Jiang Yuyuan (also Yuyan; ; born in Liuzhou, Guangxi) is a retired Chinese gymnast. She is the 2008 Chinese all-around senior national champion and a member of the gold medal-winning People's Republic of China team for the 2008 Summer Olympics. Jiang was a member of the silver medal-winning Chinese team at the 2007 World Championships, the bronze medal-winning member at the 2010 World Championships and 2011 World Championships, and the all-around gold medalist at the 2007 Good Luck Beijing Olympic test event. In 2010, she replaced Cheng Fei as the captain of the Chinese national team (due to Fei's leg injury). She won a silver medal in the all-around competition at the 2010 World Championships, which is the highest position that a Chinese woman has ever placed in the all-around competition at a world or Olympic championship.
Personal life Jiang Yuyuan is a Hakka born in Liuzhou, Guangxi with ancestry from Yunan, Guangdong. Her father is a taxi driver, and her mother is unemployed with no regular income.Olympics Champion Jiang Yuyuan: Mummy, don't go beg for food Yahoo News China, August 14, 2008 "江钰源的父亲江涛是柳州市一名普通的出租车司机，母亲欧凤珍没有固定收入" Jiang's family was under a lot of financial pressure when she was little.Jiang Yuyuan The New Olympic Champion's Growing Up Story 第一财经 Wang Wenjue, August 22, 2008, "但经济压力是个不可回避的问题。一家人只有江涛有工作，而他在1996年下岗后，每月只有100多元的工资"
Her hobbies include photography, digital gadgets, cars, fashion and cosmetics. She also likes listening to English songs.Little Jiang Yuayuan Target to win in 2008. Love photography and Cars 2008.qq.com, December 12, 2007 "她最喜欢摄影和汽车","我没有最喜欢听谁的歌，比较喜欢听英文歌"Star of Gymnastic Hope, Jiang Yuayuan likes magazines on digital gadgets China News Agency, August 22, 2008 Team members Cheng Fei and Yang Yilin said that Jiang was responsible for teaching other female members of the national team about make-up techniques.Jiang Yuayuan the girl gymnast is a trendy pixy who love reading magazines on electronics xinhuanet.com, August 13, 2008 "有次记者采访程菲和杨伊琳的过程中，曾经问体操队谁最爱美谁最时尚，两小丫异口同声回答“江钰源”, "江钰源还承担教队友化妆的任务"
Jiang said in one of her interviews that she is sometimes "a little bit of a rebel". Her head coach in the Chinese national team, Lu Shanzhen, agreed that she would become rebellious occasionally and said that Jiang had the "most character" among the female gymnasts in the national team.Lu Shanzen: Cheng Fei too obedient. Jiang Yuyuan has character Sohu Sports, September 13, 2008 "之前，江钰源在接受记者采访的时候，说自己偶尔会有点“叛逆”。陆善真听了，点点头：“没错，她偶尔就是这样，在队里，她算是比较有个性的。" "而江钰源也曾一度想过放弃，有次打电话给欧凤珍，一边哭着一边说不想练了。当时欧凤珍没有一味劝慰江钰源，而是反其道而行之，“那好吧，你妈妈没有工作，你不练的话，回来跟妈妈出去讨饭吧”。欧凤珍的这段话让记者忍俊不禁，而这句玩笑话让不到10岁的江钰源信以为真了，小钰源马上害怕了，“妈妈你不会去要饭的，我一定会好好练，你别去要饭啊，那样好没面子的。”" Jiang's idol is her fellow gymnast Cheng Fei.Getting close to Jiang Yuyuan: The only idol is Cheng Fei. Female all-around gold is target sports.dbw.cn,July 到 2008
Jiang and her teammate, Deng Linlin, appeared in the official Olympics documentary 筑梦2008 (Dream Weavers 2008), which followed the gymnasts from 2003 until Jiang's international debut at the 2007 World Championships.奥运准官方电影《筑梦2008》：洩露官方机密？ sina.com July 6, 2008
Gymnastics career Li Ning's cousin was Jiang's neighbour when she was little. After noticing that Jiang was very energetic, he suggested to her parents that they sign her up for gymnastics lessons. Her parents took his suggestion, and so Jiang was enrolled in gymnastics classes by the time she was four.Little gymnast Jiang Yuyuan started gymnastics because Li Ning was her neighbour CCTV.com, August 15, 2008 "李宁的表哥和江家是邻居，因为看小钰源每天上上下下十分好动，就建议江涛送女儿去练体操。" She was selected by the Guangxi Provincial Team to participate in a three-month training camp, but her parents received a call from the Provincial Team asking them to bring Jiang home less than two months after the training began. Her coach at that time insisted that Jiang had talent and persuaded her parents to leave her under her care to train Jiang personally. However, it would be a dead end for a Chinese gymnast's career to not join the Provincial Team, so when the opportunity came, she transferred from Guangxi to join the Zhejiang Provincial Team.
