Cheng Fei

One of the world’s best athletes on the floor, the horse vault and the balance beam, Cheng Fei would be a top all-around gymnast, had it not been for her poor uneven bars performance. Cheng particularly excels in the vault, where a high-difficulty move (6.5) is named after her. She first performed it at the 2005 World Championships, where she won the title, a feat she repeated in 2006 and 2007. Her most successful year was perhaps 2006, as she also won world titles in the team all-around and the floor exercise, while earning three golds at the Asian Games in Qatar. Cheng Fei hoped to claim three or even four gold medals at her home Olympics in Beijing, but won “only” one title. With the Chinese women, she claimed her country’s first team all-around title for women, but her individual performances were somewhat disappointing. She led the qualification for both the horse vault and floor exercise, while also qualifying for the balance beam final. In the horse vault final, she performed the best jump of the field in the first round, but failed performing her own Cheng move, and dropped back to third. In the floor final, she fell, placing seventh, although she did finish third on the beam.