Wikipedia

Tang Xijing

In this Chinese name, the family name is Tang.

Tang Xijing (Chinese: 唐茜靖; pinyin: Táng Xījìng; Jyutping: Tong4 Sai1-zing6; born January 3, 2003) is a Chinese artistic gymnast. She is the 2019 World all-around silver medalist, matching Jiang Yuyuan at the 2010 World Championships for the highest all-around finish for a Chinese woman in World or Olympic history. She is also the 2020 Olympic silver medalist on balance beam and the 2022 Chinese national all-around champion. At the junior level she is the 2018 Youth Olympic balance beam champion and uneven bars bronze medalist. She unofficially announced her retirement on March 20, 2024, on her alternate Weibo account.

Tang Xijing
唐茜靖
Tang at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games
Personal information
Full nameTang Xijing
Nickname(s)Xixi, Silver Princess
Country represented China
Born (2003-01-03) January 3, 2003 (age 21)
Guangdong, China
HometownBeijing
DisciplineWomen's artistic gymnastics
LevelSenior international elite
Years on national team2016–Present (CHN)
Head coach(es)Wang Liming, He Hua
Medal record
Representing  China
Olympic Games
Silver medal – second place 2020 Tokyo Balance beam
World Championships
Silver medal – second place 2019 Stuttgart All-around
Asian Games
Gold medal – first place 2022 Hangzhou Team
Silver medal – second place 2022 Hangzhou Balance Beam
Asian Championships
Gold medal – first place 2022 Doha Team
Silver medal – second place 2022 Doha All-around
Silver medal – second place 2022 Doha Uneven bars
Youth Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place 2018 Buenos Aires Balance beam
Bronze medal – third place 2018 Buenos Aires Uneven bars

Junior gymnastics career

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Tang won the gold medal as part of the Chinese team with He Licheng, Qi Qi, Yin Sisi, and Zhao Shiting at the 2018 Asian Junior Championships in Jakarta, Indonesia. Individually, she won the gold on balance beam ahead of Yin and Eum Doh-yun of South Korea. Tang won the bronze medal in the all-around at the 2018 Chinese National Championships behind Luo Huan and Zhang Jin. She won silver with the Beijing team and placed fourth in the uneven bars final.

Tang competed at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina where she qualified third into the all-around final and all event finals except vault.[1] She placed fourth in the all-around after falling twice on beam.[2] In event finals, Tang won gold on balance beam ahead of Russia's Ksenia Klimenko and Great Britain's Amelie Morgan, and bronze on uneven bars behind Klimenko and Giorgia Villa of Italy. She also placed fourth on floor.[3]

 
Vault Qualification
 
Uneven Bars Final
 
Balance Beam Final
 
Floor Exercise Final
Tang at the 2018 Youth Olympics

Senior gymnastics career

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2019

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Tang was named to the Chinese team for the 2019 City of Jesolo Trophy with Liu Tingting, Qi Qi, and Zhang Jin, where they won the silver medal behind the United States. She individually placed fourth in the all-around and won silver on the uneven bars. At the 2019 Chinese National Championships, she won silver with the Beijing team and on balance beam behind junior Ou Yushan, as well as fourth in the all-around.

Tang was named to the Chinese team for the 2019 World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany, alongside Chen Yile, Li Shijia, Liu Tingting, Qi Qi, and Zhang Jin.[4] She helped the team qualify in second behind the United States and was the first reserve on uneven bars.[5] Tang failed to qualify to the all-around final due to the two-per-country rule. She competed on vault, where she debuted a new double-twisting Yurchenko vault, uneven bars, and floor during the team final to help China place fourth behind the United States, Russia, and Italy after the team counted three falls.[6]

