Known as "the strongest substitute ever", the girl replaced the injured team at the age of 16 and won the Olympic gold medal with six perfect scores, becoming the most surprising gymnastics champion in Olympic history.
Since then, she has become popular overnight, her name has been recorded in history, and it has been used by the International Gymnastics Federation, and her original gymnastics moves have been used to this day. So who is she?
At the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, a Chinese girl led everyone present to the eye-opening. At that time, with a set of neat and smooth gymnastic moves, she made the 6 judges on the scene score a perfect score, which has never been done in history.
Even the coach of the Chinese team did not expect that a substitute player would win the Olympic championship.
You must know that Shi Liying, who was the main player at that time, was the champion that everyone was optimistic about. As a result, he was accidentally injured the day before the game, and in desperation, the coach let the substitute play. They don't have much hope for a substitute at all.
Because she is far inferior to Shi Liying in all aspects, she has only entered the national team for a short year, and she has no experience in Olympic events. But as soon as she came on the field, she was shocked and achieved results never seen before in history. This substitute is Lu Li.
However, just when everyone thought that she could continue to win more medals for the mainland, she chose to retire. Why is that? Now, decades later, how is she doing?
It all starts with Lu Li herself, who was born in Changsha, Hunan Province in 1976, her parents are ordinary workers, and she leaves early and returns late every day to earn money to support her family. But they have a lot of love for their daughter, but they worry about one thing. That is, she is too thin, and Lu Li is really not like a 5-year-old child compared to her peers.
So in order for their daughter to thrive, the parents sent her to the gymnastics team. In this way, the amount of exercise increases, and the amount of meals will definitely increase, and at the same time, it will also strengthen the body. Therefore, they took Xiao Lu Li to the gymnastics class of the provincial amateur gymnastics school to register. The coach at that time looked at it and saw that this girl must be a good seedling for learning gymnastics. So I trained Lu Li hand-in-hand.
Soon, under the guidance of her coach, she showed her extraordinary talent for gymnastics. But at this moment, she almost broke off her fate with gymnastics. What's going on here?
She was the first Chinese athlete to win the title as a substitute, winning the Olympic championship at the age of 16 with a perfect score, but chose to retire two years later. Why is that?
Since Lu Li learned gymnastics, she has become more and more passionate about the sport. Gradually, the parents did not want to send their daughter to learn gymnastics, because the school was too far from home, and Lu Li had to be sent back and forth every day. I almost had an accident on the road. After learning about it, Lu Li found a coach for help. Because she really loves the sport.
In the end, the coach was impressed by her and found her parents and said that Lu Li would live with his daughter, and now they no longer objected. After several years of hard training, Lu Li became better and was selected for the Hunan gymnastics team.
Here she met Xiong Jingbin, the second best teacher. At that time, when the coach saw that Lu Li was so good, he also specially designed a set of difficult movements and arranged for her to practice every day. Every time Lu Li practiced sweaty, but she never said bitter or tired. Just silently make every movement perfect.
With this attitude, she participated in the second National Youth Games in 1989, where she competed with other athletes, and Lu Li was better and became the champion of women's uneven bars at that time. She was only 13 years old this year and was already a national champion.
Since then, she has won awards one after another, like a rising star in the gymnastics industry. Two years later, Lu Li came to the national team, which means that she can go to a higher stage. In the same year, Lu Li participated in the National Youth Gymnastics Championship and won the uneven bars championship in one fell swoop.
Behind such an honor is the result of her hard work. But over the years, she has another shortcoming that has almost ruined her career.
At that time, when entering the Hunan gymnastics team, it was found that Lu Li had a condition on her body during the physical examination. But after the results came out, not only she was herself but also the coach was shocked, it turned out that she had hepatitis. If you say this, it will ruin Lu Li's gymnastics career.
At that time, a coach, Yan Neimu, found someone to buy various pharmacies and took her home. Once Lu Li also started a high fever, and the whole person looked wizened. In order to participate in the competition smoothly, Lu Li is still actively preparing for training. So much so that later she made a sensation in the world again at the 1992 World Gymnastics Individual Championships. So what happened to her?
She was the first Chinese in the history of world gymnastics to win the championship with a perfect score, and at the age of 16, she replaced her teammates in the Olympic gold medal and became famous all over the country overnight. So why did she choose to retire after 2 years?
In 1992, Lu Li represented the Chinese team at the Barcelona Games, and although she was very good at that time, she won many awards but still did not have outstanding achievements. Therefore, the Chinese team still used Lu Li as an alternate candidate and Shi Liying as the main general. Although she is a substitute, Lu Li is still very happy. She felt that this time she would come to meet the world first, and next time she would compete with all the gymnasts.
But the accident still came suddenly, Shi Liying was injured in an accident and could not play on the field. At this time, the coach could only set his sights on the candidate Lu Li.
However, it was such a coincidence that Lu Li won everyone's attention as soon as she came on the field. Even the coach found it incredible. At that time, the Chinese gymnastics team fell one after another, and except for the men's team gymnastics, which won the runner-up, no one else made it to the final. And Lu Li showed almost perfection in the arena, and her movements were unanimously praised by the public.
It also received a full score of 10 points from the 6 judges, and there was an exclamation at the scene when the results were announced. You must know that no one has ever scored a perfect score, and Lu Li is the first, so she got on the podium. Counterattacked as a substitute to become the champion.
After returning, she became popular all over the country, and everyone knew that a little girl named Lu Li won the Olympic championship. But she was never seen again.
It turned out that because of the physical disease hepatitis, she could no longer continue to train intensively. In the end, she could only choose to retire at the age of 18. Later, she continued her studies and came to the Department of Physical Education of Peking University. After studying for one year, he transferred to the School of International Relations for further study. After graduating, she went to the United States for further studies while working as a gymnastics coach in a club.
Until Lu Li's mother died in 2002, she returned to China to deal with the funeral. After finishing the incident, Lu's father accompanied his daughter to the United States to start a business.
It may be that fate can't stop it, and she met her lover. is an American vaulter who is Kenm Gassenjo. Love prompted them to get married and start a small family. Their lives are getting happier day by day. With her husband's help, Lu Li's career is much easier, and she is slowly on the right path.
They also have a happy baby, how happy it is for a family of three to live together. Although Lu Li's gymnastics career is not long, it is a very great honor for her to win a gold medal for China. It is also the result of her years of hard work.