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YANHONG MA
Yanhong Ma (born March 21, 1964, Beijing, China; also reported in some media as July 5, 1963)
is a retired Chinese Olympic athlete. She was the first Chinese gymnast, male or female, to win a gold medal at the
World Gymnastics Championships and Olympic Games.
Ma began gymnastics at the Shichahai Sports School for Amateurs in her hometown of Beijing. The age at which she
started training has been variously reported as six, eight and nine.
In 1978, her first year with the Chinese national team, Ma made her international debut at the Asian Games, where she
shared in the team gold medal and won the uneven bars title. She repeated her success at the 1978 Shanghai Cup, again
winning team and bars titles. Ma was a member of the 1979, 1981 and 1983 World Championships teams; she was the Chinese
National Champion in 1982. At the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, Ma tied with American
Julianne McNamara to win the gold medal on bars.
Ma's best event was unquestionably the uneven bars; she placed first on this apparatus at the age of fifteen at the
1979 World Championships. Her bars routines were noted for their technical difficulty, virtuosity and originality.
The dismount she pioneered, a hecht-front salto-full now known as the Ma, was classified at "Super E," the highest difficulty
rating possible, in the 2005–2006 Code of Points. Ma was not only a bars specialist, however: she placed fourth in
the all-around at the 1981 World Championships, sixth AA at the 1984 Olympics, and often won silver or bronze medals
on the floor exercise and balance beam in international meets.
After retiring from gymnastics, Ma pursued a University education and spent some time in the UK and the United States,
coaching at clubs in California. She returned to China in 1994 and is now involved in business. She also owns a Japanese
restaurant in Beijing and has worked as a commentator for various gymnastics competitions, including the 1999 World
Championships in Tianjin. She is scheduled to be inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2008.
For more information, visit her
profile page on the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique website.
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