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AMY CHOW
Amy Chow (born May 15, 1978 in San Jose, California) is an American gymnast and a member of the famous "Magnificent Seven"
who were the first American team to win Olympic gymnastics gold. Her fellow team members were
Jaycie Phelps,
Dominique Dawes,
Shannon Miller,
Kerri Strug,
Amanda Borden and
Dominique Moceanu. Chow was coached by Mark Young and was the first Asian-American
woman to take an Olympic medal in her sport.
Chow began gymnastics training in 1981, and began competing in national and international competitions in 1990. She is primarily
known for her performance at the 1996 Olympics where she won a silver medal on the uneven bars and a team gold. She also competed in the
2000 Summer Olympics, although the team did not win a medal in Sydney. Chow, however, qualified to the all-around finals where she was the
second ranked American woman, finishing in fourteenth place.
Chow has two gymnastic moves named after her, the "Chow" (Stalder 1-1/2 pirouettes) and the "Chow II" (Stalder to Shaposhnikova).
She was nicknamed "the Trickster" for her extreme difficulty on each apparatus and her ability to perform complicated skills with apparent
ease. She was the first American woman to perform both the double-twisting Yurchenko and the tucked double-double dismount on bars in
international competition. Chow also competed one of the most difficult balance beam routines ever performed. In it were a standing piked
full, a flip flop, layout, flip flop, layout series, a full-twisting swing down, and a round off, flip flop, triple full dismount.
In addition to her gymnastic career, Chow is also a pianist. In 1994, she received an advanced level certificate of merit for piano.
In high school she was also a competitive diver for Castilleja School. In 2006 she graduated medical school at Stanford University, having
earned an undergraduate degree in biology from Stanford in 2002. She is currently a pediatrics resident at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital
at Stanford.
Amy has been a pole vaulter, and has competed as an unattached athlete at open track and field events in the discipline. Because
she received money following the 1996 Olympic Games, she was ineligible to be a collegiate athlete.
For more information, visit her
profile page on the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique website.
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