Tang replaced Liu in the all-around final after Liu's withdrawal.[7] Despite qualifying in 21st place to the all-around, since she was replacing sixth-place qualifier Liu, she was seeded in the top rotating group. Tang hit four strong routines to win a surprise silver medal in the all-around behind five-time world champion Simone Biles of the United States and ahead of 2019 European Games Champion Angelina Melnikova of Russia. She recorded the second-highest beam score of the day behind Biles. This finish marks the highest placement of a female Chinese gymnast in World Championships or Olympic history, matching Jiang Yuyuan's second-place finish at the 2010 World Championships. It was also the first all-around medal won by a Chinese woman at the World or Olympic level since Yao Jinnan's bronze medal at the 2011 World Championships.[8]

2020

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After the postponement of the 2020 Summer Olympics due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Tang competed at the delayed Chinese National Championships in September.[9] As the reigning World all-around silver medalist, Tang was a favorite for the title.[10] In the qualification round, which also served as the team final, Tang and Qi Qi led the Beijing provincial team to a fourth consecutive silver medal. Individually, a major error on uneven bars and a fall on balance beam caused Tang to miss qualifying for both of those event finals and to enter the all-around final in sixth place.[11] However, a strong performance on floor featuring a new full-twisting double tuck allowed her to qualify to that final in third place behind Qi and reigning national champion Shang Chunsong.[11] After qualifications, Tang said she felt physically stronger and that she hoped to overcome her pattern of making errors in the first round of a competition.[12][13]

In the all-around final, Tang improved on her qualifications performance to place fifth in the two-day combined all-around standings. Tang recorded the top beam score of the day by a wide margin after landing her new double pike dismount and earned the fourth-highest score on both vault and floor exercise. Another major error on the uneven bars prevented her from making the all-around podium, with her training mates Wei Xiaoyuan and Qi Qi ultimately taking silver and bronze.[14][15] In the floor exercise final, Tang also placed fifth with a clean routine, less than a tenth from the podium.[16]

2021

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On 3 July, Tang was selected to represent China at the 2020 Summer Olympics alongside Lu Yufei, Ou Yushan, and Zhang Jin;[17] they finished seventh as a team. On 3 August she competed in the balance beam event final and won the silver medal behind compatriot Guan Chenchen.[18]

2022

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Tang competed at the 2022 Asian Championships in June. While there she helped China place first as a team. Individually she won silver in the all-around behind Zhang Jin and on the uneven bars behind Wei Xiaoyuan.[19] At the Chinese National Championships Tang placed first in the all-around. Additionally she placed third on uneven bars behind Luo Rui and Wei Xiaoyuan and eighth on floor exercise.[20]

Selected competitive skills

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Apparatus Name Description Difficulty Performed
Vault Baitova Yurchenko entry, laid out salto backwards with two twists 5.4 2019–20
Uneven Bars Healy Forward giant with 360° turn on one arm from reverse grip to L grip E 2019–21
Ling Forward giant with 360° turn on one arm from L grip to L grip 2019–21
Piked Jaeger Reverse grip swing to piked salto forwards to catch high bar 2019–21
Van Leeuwen Toe-on Shaposhnikova transition with 1⁄2 twist to high bar 2019–21
Balance Beam Layout step-out Mount: round-off at end of beam, salto stretched with step out E 2019–21
Layout Salto backwards stretched with legs together 2019–21
Switch ring Switch leap to ring position (180° split with raised back leg) 2019–20
Double pike Dismount: Double piked salto backwards 2020–21
Triple twist Dismount: laid out salto backwards with triple (3/1) twist F 2019
Floor Exercise Mukhina Double tucked salto backwards with full (1/1) twist E 2020–21
Triple twist Laid out salto backwards with triple (3/1) twist 2019–21

Competitive history

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Tang (right) on the uneven bars podium at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games
 
Tang (center) on the balance beam podium at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games
Year Event Team AA VT UB BB FX
Junior
2016 Junior National Championships        
2017 National Championships   4 8
National Games    
2018 Asian Junior Championships    
National Championships     4
Individual National Championships   4 5  
Youth Olympic Games 4     4
Senior
2019 City of Jesolo Trophy   4  
National Championships   4  
World Championships 4  
2020 National Championships   5 5
Individual National Championships     6  
2021 National Championships   4 5  
Olympic Games 7 7  
National Games   13 6
2022
Asian Championships      
National Championships 12     8
World Championships 6 WD
2023 National Championships 4
Asian Games   5  

