yall gcc retired? 😭

Guan Chenchen (CHN), BB, 2020 Olympic Games

I'm gonna miss chenchen's cute antics at national competitions so much 🥺🥺

WIP Wednesday

I’m plugging away at ch 19 of the rock star au (aka Dance the Silence Down) so have a couple of bits. In this chapter, the showcase finally happens and I’m writing sections in each of the three POVs. Here are the first parts of DFS and FDB’s POVs (I haven’t written LLH yet).

Di Feisheng:

Dusk2Dawn is packed, like it always is on these nights—showcases are guaranteed to bring in a big crowd, which is why the venue runs them monthly. It’s why DFS had already played one, plans to play another, though he’s been trying to put together a band before he comes back. Too bad he’s been far too distracted by Xiangyi to make more than half-hearted efforts to pull a band together. He can admit to himself that he’s been hoping that Xiangyi will snap out of his… funk, depression, whatever, and agree to play with him. After Wednesday, well—

After Wednesday, he thinks, leaning against the bar and ordering a beer, he’ll be lucky to get Xiangyi to speak to him at all tonight.

It’s been a long fucking time since he’s played something so incredibly wrong. To learn that Xiangyi doesn’t even play piano anymore—it makes him sick to his stomach just to think about it. Everyone knew the stories—discovered by Qi Mushan, an amazing musician in his own right, in an orphanage playing piano at age 4. On the concert stage at 11, touring until he “quit” at 16 to start a rock band with his brother… Xiangyi once told him that his earliest memories were of someone singing him a lullaby; that he remembered picking the notes out on the piano over and over again, and never knowing what it was until Qi Mushan told him it what it was. And then, of course, he’d learned to play it flawlessly.

***

Fang Duobing

“You look so cuuuuuuute!”

Fang Duobing can feel his cheeks heat up as Kira plucks at his sweater.

“I told you the white cable knit was the best option, you look like you’re on the cover of Vogue.” She turns to Chenchen. “Doesn’t he look like the perfect singer-songwriter?”

“Um,” he starts, but Chenchen cuts him off.

“I still think you could have gone edgier,” she says, making a little moue of dissatisfaction. “Let me do your makeup now, you need more mascara for your eyes to really pop.”

It’s all he can do not to bat her hands away and cover his face in mortification. He reminds himself that his friends are just being supportive no matter how embarrassing it is to have them fuss over him in front of Li Lianhua.

“It’s fine,” he mutters, trying to duck away, but Chenchen grabs his arm and then makes him squat down so she can reach his eyelashes. Damn it.

He can see Li Lianhua out of the corner of his eye, standing silently nearby with on hand in his pocket, the other holding Fang Duobing’s guitar case, his long hair pulled back half-up, half-down. He looks a little pale but otherwise his usual shit-eating self, and he laughs silently when he catches Fang Duobing’s eye.

“There!” Chenchen announces, “I think that’s perfect. And I like the way you did your hair, the leather guan makes you look like a cross between a wuxia hero and a bad boy.”

Oh no, he thinks, watching Li Lianhua mouth the words, “Bad boy,” before he clearly bites down on the inside of his cheek so he doesn’t burst into hysterical laughter. Sourly, Fang Duobing hopes he gets a canker sore. Jerk.

Why didn't Guan Chenchen participate in the Nationals?

She has retired to enjoy a normal life while she is still young.

Watch "The Most Difficult Beam Routine in the World | Olympic Champion Guan Chenchen 🥇" on YouTube

Title: Tokyo 2020 Gymnastics Stars: Guan Chenchen YouTube URL: https://youtu.be/d-BHROD7tM0

Tokyo 2020 Gymnastics Stars: Guan Chenchen

Guan Chenchen of Team China celebrates with her silver medalist teammate, Tang Xijing, after winning gold in the Women's Artistic Gymnastics Balance Beam Event Final on Day 11 of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre on August 3rd, 2021 (Source: IMAGO and Getty Images)

Guan Chenchen (CHN) @ Olympics Tokyo 2020 (2021) Qualification 

Guan Chenchen qualifies in 1st place to the balance beam EF with a 14,993 with the highest scored difficulty of 6.9  in the 2017-2021 quad 

here you go! olympics stickers edition! who should i do next? who are your favorites and which olympics moments should i draw next?

as usual, if you want to support my work and buy from my small business, you can go to my redbubble shop and get these designs and more as stickers or other, various merch! Thank you all so much for the support <3 redbubble.com/people/andzl/explore

