Zhang Nan (; born April 30, 1986, in
Beijing
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
) is a former
artistic gymnast from
China. Zhang was a member of the Chinese team for the
2004 Olympic Games
The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...
, as well as the
2002,
2003,
2005, and
2006 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
The 39th World Artistic Gymnastics Championships were held in Aarhus, Denmark, from October 13 to October 21, 2006.
The International Gymnastics Federation, which celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2006, introduced a new Code of Points at the ...
. She is one of China's most successful female gymnasts and was the first Chinese woman to medal in an all-around competition at the World Championships.
She is married to 2004 Olympic champion
Teng Haibin
Teng Haibin (; born January 2, 1985, in Beijing) is a male Chinese gymnast. He is a Two Time World Champion as well as an Olympic gold medalist on the pommel horse. He cost his team a medal at the 2004 Olympics with multiple falls on every app ...
.
Gymnastics career
2002–04
Zhang won four gold medals at the
2002 Asian Games (team, all-around,
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 ...
, and
floor exercise
In gymnastics, the floor is a specially prepared exercise surface, which is considered an apparatus. It is used by both male and female gymnasts. The gymnastics event performed on the floor is called floor exercise. The English abbreviation for t ...
) and the 2003 Asian Championships (team, all-around,
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 ...
, and floor exercise). She became China's first female medalist in a world all-around competition by winning the bronze medal at the
2003 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
The 37th World Artistic Gymnastics Championships were held in Anaheim, California
Anaheim ( ) is a city in northern Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a pop ...
. She followed this feat by becoming the second Chinese woman to win an Olympic all-around medal, also a bronze, at the
2004 Olympics in
Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
.
(
Liu Xuan had won the bronze in
the previous Olympics after the gold medalist,
Andreea Răducan of Romania, was disqualified.)
The Chinese team finished 7th at the 2004 Olympics after counting a fall on bars, two falls on beam, and two falls on floor, one of them from Zhang. However, Zhang won an individual bronze medal in the all-around competition behind
Carly Patterson
Carly Rae Patterson (born February 4, 1988) is an American singer, songwriter and former artistic gymnast. She was the all-around champion at the 2004 Olympics, the first all-around champion for the United States at a non-boycotted Olympics, and ...
of the United States and
Svetlana Khorkina
Svetlana Vasilyevna Khorkina (russian: Светлана Васильевна Хоркина; born 19 January 1979) is a retired Russian artistic gymnast. She competed at the 1996 Summer Olympics, the 2000 Summer Olympics, and the 2004 Summer Ol ...
of Russia.
She also competed in the balance beam event final, her strongest event, but fell and placed 6th with a score of 9.237. Without the 0.5 deduction for the fall, she would have edged out Romania's
Alexandra Eremia
Alexandra Georgiana Eremia (born 19 February 1987) is a Romanian former artistic gymnast. for the bronze.
2005–06
Zhang went on to win the all-around at the 2005 Chinese National Championships and the
2005 East Asian Games
The 4th East Asian Games was an international multi-sport event for countries in East Asia which was held in Macau from October 29 to November 6, 2005.
Host city
At the 11th EAGA Council Meeting held in Guam in March 1996, Macau, then a Portugues ...
. At the
2005 World Championships, she was hampered by injuries and had to withdraw from the all-around final, but finished 4th in the balance beam final with a score of 9.487.
As the leader of China's
2006 World Championships team, she competed on all four events and helped the team qualify to the final in 2nd place, behind the United States. During the team final, she contributed to China's victory with strong routines on
vault
Vault may refer to:
* Jumping, the act of propelling oneself upwards
Architecture
* Vault (architecture), an arched form above an enclosed space
* Bank vault, a reinforced room or compartment where valuables are stored
* Burial vault (enclosure ...
(scoring 14.525 under a new system), balance beam (15.950), and floor exercise (14.800). The win for the Chinese team was its first ever.
She qualified to the balance beam final with the top score, 16.075, but finished 4th in the final with a score of 15.275 after injuring her ankle by falling down a flight of stairs the day before the competition.
Zhang also competed at the
2006 Asian Games
6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number.
In mathematics
Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...
in
Doha, Qatar
Doha ( ar, الدوحة, ad-Dawḥa or ''ad-Dōḥa'') is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor (city), Al Khor, it is home to m ...
, where the Chinese women captured their seventh straight team title. She went on to help the Chinese women sweep all but one of the gold medals in the women's gymnastics competition, winning the balance beam title ahead of her teammate Han Bing.
2007–09
Over the course of the two years following the 2006 World Championships, Zhang struggled to maintain the level of difficulty in her routines. As a result, she did not qualify to represent China at the
2007 World Championships. She continued her attempt to make a second Olympic team by increasing her difficulty, but struggled with consistency. At the 2008 Chinese National Championships, she won a silver medal on balance beam, partly thanks to errors by many other competitors.
Zhang was named to the Chinese Olympic training squad but was not selected to compete at the
2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. In an interview in early 2009, she said she would retire soon. She officially announced her retirement before the 11th Chinese National Games in September 2009. There, in her last competition, she performed on vault, balance beam, and floor exercise to help the Beijing provincial team win the bronze medal.
She is currently a coach for the Beijing team.
Floor music
* "Barcelona" by Johnny Tesh (2003)
* "A New Life" by Burkhard Dallwitz (2005–06)
References
External links
*
*
Zhang Nan's photos at GymBox
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zhang, Nan
1986 births
Living people
Chinese female artistic gymnasts
Gymnasts at the 2004 Summer Olympics
Medalists at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
Olympic bronze medalists for China
Olympic gymnasts of China
Gymnasts from Beijing
Olympic medalists in gymnastics
Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics
Asian Games medalists in gymnastics
Gymnasts at the 2002 Asian Games
Gymnasts at the 2006 Asian Games
Asian Games gold medalists for China
Medalists at the 2002 Asian Games
Medalists at the 2006 Asian Games
Universiade medalists in gymnastics
Universiade gold medalists for China
Universiade bronze medalists for China
Medalists at the 2005 Summer Universiade