Asian Games - Chen Yibing

Name : Chen Yibing
Country : China
Date Of Birth : December 19, 1984
Height : 158cm

Yibing started gymnastics training at 5 His sporting skills is inherited from his father as besides gymnastics he is also good in pole vault, sprint, table tennis and a few other sports. His father was an ice skater and in the same year before Yibing was born, he won an ice skating competition and decided to name his newborn son "Yibing" which in chinese means "one ice" ( referring to number one in ice skating)

Eventhough he started gymnastic training when he was still a little boy, he only started competitive training and competing professionally in 1996. However from 1996 to 2000 he didn't produce much desired result and his confidence was at low time low. However his confidence was boosted after he won a bronze in the All-Round Individual at the National Youth Championship in 2001. He was 17 then and not long after that he was ropped into the national team.

Chen Yibing is considered as a late bloomer because he only shone at international competition when he was 22, a age consider old for gymnast. He won gold medal in rings at the 2006 World Championship in Aarhus Denmark and in the same year he also won gold in rings and Men's team event at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, Qatar. In 2007 he repeated his feat by winning gold medal in the rings and team event at World Championship in Stuttgart, Germany and a year later won another gold in rings at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

As the lifespan of a gymnast is short, Yibing plans to go into coaching after retirement.