October 26th, 2020
Asian athletes: part 1
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Credits
Author: Jencie Tomasek
Editor: Aparna Sivaraman
Layout: Abigail Jung
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Credits
Author: Jencie Tomasek
Editor: Aparna Sivaraman
Layout: Abigail Jung
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Cheng Fei is a retired Chinese gymnast who was on Team China’s women’s gymnastics team. She holds 5 gold medals and led the Chinese to a team gold in the 2008 Beijing Olympics as Team Captain. Cheng has won 3 consecutive world titles on vault (2005-2007), and is known for doing some of the toughest tumbling passes in the world. Cheng was born May 28, 1988 in Huangshi, Hubei Province. She began gymnastics at 3, and was named to the Chinese National Team at 13. Cheng has attended the 2004 and 2008 Olympics, but retired in 2012 due to a ruptured Achilles tendon, but continues participating in the sport as a gymnastics coach. A vault is actually named after her in the Code de Poinage, and her skill, the “Cheng'', is one of the most legendary vaults of the 2000s. Even current gymnasts, like Simone Biles, have used Cheng’s skills and made them popular again. Overall, Cheng has had much success in her career, and will always be remembered as helping China make a name for itself in the team gymnastics world.
Video link to her Gold Medal Floor Exercise from Beijing 2008: https://youtu.be/A_KXIGB3UWA |
Laura Zeng is a USA Rhythmic Gymnastics National Team member and has competed in the 2016 Rio Olympics. She is the bronze medalist from the 2019 Universiade Napoli Games, and is committed to Yale University, but is currently taking a gap year and taking classes from a local community college. Her goal is to attend the Tokyo Olympic Games. Laura was born in 1999 in Hartford, Connecticut to her parents, who immigrated from China. Originally, Laura studied Chinese folk dance and ballet as a child, picking up rhythmic gymnastics at age 7 because of a friend. Laura won the bronze medal at the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympics, and in 2017 she was named the USA Gymnastics Athlete of the Year for rhythmic gymnastics.
Video link to her Toronto 2015 ribbon routine: https://youtu.be/rtsh9vqrkSw |
Apolo Ohno is the most decorated USA male Winter Olympian of all time, holding a total of eight medals, including two gold. Born May 22, 1982, this short-track speed skater is the son of a Japanese-born father and American mother. At the age of 12, he took up short-track speed skating, and at 14, he became the youngest skater to be accepted into the residency program at the US Olympic Training Center in New York. In 2001, Apolo became the first American skater to win the overall World Cup title. Apolo has medaled at every Olympic game he attended in 2002, 2006, and 2010. He announced his retirement in 2013. Besides skating, Apolo has competed on Dancing with the Stars and won, coming back to dance on Dancing with the Stars: All-Stars. He has also become a New York Times best-selling author, has been featured in the Top 100 Forbes and Fortune speakers, and gives motivational talks about confidence and talent around the world. In 2019, Apolo was inducted into the US Olympic Hall of Fame.
Video link to his 1000m final from 2002 Olympics: https://youtu.be/PZHArkK2Xcw |
Nathan Adrian is an Olympic swimmer, who has eight Olympic medals under his belt, 5 of which are gold. He was also Co-Captain of the 2016 Olympic Swimming Team. Nathan was born December 7, 1988 in Washington state to his American father and Chinese mother, who was born and raised in Hong Kong. Nathan started swimming competitively at age 2, following in the footsteps of his older brother and sister, who also swam for colleges. He attended the University of California at Berkeley where he was an All-American and NCAA Champion in swimming, and pursued a degree in public health. Nathan took a break from college for a little bit to train for the Olympic trials, resulting in him moving to the Florida Keys. He has represented Team USA in the 2008, 2012, and 2016 Olympic Games. Over the past few years Nathan has experienced many ups and downs, from getting married, being diagnosed and recovering from testicular cancer, and now expecting a child.
