China WAG was so strong in 2008. Why they get weaker after?

[Iminhanoi]

In 2008, China WAG had Cheng Fei - one of greatest female vaulter of all time, and also very strong in balance beam and floor.

They also had three very strong all-arounders Deng Linlin, Yang Yilin and Jiang Yuyuan and a very masterful uneven bars specialist- He Kevin.

They added Li Shanshan, who has established herself as a balance beam specialist after she won gold in balance beam events at Chinese National Gymnastics Championships two consecutive times (2006 and 2007).

They still had too many more options: Sui Lu, Xiao Sha who were not selected to compete at the 2008 Olympic because no more seats available.





As a very strong team, The Chinese WAG team has defeated the USA team and won their first team gold at Olympic, despite US team also very strong that year (had two gigantic all-arounders Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin).





However after 2008, Chinese WAG get weaker. In team, they can only fighting for bronze (only in 2016).
They only produced one new Olympic champion (Guan Chenchen) since Olympic 2008 (Deng Linlin won gold in 2012 but she already has won gold in 2008).




In Olympic this year, China WAG only can fighting for gold at UB and BB but both failed. In team final, Qiu Qiyuan, Luo Huan, Zhou Yaqin were not strong enough to help their team to get any medals (only placed 6th)

 

[makam]

Isn't there a lot of internal political maneuvering between the different regions/clubs? Like, they won't pick someone for the Olympic team if there are too many from that region or club already chosen? Also, it seems like they've really prioritized UB and BB at the expense of VT and FX. It could be because the gymnasts themselves prefer those two and so train them and excel and bring so much to the team, the coaches are willing to forget their mediocre VT and FX skills. But when it is everyone on the team with basically the same skillset, you end up with an unbalanced team that can't reach for the top spot. And generally, UB and BB are the easiest to fall off, especially under stress.

Plus, they were only that strong in 2008 because they went digging in their junior ranks to skim the cream off the top.

 

[hmmmm]

I feel like there was an interview with Maria Paseka or Tatiana Nabieva detailing their experience and they basically said team China didn't really value outside opinion or change.

 

[MaryClare]

I feel like there was an interview with Maria Paseka or Tatiana Nabieva detailing their experience and they basically said team China didn't really value outside opinion or change.

Well Tatiana Nabieva is now a provincial head coach, the first non Chinese to hold such a position (and seems a rarity for any woman to do so). I like they listed her name as Nabi Tan.

 

[MaryClare]

I do not know enough about how gymnastics works in China, but putting aside any internal politics, it seems to me that China didn’t cope so well with the COP changes. 2011 to 2016 was very much the age of the Amanar. Everyone was doing it or training it. Except China. Which lead to china increasingly rely on bars and beam for higher scores, rather than vault where it’s unlikely for things to go wrong. I don’t know why they can no longer develop vaulters. Cheng Fei was very much a broke the mould sort of gymnast, but even He Kexin could vault

This quad should have been easy for China with Russia banned from competition. Also they have a vast reserve of top gymnasts that countries such as Brazil, GB and Italy don’t have. Those countries often lose significant scoring potential through injury.

But China’s results have been pretty much where they were last quad.