Ji Wallace (born 23 June 1977 in Lismore,

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, Australia) is an Australian

trampoline gymnast Trampolining or trampoline gymnastics is a competitive Olympic sport in which athletes perform acrobatics while bouncing on a trampoline. In competition, these can include simple jumps in the straight, pike, tuck, or straddle position to more co ...

and Olympic silver medalist. Earlier in his career, Wallace won several Australian national titles and made an international breakthrough in 1996 by winning gold in the DMT (double mini trampoline) discipline at the 19th Trampoline World Championships in Vancouver. In the world championships held in Sydney, he set a world record for completing a jump with the highest

degree of difficulty Degree of difficulty (DD, sometimes called tariff or grade) is a concept used in several sports and other competitions to indicate the technical difficulty of a skill, performance, or course, often as a factor in scoring. Sports which incorporate ...

in the DMT, a triple-triple. He competed at the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 ( Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from ...

in Sydney, where he received a silver medal in

trampoline A trampoline is a device consisting of a piece of taut, strong fabric stretched between a steel frame using many coiled springs. Not all trampolines have springs, as the Springfree Trampoline uses glass-reinforced plastic rods. People bounce o ...

."2000 Summer Olympics – Sydney, Australia – Gymnastics"
''databaseOlympics.com'' (Retrieved on 15 August 2008) In 2005, he

came out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...

publicly as

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

, and was the first Australian to be named a Gay Games Ambassador. In an August 2012 letter to the '' Sydney Star Observer'', a gay-oriented weekly tabloid newspaper, he revealed he is HIV-positive. Wallace returned to his trampoline roots in order to qualify for the Beijing Olympics, but missed Olympic selection at the 2007 World Championships in QC Canada. Wallace was a cast member with the

Cirque du Soleil Cirque du Soleil (, ; "Circus of the Sun" or "Sun Circus") is a Canadian entertainment company and the largest contemporary circus producer in the world. Located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul on 16 Ju ...

in their show ZAIA in Macau, China. In October 2008 while performing an acrobatic move, Ji fell badly causing significant injuries; he spent 21 months rehabilitating his right ankle, successfully learning to walk again. In August 2010, he took a coaching job in Montreal at the Cirque du Soleil headquarters but, in 2012, returned to his native Australia, where he is now head coach of Sky School. A trampoline program run by trampoline park chain "Sky Zone".

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* * * 1977 births Living people Australian male trampolinists Gymnasts at the 2000 Summer Olympics Gay sportsmen LGBT gymnasts Australian gay men Australian LGBT sportspeople Olympic gymnasts for Australia Olympic medalists in gymnastics Olympic silver medalists for Australia People with HIV/AIDS Cirque du Soleil performers Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics World Games bronze medalists Competitors at the 1997 World Games Medalists at the Trampoline Gymnastics World Championships Sportsmen from Victoria (state) {{Australia-Olympic-medalist-stub