Liu Xuan (; born August 12, 1979) is a former artistic gymnast from China. She competed in the 1996 and 2000 Olympic Games and won two Olympic medals, including gold on the

balance beam The balance beam is a rectangular artistic gymnastics apparatus and an event performed using the apparatus. Both the apparatus and the event are sometimes simply referred to as "beam". The English abbreviation for the event in gymnastics scoring i ...

in 2000. She was born in

Changsha Changsha (; ; ; Changshanese pronunciation: (), Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is the Capital city, capital and the largest city of Hunan Province of China. Changsha is the 17th most populous city in China with a popul ...

Hunan Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi ...

Gymnastics career

Liu was coached by Guo Xinming and Zhang Zhen. She took up gymnastics with encouragement from her mother, who had to stop training when her gym closed during the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goa ...

. In fact, Liu's decision to continue training for another four years after a disappointing performance at the 1996 Olympics (where she failed to make the beam final because of a fall in the team competition) was partly to realize her mother's unfulfilled dream. In 2000, Liu became China's first Olympic champion on balance beam, as well as its first all-around medalist in women's gymnastics. She also led the Chinese team to a third-place finish, but in 2010, their bronze medal was stripped by the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...

and awarded to the United States instead after one of the Chinese team members,

Dong Fangxiao Dong Fangxiao ( Chinese: 董芳霄; ''Dǒng Fāngxiāo'') is a Chinese retired international gymnast who competed at the 2000 Summer Olympics. She won a bronze medal with the Chinese team at the Olympics, as well as the 1999 World Championshi ...

, was found to have been underage during the competition. In March 2012, the bronze medal Liu and her teammates won at the

1999 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships The 34th Artistic Gymnastics World Championships were held at Tianjin Arena in Tianjin Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Boh ...

was forfeited to Ukraine for the same reason.

Eponymous skill

Liu was the first female gymnast to perform a one-arm giant swing on the

uneven bars The uneven bars or asymmetric bars is an artistic gymnastics apparatus. It is made of a steel frame. The bars are made of fiberglass with wood coating, or less commonly wood. The English abbreviation for the event in gymnastics scoring is UB or ...

; she also performed this skill into a Geinger release move. The skill is named after her in the Code of Points, but because it was considered too risky for women, it was given a low difficulty rating to discourage gymnasts from attempting it. As a result, Liu stopped performing it after the 1996 Olympics.

Post-gymnastics career

At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Liu served as the on-site gymnastics reporter for Hong Kong broadcaster

TVB Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) is a television broadcasting company based in Hong Kong SAR. The Company operates five free-to-air terrestrial television channels in Hong Kong, with TVB Jade as its main Cantonese language service, and ...

. In July 2009, she became a contracted actress for TVB.

Personal life

Liu married her boyfriend, musician Wang Tao, in

Happy Valley, Hong Kong Happy Valley () is an upper-income residential area in Hong Kong, located on Hong Kong Island. The area is bordered by Caroline Hill to the east, Jardine's Lookout to the south, Morrison Hill to the west, and Causeway Bay to the north. Adminis ...

in December 2013.

Results

2000 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 ...

: 3rd team (disqualified), 3rd all-around, 1st balance beam *

1998 Asian Games The 1998 Asian Games (), officially known as the 13th Asian Games and the XIII Asiad, was an Asian multi-sport event celebrated in Bangkok, Thailand from December 6 to 20, 1998, with 377 events in 36 sports and disciplines participated by 6,554 ...

: 1st team, 1st all-around, 1st beam *1998 World Cup: 1st beam, 3rd bars * 1997 World Championships: 3rd team, 7th all-around *

1996 Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

: 4th team * 1996 World Championships: 3rd beam, 9th bars * 1995 World Championships: 2nd team *1995 USA/CHN/BLR: 3rd team, 8th all-around *1994 DTB Cup: 1st beam, 5th bars, 8th floor *

1994 Asian Games The 1994 Asian Games ( ja, 1994年アジア競技大会, ''Senkyūhyakukyūjūyon-nen Ajia kyōgi taikai''), also known as the XII Asiad and the 12th Asian Games ( ja, 第12回アジア競技大会, Daijūni-kai Ajia kyōgi taikai), were held from ...

: 1st team, 2nd bars * 1994 World Championships: 4th team

Eponymous skills

Discography

Filmography

Films

TV series

TV shows

References

External links

*
List of competitive results at Gymn Forum
* * *

{{DEFAULTSORT:Liu, Xuan 1979 births Living people Chinese female artistic gymnasts Gymnasts at the 1996 Summer Olympics Gymnasts at the 2000 Summer Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for China Olympic gold medalists for China Olympic gymnasts of China People with acquired residency of Hong Kong Medalists at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships TVB actors Olympic medalists in gymnastics Chinese expatriates in Hong Kong Competitors stripped of Summer Olympics medals Sportspeople from Changsha Asian Games medalists in gymnastics Gymnasts at the 1994 Asian Games Gymnasts at the 1998 Asian Games Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Asian Games gold medalists for China Asian Games silver medalists for China Medalists at the 1994 Asian Games Medalists at the 1998 Asian Games 21st-century Chinese actresses Actresses from Changsha Chinese film actresses Chinese television actresses Gymnasts from Hunan Originators of elements in artistic gymnastics