My favorite Chinese gymnast currently still in competition is He Ning.
He Ning (right) shows them where’s it at (with Zhou Zhuoru looking on)
She is not the best Chinese gymnast of this quadrennium (even if she did win the all-around title at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, Qatar)–but she certainly is the funniest. And to me, humor is quite important. Makes me like the kid a whole lot.
Things that He Ning Has Done:
1. Putting bunny ears on Alicia Sacramone’s head during a coaches’ picture-taking frenzy
2. Snarking at Yang Yilin while preparing the uneven bars for her during the team final (Yang looked mildly offended, much to my amusement)
3. Screeching excitedly, and rather tactlessly, behind Beth Tweddle when Yang Yilin eked into the medals for uneven bars event finals
4. Putting on a silly New Year’s skit with Zhou Zhuoru, dressed in Qing dynasty drag
I wanted to know more about her, so I went back to look at what she accomplished. She has a okay, if not spectacular, reputation; she was part of the gold-medal team in 2006 Aarhus, the team in 2007 Stuttgart, winner of several medals at the 2006 Asian Games, etc., etc. But her biggest asset is her “mental stability”, despite the fact that recently she has struggled performance-wise.
