In 1988, Chinese gymnast Li Donghua was training for the Seoul Olympics. During a training session, he tumbled off the bars, and injured his neck. This meant he was out of the Chinese team, and no Olympics. Still, his year ended pretty well. He met a Swiss tourist in Beijing, Esperanza Friedli. They married that same year and Li moved to Switzerland in 1989. He filed for a Swiss passport, but this required him to live in Switzerland for five years. In the meantime, the Chinese wouldn’t let him compete for China. After numerous Swiss national titles, he could finally enter an international event in 1994. At that year’s World Championships, he finished third in his favorite event, the pommel horse. He improved the following year and won the world title in the same event at the Worlds in Sabae, Japan. At the Centennial Olympics in Atlanta, he finally made his Olympic debut. At age 29, he was considered “old” for a gymnast. Neveretheless, he won Switzerland’s first gymnastics medal since 1952.
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