Jiang Yuyuan

Jiang Yuyuan (also Yuyan; ; born November 1, 1991, in Liuzhou, Guangxi) is a retired Chinese gymnast.

Jiang captured glory in the 2002 Provincial Gymnastics Championships for the Zhejiang Provincial Team by winning the all-around competition and, in so doing, caught the attention of the National Team coaches.

Soon thereafter, in 2003, she joined the National Training Camp for a stint before it was forced to disband due to the outbreak of the disease, SARS.

Jiang joined the National Team 2 in 2004, and was selected from a list of 300 hopefuls of Team 2 to join the National Team 1 in 2006.

Jiang was a member of the silver medal-winning Chinese team at the 2007 World Championships, the bronze medal-winning member at the 2010 World Championships and 2011 World Championships, and the all-around gold medalist at the 2007 Good Luck Beijing Olympic test event.

She made her senior international debut in 2007 as a member of the Chinese team that won the silver medal in the team competition at the 2007 World Gymnastics Championships.

At the same competition, she placed 4th on floor exercise in the individual event finals.

In November 2007, she won the all-around at the Good Luck Beijing Olympic Test Event.

She is the 2008 Chinese all-around senior National Champion and a member of the gold medal-winning People's Republic of China team for the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Jiang and her teammate, Deng Linlin, appeared in the official Olympics documentary 筑梦2008 (Dream Weavers 2008) which followed the gymnasts from 2003 until Jiang's international debut at the 2007 World Championships.

Li Ning's cousin was Jiang's neighbour when she was little.

After noticing that the little Jiang was very energetic for a kid, he suggested to Jiang's parents that they sign her up for gymnastics lessons.

Her parents took his suggestion and so Jiang was enrolled in gymnastics classes by the time she was four.

She was once selected by the Guangxi Provincial Team to participate in a three-month training camp but her parents received a call from the Provincial Team asking them to bring Jiang home less than two months after the training began.

Her coach at that time insisted that Jiang had talent and persuaded Jiang's parents to leave Jiang under her care and she would train Jiang personally.

But it would be a dead end for a gymnast's career in China if one could not join the Provincial Team, so when opportunity came, Jiang was transferred from Guangxi to join the Zhejiang Provincial Team.

At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Jiang helped the Chinese team to win the team gold medal at the Olympics.

Individually, she finished in 6th place in the all-around competition and finished 4th place in the floor exercise event final.

Jiang competed at the Olympics with an elbow injury, specifically periosteum inflammation.

Her coach disclosed that the injury greatly affected her performance at the Olympics, particularly on vault, where pain prevented her from successfully executing her 2.5-twisting Yurchenko (Amanar), which was crucial for her success in the individual all-around final.

As a result of the injury, Chinese coach Lu Shanzhen also decided to pull Jiang from the vault rotation in the team finals, replacing her with Deng Linlin 20 minutes before the competition began.

In 2009, she participated in the 2009 Summer Universiade.

She won a team gold medal with her teammates, Cheng Fei, He Ning, Zhou Zhuoru and Liu Nanxi.

Individually, she won two gold medals in the all-around competition and on balance beam, a silver on floor exercise and a bronze on uneven bars.

In 2010, she replaced Cheng Fei as the captain of the Chinese national team (due to Fei's leg injury).

She won a silver medal in the all-around competition at the 2010 World Championships, which is the highest position that a Chinese woman has ever placed in the all-around competition at a world or Olympic championship.

Jiang Yuyuan is a Hakka born in Liuzhou, Guangxi with ancestry from Yunan, Guangdong.

Her father is a taxi driver and her mother is unemployed with no regular income.

Jiang's family was under a lot of financial pressure when she was little.

Jiang has a keen interest in photography, digital gadgets, cars, fashion and cosmetics.

She also likes listening to English songs.

Team members Cheng Fei and Yang Yilin single out Jiang as the most beauty-conscious and trendy member in the national women team.

Jiang is responsible for teaching other female members of the national team about make-up technique.

Jiang said in one of her interviews that she is sometimes "a little bit of a rebel".

Her Headcoach in Chinese national team, Lu Shanzhen, agreed that she would become rebellious occasionally and said that Jiang has the "most character" among the female gymnasts in the national team.

Jiang's idol is her fellow gymnast, Cheng Fei.

In 2010, Jiang was selected to compete for the team of women representing China at the 2010 World Championships.

The team qualified second into the team final, while Jiang herself qualified 4th into the all-around final along with teammate Huang Qiushuang.

She also placed 5th on uneven bars, but did not advance into the final due to the 'two per country rule' while her teammates He Kexin and Huang Qiushuang qualified first and second.

In the team final, Jiang participated in all four events.