Cheng Fei

Personal information
Full name	Cheng Fei
Nickname	Fei Fei (菲菲)
Born	(1988-05-29)May 29, 1988 (age 37) Huangshi,Hubei, China
Height	152 cm (5 ft 0 in)
Gymnastics career
Sport	Women's artistic gymnastics
Country represented	China (2004–2012)
Head coach	Lu Shenzhen
Assistant coach	Liu Qun Lin
Former coach	Yao Juying
Eponymous skills	Vault: Yurchenko ½ on into 1½ twists off (5.6)
Retired	June 14, 2012
Medal record Representing China Women'sartistic gymnastics Event 1st 2nd 3rd Olympic Games 1 0 2 World Championships 5 1 0 World Cup Final 3 0 1 Asian Games 3 0 0 East Asian Games 2 1 0 Summer Universiade 1 1 0 Total 15 3 3 Olympic Games 2008 Beijing Team 2008 Beijing Vault 2008 Beijing Balance Beam World Championships 2005 Melbourne Vault 2006 Aarhus Team 2006 Aarhus Vault 2006 Aarhus Floor Exercise 2007 Stuttgart Vault 2007 Stuttgart Team World Cup Final 2006 São Paulo Vault 2008 Madrid Floor Exercise 2008 Madrid Vault 2004 Birmingham Floor Exercise Asian Games 2006 Doha Team 2006 Doha Vault 2006 Doha Floor Exercise East Asian Games 2005 Macau Team 2005 Macau Floor Exercise 2005 Macau Vault Summer Universiade 2009 Belgrade Team 2009 Belgrade Vault

Cheng Fei (Chinese:程菲;pinyin:Chéng Fēi; born May 29, 1988) is a Chinese retiredartistic gymnast.^[1] She is a three-time World Champion on thevault (2005–2007) and 2006 World Champion onfloor exercise. She was a member of the gold medal-winning Chinese teams for the2006 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships inAarhus, Denmark and2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China. She was also a member of the silver medal-winning Chinese team for the2007 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships inStuttgart, Germany.

Cheng Fei was born in central China'sHubei Province to a father who was a shipping clerk and a mother who worked in a tire factory, not a very wealthy background. Indeed, said her mother, "Our family was poor so we hoped Cheng Fei could in some way change her life...we thought maybe being a professional athlete is good for her." And so her parents approached a gymnastics coach about training her by the time she was three and her father practicedcalisthenics with her every morning before school.^[2] By the age of five, Cheng won her first competitive medal at a local competition. The 7-year-old Cheng was sent toWuhan, where she joined theWuhan Institute of Physical Education and officially entered the national sports program. Her first coach, Yao Juying remembered her as being uniquely 'hard-working' and extraordinarily focused.^[2] At ten, she was invited to join the Hubei provincial team. In late 2001, at the age of 13, she was accepted to the Chinese National Team.^[1] Her coaches are head coach Lu Shanzhen,^[3] and Liu Qun Lin.^[1]

Cheng is known for her powerful tumbling and her expressive floor routines.^[2][4]Sandra Izbașa has described her as a perfectionist, a great sport and a good friend.^[5]

She retired in June 2012 due to a ruptured Achilles tendon while performing a tumbling pass on the floor.

Cheng is a vaulting and floor exercise specialist. She has had national success in gymnastics as a two-time Chinese National Floor Exercise Champion (2004–2005), a two-time Chinese National Vault medalist (2003 and 2005) and the 2004 Chinese National Balance Beam Champion.

Internationally, she has been very successful as well. She competed with the Chinese team at the2004 Olympic Games inAthens, Greece and although the team did not medal, she performed very well, scoring 9.475 on vault and 9.662 on floor. She also qualified for and competed in the floor exercise final, finishing 4th with a score of 9.412.^[6] She was the bronze medalist at the 2004 World Cup Final on floor exercise.

On 23 November 2005 Cheng made history at the2005 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships inMelbourne, Australia, for being the first gymnast ever to successfully perform one of the most difficult vaults ever attempted by a woman. The vault, consisting of a round-off onto the springboard, a half-turn onto the vaulting horse and a 1½ somersault with a 540-degree turn in a straight body position, is now officially recognized in theFIGCode of Points as "The Cheng". It is one of the most difficult vaults in the code.^[7] During Event Finals on vault in Melbourne, Cheng scored 9.725 in her first vault (S.V: 10.0) and 9.587 in her second vault (S.V: 10.0), the "Cheng".

At the 2006 World Championships inAarhus, Denmark, she competed on vault and floor exercise, qualifying in first position for both event finals. Her performances on those two pieces of apparatus were instrumental in securing victory for China in the team championship, but they also earned her the individual vault and floor exercise world titles. Cheng also won the gold medal on the vault at the 2006 World Cup Final inSão Paulo,Brazil.

