125: Growing Up In China
GymCastic: The Gymnastics Podcast
GymCastic: The Gymnastics Podcast
4.6 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 23 October 2014
⏱️ 68 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Jiani Wu
What was it like growing up in China before they were a gymnastics super power? Jiani tells us all about it. A native of Shanghai back when China was a closed society, Jiani was one of the first allowed to compete outside of the country. Wu helped the Chinese women win their first World Championships team medal, a silver at the 1981 Worlds in Moscow and a bronze for the team at the 1984 Olympics.We discuss:
- Adjusting to coaching in the United States and working with parents.
- The Yurchenko loop and Teza skills that she was doing back in the 70's.
- Her coaching philosophy and how it ties into her experience as an accidental champion.
- Secret romances and how she met her husband in the training halls of the national training center.
- The training schedule and beam complex seriousness of the Chinese training regime.
- Gymnastics urban legend busting about China's conditioning, pizza and hamburgers.
- What China was like in the 1970's before their athletes were allowed to compete outside of the country.
- Coaching both of her daughters, 2012 Olympic alternate Anna Li and level 9 Andrea Li.
- That time she Yin Alvarez'd when Gabby Perea hit her bar routine.
- The major awardChina gave her for winning an Olympic medal.
- 106: Biles and Ross Dominate the 2014 US Secret Classic
- 2014 Senior Secret Classic Competition Photo Gallery
- 2014 Junior Secret Classic Competition Photo Gallery
- Photo Gallery of Podium Training at the 2014 Secret Classic
- 88: Rhonda Faehn with Mackenzie Caquatto
- Episode 3: Russian Regime Change, Fashion Code and a Chat With Anna Li
- Episode 17: Growing Up In The Soviet Gymnastics System And Training At Round Lake
- Episode 5: Growing up at WOGA
Jiani Wu performing the Yurchenko Loop
Jiani Wu performing her eponymous skill on bars.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | because he's way older, |
| 0:01.4 | athlete, I was way younger, and he's so short and so tall, |
| 0:05.4 | and that was beautiful and young, and I from Shanghai, |
| 0:10.7 | he found the way north, so nobody ever want to think you want to care of the |
| 0:15.0 | something. It kind of may be a little easy height. |
| 0:18.0 | Today, growing up in China with Johnny Wu. This is episode 125 for October 21st, 2014. |
| 0:28.4 | I'm Jessica from Masters Gymnastics and I'm your host of the number one gymnastics |
| 0:33.4 | podcast in the entire world. Remember we are running our |
| 0:36.6 | contest the song contest we are going to make a playlist out of all of your |
| 0:40.6 | fantastic ideas for floor music that has never before been used as far as you know. |
| 0:46.0 | All you have to do is send us the name of the artist and the song title, |
| 0:49.0 | send it to Jim Kastic at gmail.com and we will choose the winners at random. Your music can even have lyrics in it. It does not have to be |
| 0:57.3 | lyric free. The prizes include a whole box of chalk from the P&G Championships, a shirt from the P&G |
| 1:05.1 | Championships, an official water bottle from P&G Championships. It's an official |
| 1:08.3 | towel with a carrying case. You will look so awesome going into gym carrying that around the deadline is November 1st so get those in as fast as you can |
| 1:18.7 | Today's interview with world and Olympic medalist Johnny Wu is brought to you by Tumbletrack. |
| 1:25.0 | Years ago I coached with this woman who was like in her mid to late 50s and I noticed that she started |
| 1:31.1 | doing like a billion back hands springs every night after the kids went |
| 1:34.6 | home and she kept doing it and kept doing it. |
| 1:36.6 | And I finally I asked her I was like, why are you doing all these back handsprings at the end of the night? |
| 1:40.2 | And she told me that every year on her birthday she does the number of back handsprings that are equal to her age. |
| 1:48.0 | So she was doing conditioning for her birthday back handsprings. |
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