LI NING (李宁)

LI NING (李宁)
http://frostwhisper2012.blogspot.com/2012/12/li-ning.html

 

4 AUG 1984: LI NING OF CHINA IN ACTION ON THE POMMEL HORSE AT THE 1984 LOS ANGELES OLYMPICS. 
NING WON THE GOLD MEDAL WITH A SCORE OF 19.95 POINTS.

Li Ning started training at the age of eight and he was selected into the national team in 1980. In 1982, he won six of the seven medals awarded at the Sixth World Cup Gymnastic Competition, earning him the title "Prince of Gymnastics" (体操王子).

Li is most famous for winning 6 medals at the 1984 Summer Olympics, which was the first Olympics in which the People's Republic of China participated. He won 3 gold medals (in Floor Exercise, Pommel Horse, and Rings), 2 Silver Medals, and a Bronze Medal. Li became the most decorated Chinese athlete at their first Olympics.

 

OLYMPIC JOURNEY

In 1984, the Chinese gymnastics team excelled, but in the team event it lost the Olympic title by 0.6 points to the USA. Ning’s first Olympic medal was a silver one, and this heralded the start of an impressive harvest.  In the All-around competition, Ning made a mistake on the Parallel Bars, which penalised him for the final ranking. With 118.575 points, the Chinese gymnast finished third behind America’s Peter Vidmar, silver medallist, and Japan’s Koji Gushiken, who won the gold.

He made up for this in the Floor Exercises, winning his first gold medal with the excellent score of 19.925 out of 20. He beat his compatriot Lou Yun, who managed 19.775.  Two gold medallists, twice.

On the Pommel horse, the competition was even tougher. Ning Li produced a remarkable performance which earned him the score of 19.950. The American Peter Vidmar also achieved an excellent performance. The two athletes had identical scores, and both stood on the top step of the podium. On the rings, Ning Li this time had to share the honours with Japan’s Koji Gushiken, as both men finished with the score of 19.850.

In the vault, for the first time in this event, four gymnasts tied for second place. With a score of 19.825, Li won silver, his sixth medal, making him the athlete with the most medals at the 1984 edition of the Games. This achievement earned him the nickname of “Little Prince Of Gymnastics”.

All in all, Li won 14 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships titles.
Li took part in his second 1988 Olympics despite carrying injuries. It was an end to an illustrious career, as he was off-form and made crucial mistakes which robbed him of the chance of a medal.


Li Ning was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2000, becoming the first Chinese inductee.

 

THE FINAL TORCHBEARER

Li Ning lighting the torch at the 2008 Summer Olympics

At the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics Li Ning ignited the cauldron at the Opening Ceremony after being hoisted high into the air with cables and miming running around the rim of the stadium.

After his sports career, Li founded his own sports equipment company. He married his compatriot Youg-Yan Chen, a gymnast like himself and a bronze medallist at the 1984 Games. The Little Prince has today made a success of his post-competition career.
 
Li Ning Company Limited is one of the leading sports brand companies in China, mainly providing sporting goods including footwear, apparel, equipment and accessories for professional and leisure purposes primarily under the LI-NING brand.

Li-Ning is the Official Outfitter of the Argentinian and Spanish National Basketball Teams and is a major world outfitter in Badminton.

NBA Miami Heat's Dwyane Wade became Li-Ning's newest NBA Endorser on September 10, 2012.


SOURCES
Wikipedia
Olympic.org

MARY LOU RETTON

MARY LOU RETTON
http://frostwhisper2012.blogspot.com/2012/12/mary-lou-retton.html

Mary Lou Retton launches off the vault on her way to Olympic gold in 1984. (Getty Images)

Mary Lou Retton became America's darling and changed women's sports forever in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games.

Inspired by watching Nadia Comăneci on television, Retton took up gymnastics in her hometown of Fairmont. She was coached by Gary Rafaloski. She then decided to move to Houston, Texas, to train under Romanians Béla and Márta Károlyi, who had coached Nadia Comăneci before their defection to the United States. Under the Károlyis, Retton soon began to make a name for herself in the United States, winning the American Cup in 1983 and placing second to Dianne Durham (another Károlyi student) at the US Nationals that same year. Retton missed the World Championships in 1983 due to a wrist injury. Nevertheless, Retton won the American Classic in 1983 and 1984, as well as Japan's Chunichi Cup in 1983.


After winning her second American Cup, the US Nationals, and the US Olympic Trials in 1984, Retton suffered a knee injury when she was performing a floor routine at a local gymnastics center. She had sat down to sign autographs when she felt her knee lock, forcing her to undergo an operation. She recovered just in time for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California.


In the competition, which was boycotted by the Soviet bloc nations except for Romania, Retton was engaged in a close battle with Ecaterina Szabó of Romania for the all-around gold medal. Trailing Szabó (after uneven bars and balance beam) being 15 hundredths behind, with two events to go, Retton scored perfect 10s on floor exercise and vault--this last event in an especially dramatic fashion, as there had been fears that her knee injury and the subsequent surgery might impair her performance--to win the all-around gold medal by 0.05 points.

Mary Lou Retton for the win. (Getty Images)

At the same Olympics, Retton won four additional medals: silver in the team competition and the horse vault, and bronze in the floor exercise and uneven bars. For her performance, she was named Sports Illustrated magazine's "Sportswoman of the Year". She appeared on a Wheaties box, and became the cereal's first official spokeswoman.




