On January 3, Beijing time, on the largest gymnastics forum in China, some netizens broke the news that "Balance Beam World Champion Ling Jie went to the United States to coach", and attached a screenshot of the official WCC Twitter. WCC announced on Twitter: "Warmly welcome Ling Jie to join our big family, Ling Jie became the coach of the women's team." Up to now, Neither Ling Jie nor her Hunan gymnastics team has responded to this news.
Born in 1982, Ling Jie began practicing gymnastics at the age of 3, entered the Hunan provincial team at the age of 9, and was selected for the national team at the age of 12, her strengths are balance beams and high and low bars. At the 1999 Tianjin Gymnastics World Championships, Ling Jie won the balance beam championship with high scores, which was the only gold medal won by the Chinese women's team at the World Championships, and also ended the history of the gymnastics women's team not winning a gold in two world championships.
At the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, Ling Jie won the silver medal on the uneven bars and the bronze medal in the women's team, regrettably failing to achieve the Olympic gold medal dream. In 2001, Ling Jie briefly captained the Chinese gymnastics women's team before being replaced by Yang Yun. In 2002, 20-year-old Ling Jie chose to retire. After retiring, Ling Jie became a gymnastics coach and trained young newcomers such as Zeng Siqi for the national team, and in 2010, Ling Jie married and had a son.
In 2013, the news of Ling Jie's divorce came out, which caused an uproar in gymnastics circles. Soon after, Ling Jie frequently went to the plastic surgery hospital and admitted that plastic surgery detonated the network. This time Ling Jie went to the United States to coach also caused gymnastics fans to worry, because the only slightly weaker project of the American gymnastics women's team is the high and low bars, once Ling Jie helps the United States to make up for this link, then the Chinese gymnastics women's team is not more invincible? More extreme netizens questioned his "defection to the enemy".