| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Yang Wei |
| Born | (1980-02-08)February 8, 1980 (age 45) |
| Height | 160 cm (5 ft 3 in) |
| Gymnastics career | |
| Sport | Men's artistic gymnastics |
| Country represented | |
| Club | China National School |
| Head coach | Huang Yubin |
| Assistant coach | Wang Guoqin |
| Retired | June 2009 |
Medal record | |
Yang Wei (Chinese:杨威;pinyin:Yáng Wēi; born February 8, 1980, inXiantao,Hubei) is a Chinesegymnast.
Yang Wei won the silver medal in the individual all-around competition and won the gold in the team event at the2000 Olympics inSydney.
In 2003, he again won the gold in the team event and silver in the all-around competition at the2003 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships inAnaheim.
At the2004 Olympics inAthens, his world championship winning team finished fifth after many of them fell. Wei was also the favorite to win the gold medal at the Individual All-Around in Athens as well, but a fall from the high bar earned him a low score of 8.975 and put him out of medal contention. He placed seventh that night. The Chinese team redeemed itself by taking gold in the2008 Olympics inBeijing, beating out Japan and the United States.
Yang returned to form at the2006 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships inAarhus, by winning gold in the team event, individual all-around and parallel bars competitions. He also won gold medal in the team event, individual all-around, rings and parallel bars competitions at the2006 Asian Games.
He successfully defended his team and all-around titles at the2007 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships inStuttgart, and won the all-around and rings at the Chinese National Championships in 2007 and 2008.[1]
Yang Wei won gold in theindividual all-around and theteam final at the2008 Olympics inBeijing. He also won a silver in therings event final and placed fourth in thepommel horse event final.[2]
Yang Wei is best known for his impressive difficulty scores across the six events.[1]
Yang Wei has a long-time relationship with former gymnast,Yang Yun, who is an Olympic bronze medalist (uneven bars) for China, and now a CCTV reporter. In June 2006, Yang Wei invited Yang Yun to a news conference, which turned out to be a ploy for him to surprise her with a proposal. While he trained for the Beijing Olympic Games, the two had very few chances to be together, and kept in touch through text messaging.[3] After his Olympic gold in the All-Around in Beijing on Thursday, Yang Wei faced the camera and mouthed the words, "I love you," to his fiancée. Yang Yun, who watched his victory on television, shouted "I love you, too!" back to the screen. Yang Wei: "Gold Medal for my Love!"[4] The two married on November 6, 2008. Their son, Yang Wenchang (杨文昌), was born November 2009. Their twin daughters were born in 2017.