Jiang won the 2002 Provincial Gymnastics Championships for the Zhejiang Provincial Team by winning the all-around competition and, in so doing, caught the attention of the National Team coaches. Soon thereafter, in 2003, she joined the National Training Camp for a stint before it was forced to disband due to the outbreak of the disease SARS. Jiang joined the National Team 2 in 2004, and she was selected from a list of 300 hopefuls from Team 2 to join the National Team 1 in 2006.Jiang Yuyuan have been away from hometown. All-around title is the new target 2008.sohu.com, August 13, 2008 "2003年，江钰源首次进入国家集训队，但是因为当年非典盛行，最后集训被迫解散。2004年，她进入国家二队；2006年，她又在300多人的国家二队大名单中脱颖而出，进入国家一队。"
She made her senior international debut in 2007 as a member of the Chinese team that won the silver medal in the team competition at the 2007 World Gymnastics Championships. At the same competition, she placed 4th on floor exercise in the individual event finals. In November 2007, she won the all-around at the Good Luck Beijing Olympic Test Event.
At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Jiang helped the Chinese team to win the team gold medal at the Olympics. Individually, she finished in 6th place in the all-around competition and finished 4th place in the floor exercise event final. Jiang competed at the Olympics with an elbow injury, specifically periosteum inflammation. Her coach disclosed that the injury greatly affected her performance at the Olympics, particularly on vault, where pain prevented her from successfully executing her 2.5-twisting Yurchenko (Amanar), which was crucial for her success in the individual all-around final. As a result of the injury, Chinese coach Lu Shanzhen also decided to pull Jiang from the vault rotation in the team finals, replacing her with Deng Linlin 20 minutes before the competition began. "比賽開始前20分鐘，體操隊在訓練房最後一次賽前訓練，當時他覺得江鈺源狀態不是很好。“源源的手肘有些傷，最近狀態不是很好，所以臨時決定用穩定替換難度。”陸善真娓娓道來，“鄧琳琳屬於穩定型選手，關鍵時刻，一個穩定的發揮可以更好地鼓舞士氣。"
In 2009, she participated in the 2009 Summer Universiade. She won a team gold medal with her teammates, Cheng Fei, He Ning, Zhou Zhuoru and Liu Nanxi.
In 2010, Jiang was selected to compete for the team of women representing China at the 2010 World Championships. The team qualified second into the team final, while Jiang herself qualified 4th into the all-around final along with teammate Huang Qiushuang. She also placed 5th on uneven bars, but she did not advance into the final due to the 'two per country rule', as her teammates He Kexin and Huang Qiushuang qualified first and second. In the team final, Jiang participated in all four events. Despite falls and mistakes made by Jiang and her teammates, the Chinese women team managed to secure a bronze medal, following Russia and the United States. In the all-around final, Jiang finished 2nd behind Russia's Aliya Mustafina, with a total score of 59.998. Jiang also competed in the Toyota Cup, winning gold on uneven bars and bronze on floor behind Aliya Mustafina and Sui Lu, who tied for gold.
She was selected as an alternate for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
Jiang served as the captain of the Chinese team after 2010. At the National Training Center, her responsibilities included looking after younger gymnasts at the dormitory.