Video link to his Rio Olympic Highlights: https://youtu.be/KRuIuZjgXy0 |
Hyun-jin Ryu is a South Korean baseball player who has been a pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers for 6 seasons, and is currently a starting pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays. Hyun-jin was born on March 25, 1987, in Incheon, South Korea. He was first introduced to the sport when his father bought him a lefthander’s glove, which usually goes on the right hand. While Hyun-jin is a right-handed person, he eventually learned to pitch with his left hand, still pitching left-handed to this day. He played in the Korean Baseball Championship until he was drafted into the Major League in the United States. Hyun-jin is the first Korean pitcher to pitch in the MLB. Hyun-jin’s native language is not English, which made conversing with his Dodgers teammates frustrating, but he has eventually gotten better at it as time went on. So far, his first year with the Blue Jays has been successful. His career stats show that he is a 1x All-Star, has had 52 wins total, and is a top contender for the CY Young Award.
Video link to his MLB Pitching highlights: https://youtu.be/HrMAvCYkCO0 |
Chloe Kim is a Korean American snowboarder, born in 2000, who is known for being the youngest Olympic snowboarder to win a gold medal. Chloe’s parents moved to California from South Korea, and her dad quit his job to help her train full time. Chloe became a professional snowboarder at age 12, and worked her way up the ranks to become one of the best snowboarders of the 21st century. In 2016, Chloe competed in the Youth Olympic Games Lillehammer, where she won multiple golds in the halfpipe and slopestyle events. Chloe qualified for the 2014 Olympics at 13 years old, but was too young, so she waited until the 2018 Olympics. In the meantime, she scored more wins at the World Cup and X Games competitions. Chloe has taken a hiatus from snowboarding to pursue a degree at Princeton University, but plans on training soon to prepare for the 2022 Olympics in Beijing. She has spoken about her Korean American identity, even saying that she has felt like a “banana” (a term that means someone who is Asian acts too “white”). Most importantly, Chloe says that she is proud of her heritage, For many Gen-Z’ers she is a relatable, Asian-American girl who is changing history.
Video link to her 2018 Olympic run: https://youtu.be/3opTwpiCZ6c |
Mirai Nagasu was born on April 16, 1993 in Montebello, California to Japanese immigrants. At the young age of five, Mirai developed a passion for ice skating. Mirai has said that growing up, she looked up to other female Asian skaters such as Michelle Kwan and Mao Asada. At just 14 years old, she was the 2007 U.S. junior national figure skating champion. In 2014, Mirai was not chosen to be on the Olympic team for the Sochi Games. While many people (including herself) were shocked with the decision, she used this setback as motivation to work towards her goals, such as learning the triple Axel. Leading up to her debut in the 2018 Olympics, Mirai injured herself while learning the triple Axel and underwent surgery. This past summer, she underwent a second hip surgery in Boston, and is now on the road to recovery, using her time to enjoy hobbies like tye-dyeing and hosting podcasts. In 2018, at age 24, Mirai competed in her first ever Olympic Games, and made history by being the first American woman to land a triple Axel in an Olympic Game. With her amazing routines and scores, she helped Team USA bring home a bronze medal. While Mirai has dealt with numerous injuries on-and-off the ice, and has felt lost due to her Japanese-American identity, she continues to work hard for the sport she loves and is an advocate for Asian American representation, hoping others see her as a “barrier breaker”.
Video link to ABC News report on Mirai making history with her triple Axel: https://youtu.be/GBWLP-iDUqg |
Deng Senyue is a former member of Team China’s Gymnastics Rhythmic Olympic Team. Deng was born on February 5, 1992, in Liuzhou, Guangxi Province. She has attended the London 2012 Games, and has won numerous awards and accolades. She was the 2014 Asian Games silver medalist, finished 4th in All-around at the 2013 World Championships, and has received many gold medals in the events of Ball and Ribbon. Deng is the first individual rhythmic gymnast from China to medal in the World Cup series.
Video link to her 2014 World Championships in the Ribbon Final: https://youtu.be/zz2H5fTVkUw |