Coming home to mine Olympic gold

By Yu Yilei (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-12 08:11

Coach Lang Ping discusses strategy with the US Olympic women's volleyball team during its match with Japan last Saturday. [Wang Jianhua]

When Qiao Liang landed in Iowa in 1993, preparing to start a new life at the University of Iowa on a full scholarship after a successful career on the Chinese national gymnastics team, he didn't expect his homecoming to become a national topic of conversation 15 years later.

Qiao (better known as Chow in the West) had arrived in the US with a handful of luggage. However, when he returned to his homeland last week, he brought a group of elite American gymnasts with him to vie for gold in the Beijing Olympics.

China's former top gymnast is the latest Chinese-born coach to join the US Olympic team, along with former Chinese volleyball icon Lang Ping, coach of the US women's volleyball team and James Li (Li Li), manager of the US men's track and field team.

Qiao was assured a ticket to the Beijing Games when his star pupil, Shawn Johnson, was chosen for the US Olympic gymnastics team after finishing first in the US trials last June.

"Qiao has made a successful life for himself overseas, probably the most successful among the former Chinese gymnasts who went abroad," his former colleague Lu Shanzhen said. Lu is now the deputy head coach of Chinese national gymnastics team,

Lu met Qiao in 1988, when the gymnast joined the Chinese national team after excelling in domestic meets. At the time, Lu had been coaching the squad for five years. Now they head rival teams who will be battling for supremacy at the Beijing Games.

The stage was set a year ago when Qiao's US team defeated Lu's Chinese team at the 2007 World Championships by a narrow margin. Johnson also dethroned Chinese star Cheng Fei, Lu's best athlete on the floor exercises. Johnson also won the coveted all-around title that Lu's pupils have never gotten.

"In the past two years, he brought Shawn Johnson onto the world stage", Lu said. "We've been watching closely."

Qiao's success has brought attention to the fact that there are a number of Chinese-born gymnastics coaches working in the US.

There's Qiao's wife, Zhuang Liwen, also a former member of the Chinese national team, who helped build Chow's Gymnastics and Dance Studio in West Des Moines, Iowa.

Lu Li, who won gold the 1992 Barcelona Games on the uneven bars, has her own gym, All-Around Champion (AAC), in Fremont, California. In March 2000, Lu began working at Gold Star Gymnastics Academy in Mountain View, California, coaching high-level gymnasts and serving as the assistant coach for its competitive team.

China's first world champion gymnast, Li Yuejiu, who won the men's floor exercises in 1981 World Gymnastics Championships in Moscow, moved to the US in 1986. He began his coaching career in Las Vegas along with his wife, Wu Jiani, his national teammate.

While some worry that these globetrotting coaches could adversely affect the chances of the Chinese team, most Chinese fans are proud of what they've achieved. Thanks to Qiao, Lu Li and Li, the two gymnastics powerhouses of China and the US have never been as closely matched as they are now.

The results of this cross-pollination are Americans such as Johnson mastering the extremely difficult techniques that Chinese gymnasts excel in and at the same time demonstrating the explosive power and bubbly personality most American gymnasts possess.

This combination can also be seen now among Chinese gymnasts, especially after Li returned to coach the Chinese team in 2005. China gained a record eight gold medals at the 2006 World Gymnastic Championships in Denmark one year after Li's return.

"We could learn from them (US gymnasts)," Li said, while still calling China "the best gymnastic academy" in the world. "I hope I can find a training method that combines the best of both countries."

Asked whether he is nervous about his first time home in 15 years as the head of a strong US team to compete against his old hometown team, Qiao answered: "Sports are sports. We're not politicians."

Volleyball coach Lang Ping, one of China's most beloved sports figures, is back home for her third Olympics.

She won Olympic gold playing for China in 1984 and silver as China's coach in 1996.

This time, she will be sitting on the other side of the net as the coach of the US team, a post she took in 2005.

"My only wish is that the US team can have a great performance in my hometown," Lang said.

It was not an easy decision for the 47-year-former champion who enjoys Michael Jordan-like status in China. Although she has been coaching abroad for many years, a huge and heated public debate erupted in China over Lang's move to the US team. For some, her coaching of the national team of a foreign country was too much, especially for an Olympics held in her native city.

"If there had been too many people opposed to this decision I probably wouldn't have accepted the job," Lang said. "I didn't want to cause myself so much trouble."

Once she took the job, Lang Ping's magic touch worked, and the US team qualified for the Beijing Games by finishing third at the 2007 World Cup Volleyball in Japan.

Helped by returning veterans, Lang built the team into a serious medal contender for the Beijing Olympics. She took the team to the FIVB Grand Prix Finals in Japan last July, the last pre-Olympic event attended by the five best teams.

Like Qiao, Lang is capable of leading the US to victory over China. Both teams are in the same group, which means they will play each other at least once.

Lang seems to be relaxed about it all. "I believe fans here will be very proud of me because I am bringing a great team here. If the US team plays with others, I believe the Chinese spectators will cheer for us - and it (China) will be the second home field advantage for the US team."

Compared with Qiao and Lang, James Li's inclusion in the US Olympic team is probably most significant although he is the least known of the trio in China. Having a Chinese person coaching track and field in the US is much like having an American coaching table tennis in China.

The 47-year-old Li won no medals as a cross-country runner or a coach in China, but found success after moving to the US in 1985. He became a US citizen in 1998.

As head coach of the University of Arizona athletics team, Li produced seven UCAA champions, including world champion Bernard Lagat.

Lagat became the first man to win both the 1,500m and 5,000m in the world championships last year and Li was named the track coach of the year in the US.

Last March, Li was named manager of the US Olympic men's track and field team. Last week, he returned to his native land with such track superstars as Tyson Gay and Jeremy Wariner.

The coaching veteran is unfazed by his Olympic appointment.

"It's not surprising to me because I had the same job during the 2001 World University Games and last year's World Championships," Li said.

There are more Chinese faces on the US Olympic team. One of the most famous is table tennis veteran Gao Jun, a former world champion while playing for her home country. She is now back in Beijing playing for the US table tennis team.

"The (sports) world is now global," said Wei Jizhong, acting president of the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB). "We may need some help from a foreign country, and, in return, we can help foreign countries. That's the way the world is now."