Li Li (gymnast)

Li made her international debut at the 1990 Goodwill Games in Seattle, USA, where she wowed the world with her trademark 11⁄4 back spin on the beam, as well as a rare German giant into a Tkatchev on the uneven bars. Later the same year, she won one gold (team) and silver (bars) at the Asian Games, followed by another silver (beam) at the World Cup (her teammate Yang Bo took the gold). The following year, she competed at the 1991 World Championships in Indianapolis, where the Chinese team placed fourth.

At the 1992 Olympic Games, Li finished 14th in the all-around, and made the bars final where she placed eighth (9.887).^[2] Her teammate Lu Li won the gold with a perfect 10.0, one of only two 10s awarded at those games. Again, the Chinese women finished fourth in the team competition.^[2]

Li Li took the early lead in the all-around of the 1993 World Championships in Birmingham after performing on her best event, the beam. She stunned the crowd with a Yurchenko loop followed by the 11⁄4 back spin, and scored 9.837, the second-highest score awarded on that night (Tatiana Lysenko got a 9.862 on her first vault). Li finished in ninth place overall. She was in contention to win the beam gold in the event finals, but after a mistake on her Yang Bo jump, she decided to duplicate the element and, as a result, went over time, which cost her two-tenths of a point and dropped her to fourth place (9.600). Without the deduction, she would have taken the silver. Another favorite for the gold, Shannon Miller, had a disastrous performance, falling from the beam twice and sitting on her dismount (7.850). The gold went to Lavinia Miloșovici (9.850), who had a simple and plain routine in comparison to Miller's and Li Li's.

Li went on to win the beam title in the 1993 East Asian Games and also the 1993 Chinese National Games. She was in the 1994 World Championships in Brisbane but failed to make the beam final, earning a 9.237. She retired from the sport soon after.

She is now a women's gymnastics coach at Buckeye Gymnastics in Westerville, Ohio.^[3]

There has been some investigation into her actual birthdate, which may have been altered to allow her to compete in competitions she would not have been age-eligible for.^[4]

Li has three eponymous skills listed in the Code of Points.^[5][6]

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