In 2009, she participated in the 2009 Summer Universiade. She won a team gold medal with her teammates, Cheng Fei, He Ning, Zhou Zhuoru and Liu Nanxi. Individually, she won two gold medals in the all-around competition and on balance beam, a silver on floor exercise and a bronze on uneven bars.
2010[]
In 2010, Jiang made the Chinese team for the 2010 World Championships. The team qualified second into the team final, while Jiang herself qualified 4th into the all-around final along with teammate Huang Qiushuang. She also placed 5th on uneven bars, but did not advance into the final due to the 'two per country rule' while her teammates He Kexin and Huang Qiushuang qualified first and second. In the team final, Jiang participated in all four events. Despite falls and mistakes made by Jiang and her teammates, the Chinese women team managed to secure a bronze medal, following Russia and the United States. In the all-around final, Jiang impressed the audience with consistent routines with great execution and artistry in all four event. Jiang finally finished 2nd behind Russia's Aliya Mustafina, with a total score of 59.998. Jiang also competed in the Toyota Cup winning gold on uneven bars 15.425 and bronze on floor, 14.175 behind Aliya Mustafina and Sui Lu who tied for gold.
Jiang served as the captain of the Chinese team since 2010. At the National Training Center, her responsibilities included looking after younger gymnasts at the dormitory.
2011[]
On March 24, 2011 Jiang competed in Canada's Wild Rose Cup along with newcomers and juniors Huang Huidan and Shang Chunsong.
She was captain of the Chinese team at the 2011 World Championships in Tokyo, Japan. Despite a fall on uneven bars from Huang Qiushuang, the Chinese team was able to win the bronze medal over Romania.
2012[]
Jiang competed at the Doha World Cup, where she won silver on uneven bars and bronze on floor exercise.
On June 19th, China named her to the preliminary team for the Olympics. She was one of three gymnasts competing for the final spot on the team, along with He Kexin and Tan Sixin. On July 10th, the final spot was given to He Kexin. Jiang was made an alternate.
Jiang was meant to compete at the Chinese National Games in September 2013, but did not. She was in Laoning for the competition to support her teammates and retired shortly thereafter.
In September 2014, the FIG discovered that North Korean gymnast Cha Yong-Hwa's age had been falsified and canceled her results, stripped her of her silver on uneven bars from the 2009 Universiade and awarding it to Jiang.
Medal Count[]
| Year | Event | TF | AA | VT | UB | BB | FX |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Provincial Gymnastics Championship | 1st | |||||
| 2007 | Stuttgart World Championships | 2nd | 4 | ||||
| Shanghai World Cup | 3rd | 1st | 1st | ||||
| Good Luck Beijing Olympic Test Event | 1st | ||||||
| 2008 | Doha World Cup | 2nd | 4th | 1st | |||
| Ostrava World Cup | 1st | 2nd | 1st | ||||
| Beijing Olympic Games | 1st | 6 | 4 | ||||
| 2009 | Belgrade Summer Universiade | 1st | 1st | 2nd | 1st | 2nd | |
| 2010 | Rotterdam World Championships | 3rd | 2nd | ||||
| 2011 | Tokyo World Championships | 3rd | |||||
| 2012 | Doha World Cup | 2nd | 3rd |
Floor Music[]
2007 - "Guitarra Latino" by Edvin Marton
2008-2010 - "Lift Your Veil"