Sui Lu

Sui Lu
Sui Lu (2009)
Personal information
Nationality:	People's Republic of China
discipline	Apparatus gymnastics
Special device / s:	Floor balance beam
Society:	Shanghai team
Trainer:	Lu Shanzhen
Birthday:	April 1, 1992
Place of birth:	Zhuzhou , Hunan , People's Republic of China
Size:	153 cm
Weight:	43 kg
Medals
Chinese national games gold 2009 Shandong Team all-around gold 2009 Shandong Floor exercise bronze 2009 Shandong Individual all-around bronze 2009 Shandong Balance beam gold 2013 Liaoning Team all-around silver 2013 Liaoning Balance beam silver 2013 Liaoning Floor exercise  Asian Games gold 2010 Guangzhou Team all-around gold 2010 Guangzhou Individual all-around gold 2010 Guangzhou Balance beam gold 2010 Guangzhou Floor exercise  World championships bronze 2009 London Floor exercise bronze 2010 Rotterdam Team all-around gold 2011 Tokyo Balance beam silver 2011 Tokyo Floor exercise bronze 2011 Tokyo Team all-around  Olympic games silver 2012 London Balance beam

Sui Lu ( Chinese  眭 禄 , Pinyin Suī Lù ; born April 1, 1992 in Zhuzhou , Hunan ) is a former Chinese gymnast. After appearing in the international adult sector from 2008, the athlete, who specialized in floor exercise and the balance beam, was successful in various competitions. After the Chinese National Games in 2013 , where she won gold once and silver twice, she ended her career as a gymnast at the age of 21.

life and career

Born in 1992 in the east Chinese city of Zhuzhou in Hunan Province, Sui began her career as a gymnast at the age of five with the "Hunan Team". In 2000 she was accepted by the “ Shanghai Team”, for which she celebrated numerous successes at national level. In 2004 she was brought into the Chinese national team, for which she appeared in the adult division from then on. At the national championships in 2007, she won gold on the balance beam, and for the first time in 27 years gold for Shanghai in the women's all-round competition, followed by another gold medal in the floor exercise at the national championships in 2008. She beat later Olympic champions like Cheng Fei , Jiang Yuyuan , Li Shanshan or Deng Linlin . In that year she was also considered a contender for participation in the Olympic Summer Games in her own country , in which the Chinese women subsequently won the gold medal in the team all-around competition. Due to her inconsistent performance during the World Cup in 2008, however, she did not make it into the final Chinese squad and was replaced by Deng Linlin along with the also inconsistent Xiao Sha .

In the 11th Chinese National Games in the province of Shandong Sui acted as key person of their team. In the team final she successfully completed all four machines and won the gold medal with her teammates Fu Binbin , Tan Sixin , Xiao Kangjun , Yang Ruxue and Zhang Yujiao with 0.125 points ahead of the " Guangdong Team". In the individual competitions she achieved the bronze medal in the individual all-around, as well as bronze on the balance beam and gold in the floor exercise. Especially from this time on, Sui became one of the best Chinese athletes at the moment on the balance beam and on the floor and celebrated various national and international successes. Shortly before the Chinese national games, Sui Lu took part in the 2009 World Gymnastics Championships in London , where she achieved bronze in floor exercise, among other things. In her second special discipline, after a fall in qualification, she was only able to take eighth place, which meant that she could no longer take part in the later final round. Since only a maximum of two athletes from one nation were allowed to be represented in the final round, Deng Linlin and Yang Yilin took part, with the former winning the gold medal. But even during the World Cup 2009 Sui was able to win various disciplines; Among other things, she won three gold medals on the ground (in Stuttgart , Osijek and Cottbus ), and another gold medal on the balance beam in Osijek.