Guan Chenchen | 14.633 | Balance Beam Olympic Champion

An update on the state of Women’s Elite Gymnastics

I wrote this for someone on reddit who said they hadn’t paid attention since the last Olympics:

Russia has been banned and while there appeared to be some softening language about it the IOC recently has reaffirmed that they will not welcome Russia back into the sporting community until the invasion has ceased. Many of the Russian athletes, who are funded by the state and so may or may not have a choice, have attended propaganda rallies. Including some of the under age gymnasts. Angelina Melnikova has also posted pictures holding a purpose with a Z on it. She won the 2021 World Championship AA and will not be defending her title because of the ban.

The last WAG qualification slots for Worlds were settled this week. The top 3 teams at this years worlds will have qualification to Paris locked up, other spots will be decided at next years worlds and the 2024 world cup series.

Chuso retired for about 3 days and then won a bunch of world cup gold medals. She is qualified (for vault only) to Worlds.  She has however decided to skip worlds this year to upgrade.

Kim Bui of Germany is retiring and her last competition will be Sunday at Euros event finals.

Mai Murakami of Japan retired after winning the 2021 World Floor championships.

Guan Chenchen of China the Olympic beam gold medalist has retired because she doesn't think she has any other goals in the sport

Sanne Wevers of Netherlands (the Rio beam gold medalist) and her sister appear to be holding their breath until the Dutch Federation gives them what they want but she has explicitly not retired. This one is complicated. The twins are coached by their father who was recently the subject of an abuse investigation which ended in a dismissal of the charges but because the investigating body made many procedural errors in the investigation. The Dutch federation declined to renew his employment contract.

Nina Derwael of Belgium, the Olympic Bars gold medalist is taking time off but intends to continue competing.

Melanie de Jesus dos Santos of France has been training with Simone Biles coaches in the US (but will still be competing for France).

The recently finished Commonwealth Games looked very strong for the English team but the AA was won by 24 year old Australian veteran Georgia Godwin. I hope that her win will give some new life to that program.

The Italians are in the process of storming through Euros, Asia D'Amato just won the Euros AA. Both the Italian and British teams look incredibly strong. On the junior side the baby Italians, Romanians and Germans won team medals and the Italians in particular look to have a sustainable next generation. Helen Kevric of Germany has been dominating both the European Youth Olympic Festival and Jr. Euros though. She'll be turning senior in 2024.

Brazil won the Pan American championships, the US team which I wouldn't dismiss entirely as a B team wasn't the strongest possible team and either rate Brazil was solid and the US had many beam disasters. Rebeca Andrade, the silver medal in the Olympic AA is being very careful about trying to not take excessive risks given that she's had a pretty bad injury history so she didn't do floor at the 2021 Worlds but still walked away with a fist full of medals. She's the favorite to win any AA she enters right now.

On the US side, Leanne Wong won the 2021 Worlds AA Silver medal and she is continuing elite as well as NCAA at Florida. She recently won the US classic and looks very solid with a beautiful vault upgrade that looks like it's aiming for a Cheng (there are things to talk about her block at classic but in an overview I'm not doing that). Jordan Chiles and Jade Carey have also continued to train elite but next week's US Champs will be the first time we see them. Sunisa Lee has also announced her intent to continue and attended at least one national team camp but isn't trying for Worlds this year. Trinity Thomas who has blossomed in NCAA has also made noises about returning to elite but that appears to be something she likely wont be doing until next year if at all. There is no evidence that Simone Biles is training or intends to train, she's made some vague statements about continuing around Tokyo but right now she appears to be living her best life and enjoying planning her wedding.

Lexi Zeiss, Shilese Jones and Konnor McClane are probably the other big names in the US program to watch.

Donatella Sacchi, the Italian head of the FIG women's technical committee (that writes the code of points and runs the judges), is on a crusade to return artistry to artistic gymnastics and is now requiring judges to fill out specific artistry deduction justifications to either make sure that the proper deductions are being taken or to invite those who don't to partake in some Amontillado in her basement.

TFW YOU WIN THE OLYMPICS AT YOUR SENIOR INTERNATIONAL DEBUT

my favorite moment of the olympics was when guan chenchen tripped over her own feet literal seconds after winning gold. beam icon.

@chnpirouette: Guan Chenchen’s parents watching her win Olympic gold 😂