Feb. 3th will be 2011 Chinese New Year. The CCTV’s yearly spring festival gala is the most viewed TV show in China(average viewer of 700 millions). To Chinese gymnastics fans, that show is not half as entertaining as the spring festival gala by Chinese gymnastics team. In Coach Lu's new blog, he shared some of his most memorable moments among all the gymnastics team spring festival gala over last (about) 25 years. His favorites included song by Cheng Fei in 2001 and Yang Yun’s dance in 2003. This year’s spring festival gala will be hosted by Jiang Yuyuan. Cheng Fei in a mouse costume in 2008-year of Rat
Some clips from previous galas... SuperGril & Nobody Dances in 2010
by Yang yilin , Jiang yuyuan, He kexin, Zhang Yujiao, Sui Lu, He Ning etc.
Cowgirl Dance in 2008
by Yang Yilin,He Kexin,Sui Lu,Hu Yuhong
Song & Dance(1:10) by WAG Juniors in 2005-when they were still young...
by (opening left to right): Tian Mengsi, Sui lu, Nai Ruoyu, Jjiang Yuyuan, Hu Yuhong, Deng Linlin
By far the most talk-about... Swan Lake by MAG members in 2008
WOW, what a line up for 2011 American Cup. If only Ana can come.
Jiang Yuyuan, Huang Qiushuang and Lu Bo-one of the best AAers in Chinese MAG team-are competing. Cant wait to see JYY and HQS' new routines after the winter training, and whether they will compete Amanar in the 2011 first big international meet.
Thanks to as_bell- a Chinese gymfan studying in Japan, here are some of the interesting photos from 2010 Toyota Cup -mostly from day 2
BB EF Lauren's singture triple turns on beam Musty looking over Lauren's BB routine during EF Mustafina's double turns on beam
FX EF FX lineup #2 Sui Lu's opening pose... Sui Lu's dance moves. Seems SL was one of the photographers' favoriate. Where were all those photos?? Sui Lu's switch ring... Dementyieva's opening pose Mustafina's dance move after her jumps Jiang Yuyuan finishing her FX FX Podium
UB EF Jiang Yuyuan won gold on bar. Linlin preparing bar for JYY...
Santa Hat Gymnasts marching in, holding hands with the girls in cute Santa hats. Another girl,JYY, posing with the cute Santa hat.
Chinese Gals, Russian Gals and Interaction Gals Musty walking over... Kisses everywhere.
Those photos were posted in Chinese Gymnastics Fan forum, which were originally taken by a gymnastics fan and published in his Facebook...
Check out the "social-butterfly" Yuyuan, Shy-and-always-dressful Yiling, slightly-antisocial Qiushuang, introvert Sui Lu and letting-their-hari-down bff lovely Linlin&Kexin. Best fashion taste goes to Liufang.
One more... This last photo simply made me feel sorry for SJ again ...
Female presenter: For the past few days, the Chinese gymnastic teams have been training at the national training hall. Every year, these training programs have been adding new blood to the national team. Male presenter: In view of the fact that the London Olympics is coming up next year, the national team coaches hope to discover a couple more talents despite several selection programs have already been conducted.
(scene shows young hopefuls putting through their paces) Narrator: It was 12 noon, the young participants started training; standard procedures will not be followed at this program, the selection outcome will be determined purely by the experiences of the coaches. Coach Lu: With this particular program, we hope to add to our existing selected group for the 2012 Olympics. Coach He: We just keep hoping that we could get hold of a couple more that are with special qualities. Coach Lu: We hope to find some with powerful legs, that’s what our WAG team currently needs.
Narrator: For the kids from these provincial teams, this is a much longed opportunity to be able to broaden their horizons in these national programs.