Numerous other medals followed in the following year 2010, when Sui Lu took part in the 2010 World Gymnastics Championships in Rotterdam and the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou . At the World Championships in the Netherlands, the Chinese women consisting of Sui Lu, Jiang Yuyuan, He Kexin , Huang Qiushuang , Deng Linlin and Yang Yilin achieved the bronze medal behind the United States (silver) and Russia (gold). In the individual competitions, however, Sui could not prevail; in one of their favorite disciplines, floor exercise, it was only enough for fifth place. After she only finished the qualification on the uneven bars at 38th place, she also did not make it into the final round with a 15th qualification rank on the balance beam. However, the 18-year-old achieved far better success a month later at the Asian Games, where she won a total of four gold medals. She prevailed over all opponents on the floor, on the balance beam, as well as in individual and team all-around matches. One of the reasons she failed to participate in the uneven bars was because the Chinese and Japanese women in particular triumphed in the qualification and only a maximum of two participants from one nation are allowed to take part in the later final round. Due to the strong Chinese and Japanese placements, it was necessary to access up to 13th place. Furthermore, in the last week of August 2010, she achieved three gold medals (balance beam, floor and individual all-around), as well as the bronze medal in the team all-around event at the national championships in her native city of Zhuzhou.

A year later, she was able to celebrate further successes at the World Gymnastics Championships in Tokyo in 2011 , after winning gold on the balance beam, on the floor and in the team at the national championships in Kunshan in May of the same year . At the gymnastics world championships, Sui Lu was able to triumph again in her parade disciplines and won gold on the bar with a clear lead over the second-placed Yao Jinnan and was second in the floor exercise with a small gap to the Russian Xenija Dmitrijewna Afanassjewa . In the team all-around competition, behind the United States and Russia, the Chinese only achieved third place and the associated bronze medal. Due to her consistent performance and the two gold medals (beam and team) and bronze on the ground at the national championships in Shanghai in May 2012, Sui took part in the 30th Summer Olympic Games in the UK's capital London from July to August 2012 . In an interview, Sui said that after she was excluded from the Chinese contingent at the 2008 Olympic Games, she was thinking of retiring early, but that she remained loyal to the sport thanks to the support of her coaches. For her home country, the then 20-year-old appeared on her special equipment. While she failed in the qualification with a 13th place in the floor exercise, she made it into the final with eight athletes as first place in the qualification on the beam. In the final on the women's balance beam at The O₂ , she made it 0.1 points behind her compatriot Deng Linlin for Olympic silver. In the team ranking, the Chinese finished the tournament in fourth place, with Sui contributing the highest number of points for her team in both disciplines. Immediately after the Olympic Games, the 20-year-old began studying HR at Jiaotong University in Shanghai in September 2013 .

One of the last major events that Sui Lu completed was the national championships in May 2013 in Dalian , which placed the 153 cm tall athlete in sixth place on the beam and the gold medal on the floor, which she and Shang Chunsong had the same number of points had reached, shared, ended. In the team all-around competition, the "Team Shanghai" consisting of Sui Lu, Tan Sixin, Xiao Kangjun, Yang Tianyi , Zhang Yiqian and Fan Yilin won the gold medal again. In September 2013, the gymnastics competitions of the 2013 Chinese National Games in Liaoning Province also took place in Dalian , with Sui taking part in a major tournament for the last time. In the final ranking, Sui won a silver medal each on the beam and on the floor, as well as a gold medal in the team.

On December 26, 2013, Sui, who differed from her opponents over large parts of her career because, unlike the others, she never did gymnastics barefoot, but always with socks, left with numerous other Chinese athletes in early retirement .

Web links

• Sui Lu in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
• Sui Lu's tournament profile during the 2012 Summer Olympics on the official BBC website
• Sui Lu in the database of the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (English)
• Interview with Sui Lu shortly after their careers end (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Sui Lu on data.sports.163.com (English), accessed on May 21, 2015
2. ↑ 世界 冠军 眭 禄 退役 进 上海 交大 读 人力 资源 专业 (Chinese), accessed May 21, 2015

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Chinese. Sui is the family name here, Lu is the first name.