China News Service, June 20, a number of media reported here that yesterday, Lu Shanzhen, the former head coach of the Chinese women's gymnastics team, died at the age of 63 due to cardiogenic myocardial infarction. During his tenure as the head coach of the Chinese women's gymnastics team, he has trained many Olympic champions including Liu Xuan, Cheng Fei and He Kexin. Sino-Singapore Sports also confirmed this news from other sources.
Lu Shanzhen (data map) Image source: Osports Quanshen Pictures
Many people still remember Cheng Fei's "shock". In 2005, at the 38th World Gymnastics Championships vaulting competition held in Melbourne, Australia, 17-year-old Cheng Fei showed his stunt prepared for one year - "Cheng Fei Jump", becoming China's first world vaulting champion China won another gymnastic movement named after the Chinese athlete.
Many people can’t forget the scene at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. After a set of smooth and perfect balance beam movements, Liu Xuan steadily landed from the balance beam, leaving a bright and sweet smile to the world. These two players standing at the highest point of the world women's gymnastics are Lu Shanzhen's lovers.
Lu Shanzhen and Cheng Fei. Image source: Osports All Sports Pictures
Since serving as the head coach of the Chinese women's gymnastics team in 1993, Lu Shanzhen has collaborated with Liu Qunlin to train many world champions such as Kui Yuanyuan, Bi Wenjing, Liu Xuan, Cheng Fei, Yang Yilin, He Ning, Zhang Nan, etc. 4 Olympic gold medals.
Lu Shanzhen was a skilled athlete. After entering the national team as a gymnastics coach, he was mainly responsible for the teaching work of the women's team. Although many world champions have been cultivated one after another, the Chinese team's gap in the team world champion has always been his biggest regret.
In the past, the international gymnastics community's impression of the Chinese women's team was: high athletes and high movement difficulty, but poor psychological quality and poor performance on the spot. Especially in the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, the Chinese women's gymnastics team, who had been high hopes before the game, made mistakes one after another in the competition, and finally won no money.
Data map: Coach Lu Shanzhen protects the players from making difficult moves.
"For so many years, the International Sports Federation and many gymnastics have looked down on the Chinese team. Why do they look down? They think the Chinese team is not good." Lu Shanzhen said helplessly.
After the Athens Olympics, Lu Shanzhen turned his attention to Cheng Fei when he was looking for a team leader to achieve team breakthroughs. The latter's performance at the 2005 Melbourne World Championships also made Lu Shanzhen's confidence in achieving team breakthroughs at the Beijing Olympics.
In order to achieve the goal, Lu Shanzhen allowed the core team members such as Cheng Fei to continue to achieve high levels, and at the same time dig new people across the country to train young players. In the 2006 World Championships, Zhang Nan, Cheng Fei and Li Ya led the Chinese women's gymnastics team to win the first team world championship.
The Chinese gymnastics women's team won the first Olympic women's team gold medal in the history of Chinese gymnastics. The head coach of the women's team Lu Shanzhen and the "Six Golden Flowers" passionately embraced and celebrated.
August 13, 2008 is a day enough to be included in the history of Chinese gymnastics. In the Beijing Olympics gymnastics competition held that day, the Chinese women's body played well and won the first Olympic team gold medal in history.
To achieve this goal, generations of Chinese gymnasts have waited for 55 years. After the game, the Chinese female body was given the reputation of "Mulan Gymnastics Team" by some netizens.
And all of this is inseparable from Lu Shanzhen’s decades of silent hard work, "I really do feel proud that the Chinese women’s team can achieve the biggest team championship in our hands, which can be said to us gymnasts. Say that was the most perfect result."
Five days later, He Kexin won the gold medal on the uneven bars of the Beijing Olympics. For the first time, the Chinese women's gymnastics team won several gold medals in women's gymnastics in a row at the Olympic Games.
Lu Shanzhen (right) and Cheng Fei. Image source: Osports All Sports Pictures
The wonderful performance of the Chinese women's gymnastics team in the Beijing Olympic Games finally made Lu Shanzhen raise his eyebrows. "In such a big Olympic Games, the Chinese gymnastics women's team can win the team championship. This really shows the world that the Chinese gymnastics women's team is currently the world's most Strong lineup."
"In recent years (international women’s gymnastics), it has been a confrontation between China and the United States. After we won the team championship in 2006, there may be many people who think that the Chinese women’s team is lucky (winning the championship), but today our excellent performance, Explain that the Chinese women's team is the best." He said.
Lu Shanzhen once said: "Competing for gold and silver is a task we must complete." But in his decades of coaching career, he has always been a silent devotee. Despite having trained many world champions and Olympic champions, Lu Shanzhen's name has been little known.
In 2012, Lu Shanzhen, head coach of the women's team, was interviewed. China News Agency issued a photo of Tomita
As a devotee behind the championship, Lu Shanzhen used the unique and advanced awareness and training method possessed by a head coach to lead the Chinese women's team from the trough of failure to the peak of history, and in the national women's team's southward battle. Created brilliant achievements.
It is regrettable that since 2013, Lu Shanzhen was promoted to deputy director of the gymnastics center, in charge of rhythmic gymnastics, trampoline projects, no longer serving as the head coach of the women's team, and since then left the national team for 30 years.
After retiring, Lu Shanzhen's life was very low-key. After staying away from the front line, he continued to exert his residual heat to cultivate reserve forces for Chinese women's gymnastics. The news of his death now makes many Chinese gymnastics fans feel sorry.
Chinese gymnastic star Yang Wei also expressed his nostalgia for coach Lu Shanzhen through social media. He wrote: "When I received the news, I sighed endlessly! Familiar teachers, memories of working together have emerged one by one! Go, Lu Gui!"