Pulling the cord on constraint

Ye Xiaoli, 39, won two gold medals during the 37th World Military Parachuting Championship held in Qionglai, Sichuan province, from Oct 14 to 25.

Since she became a parachuter at the age of 15, Ye has parachuted more than 10,000 times and grabbed 13 gold medals in major international competitions.

Standing at 1.65 meters tall, Ye has a constant, tender smile. As a high school student, Ye was good at sports and was goal keeper in her schools' women soccer teams. When the Sichuan Provincial Parachuting Team recruited parachuters in the Chengdu No 20 High School where she studied in 1989, Ye entered her name and was selected.

"The first time I parachuted, I was breathless, pale and trembling. I hesitated for quite a long time by the doorway of the helicopter more than 1,000 meters above the ground. For fear of being sent back to my high school as a coward, I closed my eyes and jumped out of the helicopter," Ye recalls in front of a tent at the August 1st Parachuting Team in Qionglai Stadium.

Only after parachuting more than a dozen times did Ye adapt to her new life as a parachuter. Three years later, Ye, an ace in the Sichuan Provincial Parachuting Team, joined the August 1st Parachuting Team where she made rapid progress.

In 1992, she won the gold medal for the women's individual accuracy category in the National Parachuting Championship. In 1999, she won the gold medal for the women's team accuracy category with her teammates in the World Military Games known as the military Olympics of the army.

But misfortune came unexpectedly one night in June 2001, when she was training in a military airport in Jiajiang county, Sichuan.