I think having a well-known and respected Chinese coaching the American team will help to sway some fans to support the team (at least when not playing against China).
Women gymnastics also have a China-born and former national team member as its head coach, Liang Chow. I think the Chinese fans will be very receptive to Shawn Johnson and support/cheer her in her quest for gold medal(s).
www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/beijing/gymnastics/2008-08-06-johnson_N.htmJohnson's Roots Run from Iowa to Beijing.By Marlen Garcia, USA TODAY
WEST DES MOINES — Shawn Johnson stands at the end of the balance beam and takes a breath before launching into two back handsprings, then a flip that takes her to the opposite tip of the 4-inch-wide beam.
The 4-9, 90-pound gymnast doesn't flinch. She looks as comfortable on a beam, about 4½ feet high, as she would doing a cartwheel on a playground.
"She's never had any fear," says her mother, Teri.
Johnson's fearlessness and technical skill — and the Chinese-American coach who helped her combine the two — have made the 16-year-old one of the most intriguing story lines of the Beijing Olympics.
She is favored to win the all-around competition, the sport's most coveted title — and to do so in a nation where she has developed a following partly because her longtime coach, Liang Chow, is a product of China's proud gymnastics program.
Chow is remembered in China as a popular national team co-captain in the 1980s, when he competed as Qiao Liang — before he became a U.S. citizen and began using the Americanized version of his name.
Now, returning to his native city for the first time since immigrating to the USA in 1991, Chow is the coach of the leading gymnast on a U.S. team that is expected to battle China for the gold medal in the team competition.
He has fostered Johnson's emergence on the world stage with relatively short, efficient workouts that contrast with the training methods used by many U.S. gymnasts — and those in the Chinese system in which he grew up.
It all made Johnson and Chow a focus of the Chinese media's attention in the months before the Olympics. Chow said China Central Television visited West Des Moines several weeks ago.
"They are very interested in learning about me, my successful story in the United States and also my superstar Shawn," Chow says.
"It seems like everybody loves her," he adds. "The Chinese audience loves her. They mentioned something like, 'Normally you don't like your competitor so much, but in your case, I don't know why, we just love Shawn.' "
Johnson is the reigning world champion in the all-around competition, which involves combining a gymnast's scores from four events: floor exercise, vault, balance beam and uneven parallel bars.
She probably will face significant challenges from teammate Nastia Liukin and Romania's Steliana Nistor, who have won multiple individual medals in world championships, and from Italy's Vanessa Ferrari, the 2006 all-around world champion.
But Johnson says she is confident about pulling off her complicated routines — some of the world's toughest — with Chow directing her every twist and turn. Her trust in him transcends the intricacies of her sport.
"If he believes I can do it, if he thinks it's the best for me, then I have nothing to stop me from believing that," she says.
"It's just the best feeling ever to know that you have someone there who respects you so much that you can trust them to that level."
'A special karma going on'
Chow became Johnson's mentor 10 years ago, when Johnson's parents took her to his gym, Chow's Gymnastics and Dance Institute.
She was a bouncy 6-year-old who needed an outlet for pep that had her climbing the family's entertainment center. Chow was starting a gym with his wife, Liwen Zhuang, using hand-me-down equipment.
"He's gotten me to where I am," says Johnson, who is trying to become the second gymnast in the last three decades to win Olympic gold in all-around a year after winning a world title. Lilia Podkopayeva of Ukraine, the 1996 gold medalist, was the first to couple the titles.
Coaching Johnson has been a joint venture for Chow and Zhuang, 36, who teaches dance and handles choreography.
Johnson started with simple stuff. Somersaults and cartwheels evolved into handsprings and so forth until she was twisting and flipping with the world's elite.
Their bond is one of a kind. Johnson, who has worked exclusively with Chow and his wife, considers Chow a second father.
"They have a special karma going on," Teri Johnson says.
Chow plays down the significance of returning to his native country for the Olympics, though he couldn't conceal his pride after Johnson won the all-around title in the U.S. Olympic trials.
Going to Beijing is "going to be a very special moment," he says.
"Some of my relatives are still there. They're so ready to cheer us on. They're so excited to see us coming back."
Her coaches' milestone is not lost on Johnson. She has talked about wanting to make the Chinese proud of Chow and Zhuang.
In the past, to honor them, Johnson has had her name and theirs scripted in Mandarin on her leotards.
"I want to show their country that (the coaches') hard work is shown through me," she says.