(young gymnasts that are not of age for the London Olympics were allowed to participate in selection programs for the benefits of their experiences; if selected, they are recruited into the national second team)
(young gymnasts, twin sisters interviewed) The Xu sisters: I’m Xu Li. I’m Xu Yue. Interviewer, Zhang Jie: What do you think of your strengths at this selection? Xu Yue: I think it’s acceptable. Xu Li: We hope that we could achieve great results like all these big sisters (seniors) so as to repay the dedications we received from our parents and coaches.
(Guangdong team coach, Tang Jian, interviewed about the young ones) Coach Tang: When they saw the Olympic champions, they called out to them excitedly. Jie: What did they say? Coach Tang: They were like, “Oh! That’s big sister Yuan Yuan! And that’s big sister Kexin!” Yeah, the kids were just so moved seeing them. Also that, their desire of self-expressiveness is so intense.
(back to the interview of the Xu sisters) Xu Li: We hope that the coaches will take notice of us more. Xu Yue: Yeah, hope that they will notice us more, we will strive to be recruited. (big smile)
(Zhang Nan interviewed) Narrator: We met Beijing team coach, Zhang Nan, at the camp. Zhang Nan: I have six athletes in my care, but two of them stayed (they are not of age), as this program aims for the ones born in ‘96, ‘98. (Nan points to 2 gymnasts) She’s born in ‘97, and this one in ‘98. They have beautiful physiques.
(Zhang Nan talks about her responsibilities at this program) Zhang Nan: To me, this is an opportunity for me to learn, to gain experience; and of course, hoping that my athletes will catch the eyes of the coaches. (smiles) (scene shows young athletes looking from balcony) Narrator: For the young gymnasts that are not of age for the Olympics, they were grateful that they still get to participate in this program.
(Sun Wei, gymnastic coach of Wu Han Sports Institute, interviewed) Coach Sun: These arrangements greatly induced the steadfastness of the kids. I asked one particular athlete that if she would love to get to stay in the national institute, and she said that she would love to, and I told her that “would love to” is not enough, that she must first be really well trained; she replied, “I will do that.”
________________________ The Xu sisters are really good and cute too, and we will definitely see them both more in the near future. Other twins Chinese gymnasts I can remember include Mo Huilan& Mo Huifang, Li Dashuan& Li Xiaoshuan.
Female presenter: The National Gymnastics training camp has just ended yesterday after just one week.
Male presenter: They had only trained in the mornings and evenings. During training, the coaches from the national team were observing intently; the purpose being, to select promising talents for the London Olympics.
(National training hall) (scene shows Zhang Nan sets the beam)
Narrator: For Coach Zhang of the Beijing team, it was the last day of training at the camp for her junior athletes; the 6-day-training-camp has come to an end. Over 60 young gymnasts were picked from all provincial teams to attend this camp, they were closely inspected by the national team coaches to be selected for the London Olympics WAG team.
(Coach Zhang interviewed) Zhang Nan: I did not look closely, but I did pay some attention towards the young athletes from other teams; what I saw was that there were very few that stood out.
Narrator: Actually, this result was expected, as the same results were produced at the 3 other training camps previously; however, some favored young gymnasts were successfully selected. The name list will be announced after it is internally reviewed. For the coaches and athletes of these provincial teams, the significance of their participations was not only for the selections, but having the opportunities to drill themselves at these national training camps were precious.
Zhang Nan: After each training session, the young athletes stayed to watch the senior classes, and senior gymnasts were picked out to perform for the young ones.
(junior gymnast, Zhu (last name), of Beijing team, interviewed) Zhu: I watched big sisters (seniors) like Huang Qiushuang and He Kexin.
Interviewer: Why was that?
Zhu: To watch their uneven bars routines, as, UB is also my specialty, I wish to gain more “feel” of it through watching them.
(scene shows Coach Zhang and Zhu at work)
Narrator: To these kids, having the opportunities to train with Olympic champions were not just about to gain the feel of their apparatus, but more so it was about their yearning for Olympic and world champion titles.
Cheng Fei in a mouse costume in 2008-year of Rat