In 2007 Cheng began the year by winning the vault, balance beam and floor exercise titles at a World Cup event inMaribor,Slovenia. She was undefeated on vaulting and floor exercise in 2007 until the 2007 World Championships inStuttgart, Germany. At those championships, Cheng was recognized as the leader for the Chinese women's team and though Cheng won her third World title on the vault, she made a serious error on the vault during the team championship where the Chinese team finished 2nd. She went on to finish 5th on floor exercise, with a score of 15.050, after stepping out of the bounds with both feet in her final tumbling series.

Cheng fulfilled her goal of competing at the2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China as the captain to the Chinese team. In the qualification, Cheng competed on three events, placing first on both vault and floor exercise, and fifth on balance beam. She was one of three female gymnasts to have entered 3 Olympic Event Finals in those Games, along withNastia Liukin andAnna Pavlova. In the team final, She led the team to win China's first-ever women's gymnastics Olympic team gold medal in history. Individually, she won a bronze medal on vault (even after falling on her own "Cheng Fei vault"). She got 16.075 and 15.025 on her saltos. She won another bronze medal on balance beam (15.950) and placing 7th in the floor exercise event final (14.550), after an uncharacteristic fall. Cheng cried after the unfortunate vault and floor finals. After the Olympics, she said that she cried about her failure to capture the two gold medals she wanted most until she could cry no more. However, she received great support from both her fellow countrymen and the international gymnastics community, who acknowledged her talents and abilities as an exceptional gymnast.^[8] In a show of respect she gave the winner of the balance beam finalShawn Johnson of United States a small box withsilk inside it.

After theOlympic Games, she competed in various competitions. She won three gold medals on vault, floor exercise and balance beam at the DTG World Cup inStuttgart.^[9] Her last 2008 competition was the 14th Artistic Gymnastics World Cup inMadrid where she won two gold medals on vault and floor exercise.^[10]

In 2009, she competed at the 25th Universiade in Belgrade and won a team gold medal and a silver medal on Vault.^[11]

After taking almost two years off from competitions due to a leg injury, she competed in the 2011 Chinese National Championships in May on vault and floor exercise. She led the qualifications on vault and finished 2nd in the final. She announced her intention to compete in the University Games in August, but she was reported to be suffering from leg injury again and withdrew from the competition.

In April 2012, Cheng competed at the Zibo World Cup in her home country, qualifying second into the vault final behind the Dominican Republic'sYamilet Peña Abreu. She intended to compete floor as well but withdrew prior to the qualifying round. Cheng won the gold medal in the vault final.

Cheng injured her Achilles tendon in June 2012, taking her out of the running for the 2012 Chinese Olympic Team. In June 2012, she announced her retirement from elite artistic gymnastics and that she would be trying to switch from being an elite gymnast to a gymnastics coach.^[12]

Cheng has one eponymous skill listed in theCode of Points.^[13]

As of 2008, Cheng Fei performed the following skills on these apparatuses:

• 2003: Lord of the Dance from Riverdance
• 2004: Variations from Don Quixote
• 2005–2007: Mas Zarzuela
• 2008: Yellow River Concerto

• 2008 Team China ProfileArchived 2008-08-14 at theWayback Machine

• Cheng Fei profileArchived 2015-09-06 at theWayback Machine at Gymnastics.About.com
• Cheng Fei biographyArchived 2017-04-24 at theWayback Machine at NBC Olympics site
• Cheng Fei at theInternational Gymnastics Federation
• Cheng Fei's photos at GymBox at theWayback Machine (archived May 28, 2006)
• Cheng Fei (vault animation)

• Chinese female artistic gymnasts
• Gymnasts at the 2004 Summer Olympics
• Gymnasts at the 2008 Summer Olympics
• Medalists at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
• Olympic bronze medalists for China
• Olympic gold medalists for China
• Olympic gymnasts for China
• Originators of elements in artistic gymnastics
• People from Huangshi
• World champion gymnasts
• 1988 births
• Living people
• Olympic medalists in gymnastics
• Gymnasts from Hubei
• Medalists at the 2008 Summer Olympics
• Asian Games gold medalists in gymnastics
• Gymnasts at the 2006 Asian Games
• Asian Games gold medalists for China
• Asian Games gymnasts for China
• Medalists at the 2006 Asian Games
• Summer World University Games medalists in gymnastics
• FISU World University Games gold medalists for China
• FISU World University Games silver medalists for China
• Medalists at the 2009 Summer Universiade
• 21st-century Chinese sportswomen

• CS1 Romanian-language sources (ro)
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles containing Chinese-language text
• Webarchive template wayback links