SOURCES:
Wikipedia
Yahoo Sports
 

GREG LOUGANIS

GREG LOUGANIS
http://frostwhisper2012.blogspot.com/2012/11/greg-louganis.html

GREG LOUGANIS started competitive diving as a 10 year old. He took part in his first Olympic Games, the 1976 Montreal Games, aged just 16 and claimed silver in the 10m platform. Four years later, he was firmly established as the world’s best diver, but the United States’ boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games meant that he had to wait another four years to taste Olympic gold.

Louganis was coached by Korean-American Dr. Sammy Lee, a two-time Olympic champion.Of Samoan and European descent, Louganis studied classical dance for many years, and this training provided the basis for the elegance and artistry of his performances. In addition to his Olympic titles, he won six World Championships and held many records for the highest marks ever achieved in competition.





1984 LOS ANGELES OLYMPICS


At the 1984 Los Angeles Games, Louganis found himself competing in front of his home crowd in California. He won the gold medal in both the 3m springboard and 10m platform events. This made him the first Olympian in 56 years to achieve this spectacular double.
He won the 1984 Olympics 3m Springboard Competition by a whopping margin 94 points, in a sport where the winning margin is measured in the Decimals.




In winning both the springboard and the platform at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, Louganis became the first man to pull off that Olympic double since American Pete Desjardins in 1928. He also was the first to pass 700 points in both events in the same Olympics. His 710.91 points remain the most recorded in the Olympic platform competition since the advent of the current scoring system, and his victory in the springboard was the most lopsided in the history of the Games.

SEOUL - SEPTEMBER 19: Greg LOUGANIS of the USA diving team hits his head on the board during competition at the 1988 Seoul Olympics on September 19. Photo shows him right after hitting his head.(Photo by Pascal Rondeau/Getty Images)

1988 SEOUL OLYMPICS


Four years later in Seoul Olympic Games 1988, Louganis was now a veteran of his sport and faced a number of upcoming younger rivals. Yet despite striking the board with his head in the 9th Dive of the 3m Springboard Qualification rounds, Louganis dramatically retained both his Olympic titles. Given his dominance, it is highly probable that the 1980 boycott prevented Louganis from winning the diving double at three consecutive Games, which would have been an unprecedented feat.

 
I watched this Event myself and this CEMENTED Greg Louganis' Legacy as the Greatest Diver Ever. He thwarted the threat of People's Republic of China's Tan Lian De, Xiong Ni and upcoming Chinese diving stars for 2 Olympic Games.


 


SOURCES
Wikipedia
http://www.olympic.org/gregory-louganis
Youtube

SHIZUKA ARAKAWA

SHIZUKA ARAKAWA 
(荒川 静香) 

http://frostwhisper2012.blogspot.com/2012/11/shizuka-arakawa.html

 






Shizuka Arakawa is Japan's First-ever Ladies Figure-skating Olympic Champion.
In the Torino 2006 Winter Olympic Games,
Japan was posed to have its WORST EVER Performance with a Gold Medal Shutout.
Arawaka won the Gold Medal and became Olympic Champion.

Shizuka Arakawa came through with Flying Colors as one-by-one her competitors fell by the wayside. She was the Most Consistent Performer of the Figure-Skating Program.

Her Signature Manuever is the INA BAUER ("The Arakawa Way").
It became a National Japanese Term and source of National Pride.
If you watch the Her Winning Performance below
...it is just Soooo Beautiful.


This is Shizuka Arakawa's Gold Medal Winning Long Program
from the 2006 Torino Winter Olympic Games.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6aSOpy2Z9g



Date of Birth:
December 29, 1981

Place of Birth:
Shinagawa, Tokyo, Japan

Family:
Shizuka Arakawa is the only child of Koichi and Sachi Arakawa.
She grew up in Sendai, Miyagi.

Early Skating:
Arakawa began skating when she was five years old. It has been said that she began landing triple jumps when she was eight years old. She began to compete in national Japanese figure skating events in 1994.

Shizuka Arakawa's Olympics:
At the age of sixteen, in 1998, Shizuka Arakawa competed for Japan in the Olympics in Nagano. Japan. She did not qualify for the 2002 Winter Olympics, so she did not participate in the 2002 Olympic Games.

Shizuka Arakawa was not the favorite to win in 2006, but she skated a perfect long program and pulled up from third place to win the Olympic title.

Arakawa was twenty-four years old when she won the Olympic Figure Skating title. That made her the oldest women's Olympic figure skating champion since 1908 Olympic Figure Skating Champion Florence "Madge" Cave Syers.
Syers won at the age of twenty-seven.

Education:
Arakawa graduated from Waseda University in 2004.
She won the 2004 World Figure Skating Championships at the time she was completing her college education.

Hobbies and Interests:
Shizuka Arakawa enjoys gourmet cooking, swimming and diving, golf, collects beanie babies, and loved animals.

Trademark Moves:
Shizuka Arakawa did a beautiful layback Ina Bauer at the Olympics. In her winning performance, she bent back all the way with her head completely upside down. The Ina Bauer is now considered her trademark move. In Japan, when fans see the move, they don't call it an Ina Bauer; instead they refer to it as the "Arakawa way."

Arakawa is also known for doing beautiful spirals. Her signature spiral is a "Y-spiral." When she does that move, she releases her free leg and completes the spiral with her leg still close to her head. She does not use her hand to assist in holding the leg close to her head.

Professional Skating Career:
Shizuka Arakawa retired from competitive skating after the 2006 Winter Olympics.
She has performed in exhibitions and is a figure skating commentator for Japanese television.








SOURCES:

http://figureskating.about.com/od/olympicchampions/p/arakawa.htm
Wikipedia
Youtube
Google Images