Article byJohn Manenti
Despite the large number of practitioners, China has not collected the proportionately medals one might have expected in Artistic Gymnastics at the Olympicsespecially in the women’s sector, even considering the debut at the Games only after the edition of Los Angeles 1984, where 20-year-old Ma Yanhong wins – albeit sharing the top step of the podium with the American Julianne McNamara – Gold on the uneven parallels …
From then on, however, the Chinese national team gets only one gold medal in Beijing 2008while none of its representatives manages to win the Individual General Competition (only three consecutive bronzes from Sydney 2000 to Beijing 2008 …), just as the single specialties are rather stingy with laurels, with no affirmation both in the Free Body – where even records any podium – than at Vaulting, where he collected just a silver with Mo Huilan in 1996 in Atlanta and a bonze with Cheng Fei in Beijing 2008.
The specialty, vice versa, where Chinese gymnasts get the greatest successes is undoubtedly the Beam which sees them conquer three Golds – Liu Xuan in Sydney 2000, Deng Linlin in London 2012 and Guan Chenchen at the recent Tokyo 2020 Games – with as many silvers, the first of which was won in the Barcelona 1992 edition by the protagonist of our story today, also capable of giving its best to the uneven parallel bars, as we will see …
The one of Lu Li, born on August 30, 1976 in Changsha, a city of nearly 6 million inhabitants in Hunan Provinceis one of those Stories that Sport often gives away, as as a child she is directed to the practice of Gymnastics by her parents in order to ensure that her daughter can improve her lack of appetite, except that her first coach notices immediately of Li’s potential, managing to convince the family to entrust her to his care, bringing her to live in his home to grow up with their daughter.
The choice proves to be successful, given that just 11 years old Li manages to enter the Hunan Gymnastics Team, except that she is diagnosed with a form of hepatitis B with which she is forced to live not giving up training while following an adequate cycle of therapies to deal with the disease, and the improvements from both points of view are such that Lu Li is included in the Chinese national team and can make his debut in a major international event on the occasion of the World Championships held in Paris in mid-April 1992 …
Less than four months before the Barcelona Olympics, the World Championship therefore becomes an opportunity not to be missed for the not yet 16-year-old Li who, registered only for Uneven bars, she performs in an exercise with highly innovative evolutions that do not fail to attract the attention of experts, despite the fact that an indecision in the exit prevents her from getting on the podium, fourth with a score of 9.887 while the title is won by the Romanian Lavinia Milosovici with 9.950.
Having obtained the pass for the Catalan capital, Lu Li is among the protagonists of the General Team Competition which takes place on 26 and 28 July 1992 on the platforms of the “Palau Sant Jordi” of Barcelonaqualifying for the Specialty finals both on Beam with the best overall score of 19.812 and on Uneven Parallels even with the sixth score of 19.824 even if China fails by the minimum margin (394.704 to 392.941) of less than 2 points on the podium, preceded by the USA, while the Gold Medal is won by a very narrow measure by the Commonwealth of Independent States (ex USSR) ahead (395.666 to 395.079) to Romania …
Also qualified for Individual General Competition together with compatriots Li Li and Yang Bo, Lu Li makes a mistake in the beam exercise which penalizes her enough to finish in third from last placewhile the challenge for the Gold takes place on the edge of the thousandths of a point and winning between the Ukrainian Tatiana Gutsu and the American Shannon Miller is the first for the trifle (39.737 to 39.725) of 0.012 thousandths, with Milosovici to complete the podium.
At an Olympics, every little mistake is paid dearly, as gymnasts well know, when on the evening of 1 August 1992 the 8 best took to the platform for the specialty Finalsthe first of which is the Volteggio at 20:00 local time, followed by the Uneven bars, with high technical level exercises which, after the first four performances – remember that the scores obtained in qualifying have no value, all starting from scratch – see at the top of the Provisional classification a trio composed by the two Romanians Milosovici and Mirela Pasca and by the North Korean Kim Gwang SukWorld Champion the previous year in Indianapolis …
It’s time to get on the platform Gutsu Individual General Competition Gold Medal, followed by Miller Silver, with ukraine by birth to perform an exercise awarded by the Judges with 9.975 which puts her in first place ahead of the American, rated 9.962 when at the end of the competition only the performances of the two Chinese Lu Li and Li Li are missing …
To hope for a placement on the podium it is logically necessary to perform a flawless routine, while to be able to undermine Gutsu from the top step, absolute perfection must be achieved, feat hardly within anyone’s reach, least of all for the still inexperienced Luas well as absolutely tiny (1.36 m for 30 kg. …!!) in stature, which vice versa stages a test that makes her enter the History of the Discipline by right, given that all 6 Judges agree in awarding her with a “10” that the Olympic Champion degreepace of its most direct opponents, forced to go down one position.
Galvanized by the unexpected triumph and not at all satisfied, the Chinese moves to the platform for the beam exercise where, remember, she had been the best in qualifying but had made a mistake in the Individual General Competition, which is why, having regained the necessary concentration given the importance of the moment, this time she manages to perform to the best of their ability, obtaining the right recognition from the Jury with a score of 9.912 which allows it to share the second step of the podium with Millerwhile the Gold goes to the other Ukrainian born Tatyana Lisenko whose performance is valued at 9.975, one step away from perfection.
Perfection that, on the contrary, also gets the Milosovoci in the fourth and last specialty of the Free Body with another “10” destined to make history, since from now on, this evaluation will no longer be assigned during an Olympic Finalwhile for lovers of curiosities related to numbers, it is singular that Lu obtained a 10 on the Uneven Parallel Bars at the age of 16 and exactly 16 years later, a similar score assigned to the “legendary” Romanian Nadia Comaneci…
Simple coincidence…!? Maybe …