"I want to prove that they are just as successful and amazing as they were when they left."
Chasing a dream
Chow's work with Johnson has made him a headliner in China again, as he was when he won a World Cup master all-around title in 1990, a year before retiring. "He was a very famous guy on the team," his wife says. "He was a role model. He was working so hard. He always had a smiling face."
Chow has kept that cheerful disposition even while working in relative anonymity in the USA — until now. He laughs when he says he learned as much English watching David Letterman as he did studying at the University of Iowa, where he was an assistant coach for seven years. He had an English scholarship, his avenue to coaching, Iowa gymnastics coach Tom Dunn says. Chow later became a U.S. citizen.
Chow's goal was to have his own gym with Zhuang, and they have built a hotbed in West Des Moines. He began with three gymnasts at his current location in an industrial complex. His gym is next to a storage warehouse and across from a window company.
Chow would have preferred to lease space in a strip mall for more exposure. However, "That's too expensive," he says with his typical chuckle. "We can't afford that."
Chow has lost track of how many gymnasts and tumblers, some just 18 months old, have taken classes with him. But as of January, he had coached 232 individual state champions and his club had won 16 state titles.
He says coming across a gymnast with a tireless work ethic and Olympic potential was like finding a winning lottery ticket on the street.
"I wouldn't have predicted it," Dunn says. "To have a girl like Shawn be in your neighborhood, it's kind of a once-in-a-lifetime thing, especially in the state of Iowa, where the population is small and there's no high school gymnastics. There's just a limited number of clubs."
Johnson immediately caught Chow's eye, but he brought her along slowly in an environment he describes as nurturing and supportive.
"With a loving environment, everyone can do more," he says.
That's far from the image many have of gymnastics, which often is associated with demanding coaches and image-conscious athletes who beat up their bodies in the gym.
Dunn says Chow wants to create an atmosphere he didn't have in China, where competition is particularly fierce and unforgiving.
"They have good gymnasts," Dunn says. "If you can't do it, they kick you out the door. They don't deal with keeping people happy."
Chow's approach doesn't make him less demanding of Johnson.
Her workouts are intense, but they're completed in four hours on most days. That's two to three fewer hours a day than many gymnasts train.
"I don't think you'll find many athletes in the history of the sport, that's all around the world, who practice like that," says Chris Korotky, publisher of Inside Gymnastics magazine.
"I guarantee you they're in the gym 40 hours a week."
Chow's formula has kept Johnson free from major injuries and allows her to attend a public school. She will be a junior this fall at Valley High School, where she is an A student.
The results speak for themselves.
"Chow definitely brings excellent planning on Shawn's preparation," U.S. women's national coordinator Martha Karolyi says.
"He always figures out … when to push and when to take a step back. She's always able to perform the best whenever the most important competitions are coming up."
Karolyi learned about Johnson three years ago, when Chow sent her a tape of a performance and asked that Johnson be invited to work out at the USA Gymnastics national training center outside Houston. That's a starting point to make the national team, but usually it's Karolyi and her staff who do the scouting.
" 'Wow, this coach is pretty confident,' " Karolyi recalls thinking. Karolyi says Johnson impressed her because of her "ability to focus, concentrate and perform under pressure."
'Like a normal kid'
Korotky compares Johnson's ability to concentrate to that of Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, who won six gold medals in Athens in 2004 and remains atop his sport heading to Beijing.
"When you are focused the way athletes only like Michael Phelps and Shawn Johnson are, you reduce the risk for injury," he says. "Your mind is not wandering."
Her other asset, another intangible, is a down-to-earth charm. In a sport judged subjectively, that can only help her.
"She's a world champion. All-around champion," Chow says. "In our little town, she's a huge star. (But) she's like a normal kid, helping other kids, moving equipment, moving the mats. All the little things other kids are doing, she's doing. There's no exceptions."
In June, when large areas of Chow's gym had to be rebuilt and equipment replaced because of flooding, Johnson was stunned that dozens of residents chipped in to help an Olympic hopeful they didn't know.
"I didn't understand the concept that people were coming out to help Shawn Johnson train or get back in her gym," she says. "I didn't see the reason for anybody to do that."
Humility is another trait she shares with Chow.
"We have been working together since she was 6 years old, a toothless little girl," Chow says.
"To demonstrate we are capable of creating a world champion in all-around — but also we helped a little girl to achieve her dream — there's nothing better than that."
