Cheng Fei

Cheng Fei (Simplified Chinese: 程菲) was born on May 28, 1988 in Huangshi, Hubei Province. She began gymnastics at the age of six, and by the age of ten, she was invited to join the Hubei provincial team. In late 2001, she was accepted to the National Team. Her coaches are Lu Shan Zhen and Liu Qun Lin.

Cheng Fei is a floor Exercise and vault specialist. Cheng Fei has had a lot of national success in gymnastics: she is a two-time Chinese national floor exercise champion (2004-2005), a two-time Chinese national vault medalist(2003,2005)and the 2004 Chinese national balance beam Champion. Cheng Fei is also the 2004 World Cup Final bronze medalist on floor exercise. She finished fourth in the 2004 Olympic floor finals, with a score that attracted boos from the crowd because they thought it was too low. This occurred on the same evening that the low score given to Alexei Nemov caused a protest from the crowd.

Cheng Fei is best-known for performing the rare double twisting double back somersault on floor and for being the only gymnast to perform two vaults valued out of a 10.0 Start Value in the 2001-2005 Code of Points.Cheng Fei was also the first Chinese woman to win a gold medal on vault at the World Championships. Generally female Chinese gymnasts have a reputation for being very weak on vault and floor exercise, so this success was very poignant. Cheng's success on vault comes as much from excellent technique as it does raw power.

Cheng also made history at the 2005 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships for being the first gymnast ever to land a laid out Khorkina: a round-off, half-turn onto the vault, then a 540-degree twist in the laid out position. This vault is perhaps the most difficult vault ever attempted by a female gymnast. It is now officially named, "The Cheng".

Cheng plans to continue well into 2006, and she also wishes to become an all-around gymnast (she has never competed on bars at a major international before and fell from the balance beam in the 2004 Olympics). Her second place finish overall at the 2005 National Games illustrates her potential there, but it will be a challenge to maintain her standards on vault and floor whilst improving her beam and bars. Her goal is to compete at the 2006 World Championships in Aarhus.

External links

*International Federation of Gymnastics' profile on Cheng Fei
*Cheng Fei's photos at GymBox