2008 age controversy
In early 2008, fellow Chinese gymnast Yang Yun, admitted on national television that she was 14 years old when she competed in the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games."Issues raised about Chinese athletes' ages" Diane Pucin, Los Angeles Times, 28 July 2008. Consequently, there was frequent speculation that members of the Chinese women's gymnastics team were 14 years of age or under, violating the minimum age requirements of Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG), the governing body of the sport, that requires gymnasts to be 16.
The New York Times claimed that official media and some official Web sites in China, including that of the State General Administration of Sport, listed Chinese gymnasts' details which indicated that Jiang, He Kexin and Yang Yilin may have been as young as 14. Jiang was listed as being born on 1 October 1993, which would have made her too young to compete in 2008. In a 2006 article, it was stated that Jiang had given her birth year to reports as 1992. Other media through 2008, including the state broadcaster China Central Television, used this birth year as well. However, her official passport stated her birth date as being 1 November 1991.
During the Olympics, media focused their attention on Jiang, He, Yang and Deng. In response, Chinese officials claimed the discrepancies for He Kexin were caused by paperwork errors when the gymnast switched teams. Chinese authorities presented passport information to show that they were 16 years old as of 2008. Chinese coach Lu Shanzhen explained that Chinese competitors had for years all been small. "It is not just this time. It is a question of race. European and American athletes are all powerful, very robust. But Chinese athletes... are by nature that small." Sportswriter E.M. Swift criticized the IOC for "spend[ing] millions of dollars trying to ferret out drug cheats [while ignoring] allegations of institutionalized cheating" by the Chinese government.
On 22 August 2008 the International Olympic Committee (IOC) instructed the FIG to investigate the allegations that He Kexin was underage, and were asked to report back to the IOC later that day. The FIG accepted the passport ages as valid proof and declared the gymnasts eligible. On 23 August, further pressure led the FIG to request additional documentation on five of the six athletes on the Chinese team. IOC president Jacques Rogge said that FIG had demanded "birth certificates and all the documents like family books, entries in schools and things like that." While the FIG investigation was in progress, the IOC indicated reshuffling of the medals was unlikely. Having been satisfied with the proof of age received from the Chinese Gymnastics Association, the FIG ended the investigation on 1 October 2008, concluding that He and her teammates were eligible to compete. An article in the Chinese newspaper Life Daily noted that there was still suspicion that their documents were altered.
Competitive highlights Year Competition Description Location Apparatus Rank-Final Score-Final Rank-Qualifying Score-Qualifying 2012 National Championships Shanghai All-around 2 56.100 5 53.250 World Cup/Series Doha Uneven Bars 2 14.875 2 14.900 Floor Exercise 3 14.000 3 14.050 2011 World Championships Tokyo Team 3 172.820 3 230.370 All-Around 20 55.074 Uneven Bars 75 12.866 Balance Beam 9 14.575 Floor 33 13.633World Cup/Series Ghent Uneven Bars 2 15.375 3 14.950 Balance Beam 15 13.125 Floor Exercise 8 12.050 8 13.300National Championships Kunshan Team 2 222.000 All-around 5 54.650 7 55.450 2010Asian Games Guangzhou Team 1 234.150 World Championships Rotterdam Team 3 174.781 2 233.778 All-around 2 59.998 4 58.099 Balance Beam 16 14.333 Uneven Bars 5 15.200 Floor Exercise 25 13.833 2009National Games JinanTeam4164.6754217.550All-Around656.875 Uneven Bars 6 14.275 2008 World Cup/Series Final Madrid Floor Exercise 2 15.225 Uneven Bars 2 15.700Olympic Games BeijingTeam 1188.9001248.275All-Around660.900760.625Floor Exercise415.350815.0502007World ChampionshipsStuttgartAll-Around 147 44.825Floor Exercise 4 15.100 8 14.750Team 2 183.4502 241.175Uneven Bars 16 15.375World Cup/SeriesShanghaiFloor Exercise 1 15.225Uneven Bars 1 16.100Vault 3 14.412
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