That's where she'll let loose on floor one more time with her Missy Elliott-inspired routine that became the highlight of Auburn's home meets. "I felt in my heart no less than the real athletes competing in the Olympic arena," Sang said.įor the women's team final on Wednesday, though, she will likely get no closer than her television set.First place didn't quite last - Gobourne is the national runner-up on floor - but her performance helped Auburn advance to the NCAA championship meet Saturday (noon CT, ABC). A day before the opening ceremony, she carried the Olympic torch, as she had done four years earlier before the Athens Games. Two years ago, she hosted a television program called "Sang Lan's Olympics." She now hosts an interview program on one of China's leading Web portals and serves as a guest journalist for the Web site of the Chinese Olympic Committee. I still have a deep affection for sport." "I can't say I never regret, but I never complain," Sang said. A caretaker looks after her, along with a personal assistant, or manager, provided by China's General Sports Administration. She tried to take notes with a large pen, but it fell away when her hand began to spasm. At Peking University, where Sang graduated last year with a broadcasting degree, friends had to carry her upstairs from class to class. To type on a computer keyboard, she must use small sticks attached to her hands. Sang cannot hold a cup, pick up a pen, grab a pill out of a bottle, dress herself. Frustration complicates the simplest task. "In contrast to many people with such devastating injuries, I can't recall that she ever appeared depressed, angry or blamed anybody or anything for her injury." Kristjan Ragnarsson, who treated Sang at the Mount Sinai Medical Center, told The Associated Press last year. "Knowing her own prognosis, she showed nothing but courage and exceptional spirit," Dr. Céline Dion later sent a concert invitation. "A crack."ĭuring 10 months of rehabilitation in the United States, Sang drew the attention of political and celebrity figures for her courage and upbeat nature. "I heard a bad sound," Octavian Belu, the Romanian national coach, said at the time. Alarm bells have long sounded about abusive, injurious treatment of young girls in the sport. There was no equivocating on her belief that women's gymnastics are becoming too dangerous, overly dependent on tricks instead of artistry. "Asian girls are smaller than American girls," Sang said. Then she chose diplomacy over accusation. "You can't lie to the IOC," Sang said, referring to the International Olympic Committee. The Chinese gymnastics federation has produced passports for He and Jiang indicating that they are both 16. Another Chinese gymnast, Yang Yun, has admitted on state-run television that she was only 14 when she won a pair of bronze medals at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. Online records listing Chinese gymnasts and their ages, posted on official Web sites in China and given in the Chinese news media, indicate that two female gymnasts - He Kexin and Jiang Yuyuan - may both be 14, not 16, the minimum age required for Olympic eligibility. The women's Olympic team final will play out Wednesday in muffled scandal. "They were doing weight control and we snuck out to buy snacks." "The little cozy things we did together," Sang said, speaking through an interpreter, laughing at the story. In her dreams, she does not see herself as a champion vaulter, which she was, but as a mischievous prankster avoiding dietary restrictions with her friends at sports school.
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