Olympic hero Li Xiaoshuang blasts China’s gymnastics coaches over Paris failure
- Double Olympic gold medallist says athletes were being burned out too young, and some routines were from the 1990s
China gymnastics legend Li Xiaoshuang has accused the country’s Olympic gymnastic coaches of leaving their young athletes underprepared and performing routines from the 1990s, after another miserable night in Paris.
The women’s team came in sixth on Tuesday and left the venue in tears, while a star-studded US team, consisting of Simone Biles, Sunisa Lee, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey and Hezly Rivera, clinched gold, followed by Italy and Brazil.
Li, who won six Olympic medals including golds on the floor in Barcelona in 1992 and in the all-around at Atlanta four years later, hit out at the way China’s women gymnasts were trained, and said they were burned out too young.
“We should change our training methods. Don’t always say our bodies are not as strong as the Americans, I beg to differ,” the 50-year-old said. “Give the girls a bit of time to grow. We burn them out too soon.”
Li said China had not produced any good gymnasts on the vault since Cheng Fei, who won gold in the women’s team event and bronze on vault at the Beijing Olympics 16 years ago.