Source:[21]

References

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  1. ^ Hopkins, Lauren (October 11, 2018). "Bachynska Edges Out Villa for Youth Olympic Games Lead". The Gymternet.
  2. ^ Hopkins, Lauren (October 13, 2018). "Villa Wins Youth Olympic Games Gold". The Gymternet.
  3. ^ "King Kitazono makes it five, women's golds for Villa and Tang". Olympic Channel. October 15, 2018.
  4. ^ "体操世锦赛中国队参赛名单揭晓" [Gymnastics World Championships China team entry list announced]. Xinhua News Agency. September 17, 2019.
  5. ^ Wijangco, Amanda (October 4, 2019). "China Tops Day 1 Of Gymnastics Worlds Qualifications". FloGymnastics.
  6. ^ Hopkins, Lauren (October 8, 2019). "2019 World Championships | Women's Team Final Live Blog". The Gymternet.
  7. ^ Goh, ZK; Bregman, Scott (October 9, 2019). "Artistic Gymnastics World Championships 2019 | Day 6 As It Happened". Olympic Channel. It appears that China's women's team captain, Liu Tingting, is out of the all-around final tomorrow. She had a rough day in team finals yesterday as China missed out on a medal.
  8. ^ "Biles wins record fifth world All-around title". Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique. October 10, 2019.
  9. ^ "Tokyo Olympics officially postponed until 2021". ESPN.com. 2020-03-24. Retrieved 2020-10-05.
  10. ^ says, Zyxcba (2020-09-24). "Injuries Sideline Top All-Arounders, But Competition Still Fierce at China's Nationals". The Gymternet. Retrieved 2020-10-05.
  11. ^ a b "Official qualifiers AA/EF 2020 Chinese Nationals". Golden China. Retrieved 2020-10-05.
  12. ^ 支持中国体操 SLW [@sui_luwu] (September 25, 2020). "TXJ said her performance in quals was just okay. she has been having minor problems on UB in training & was not able to correct the issues during competition but winter training has improved her strength a lot & she could see the progress on VT/FX https://t.co/GHPiZv8766" (Tweet). Archived from the original on September 25, 2020. Retrieved August 2, 2021 – via Twitter.
  13. ^ 支持中国体操 SLW [@sui_luwu] (September 25, 2020). "TXJ had a subpar performance in quals & only qualified in 6th to the AA. her focus on BB after things went stray after her mount. said there has been a pattern of her having subpar starts to competitions & messing up in quals so they need to adjust this problem https://t.co/89Us3j9IBQ" (Tweet). Archived from the original on September 25, 2020. Retrieved August 2, 2021 – via Twitter.
  14. ^ "Results AA 2020 Chinese Nationals". Golden China. Retrieved 2020-10-05.
  15. ^ "Tumblr". Tumblr. Retrieved 2020-10-05.
  16. ^ "2020 Chinese Championships Results". The Gymternet. 2020-09-29. Retrieved 2020-10-05.
  17. ^ Lu, Yuchen; Shen, Nan; Niu, Mengtong (3 July 2021). "步步为赢——中国体操队东京奥运会大名单诞生记" [Step-by-step to win – the creation of the Chinese gymnastics squad for the Tokyo Olympics]. Xinhua (in Chinese).
  18. ^ "Tokyo Olympics, Gymnastics: China's Guan Chenchen wins gold in balance beam, Simone Biles takes bronze". India Today. August 3, 2021. Retrieved 2021-08-03.
  19. ^ "2022 Asian Championships Results". The Gymternet. June 20, 2022.
  20. ^ "2022 Chinese Championships Results". The Gymternet. September 10, 2022.
  21. ^ Hopkins, Lauren (7 October 2018). "Tang Xijing". The Gymternet.
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