Liang Chow's (Shawn Johnson's coach) story:
[quote]"China has always been a very strong country in gymnastics," Chow said. "It has always been on top. There are always high expectations."
He matched those expectations as a top all-around competitor, becoming the first gymnast to perform a double front release with a piked position on parallel bars as he competed worldwide, although never in the Olympics.
Before China's world team trials in 1989, Chow sustained an injury that puzzled his trainers and doctors.
"I couldn't move my left leg for one month," he said. "But the week before the trials I found a doctor who fixed me up. It was a miracle."
The old, retired healer brought Chow to his house and began massaging and adjusting his injured leg.
"It was painful," Chow said. "And on the first day, nothing. The second day, nothing. The third day, nothing.
"But he kept saying, 'Oh, you'll be fine.' "
The fourth day, Chow got up and walked.
"I was completely better," he said.
He won the trials.
"I felt so good about myself," he said.
But after a month in bed, his stamina had disappeared, and he struggled in Stuttgart.
"My ankles were killed," he said. "But I told myself that no matter what, I've got to do this meet."
His career slowed down after Stuttgart, and his schedule tapered off before he retired at the 1991 American Cup.
He was 23.[/quote]
[quote]"I accepted a full-ride scholarship to the University of Iowa to study English," he said, "not for gymnastics."
Iowa men's gymnastics coach Tom Dunn had tried earlier to recruit him for the team.
"He got too good," Dunn said. "There was no way they were going to let him leave the national team to come compete in the U.S."
When Chow did arrive, he tried to settle into an unfamiliar land, living in Iowa City from 1991 to 1998, but it was rough.
"It was culture shock," he said.
Chow became an assistant coach for Hawkeye gymnasts, but had trouble instructing them in his broken English.
"I had to show them what to do because I couldn't tell them," he said.
Dunn said Chow was a good friend, and a good assistant.
"He is very meticulous," Dunn said. "Very driven."
Even as Chow's language skills improved and he became an American citizen, he was isolated.
"I was famous in China," he said.
He was invisible in Iowa City.
"I have been to the sky," he said, "and then to the floor."
He stayed for seven years, studying, learning the culture and gradually daring to dream about returning to a place where he truly felt at home - the world stage.
"I always wanted to have my own school," he said.
He saw a void in central Iowa, even though it would mean another move.
"You start over again," he said. "That's all."[/quote]
Opened up his own club:
[quote]Three months after Chow's Gymnastics and Dance Institute opened in 1998, Shawn Johnson, an energetic 6-year-old from West Des Moines, walked in.
Chow had never met a child like her.
"This kid had something extra," he said. "She loved gymnastics. She loved to work out. She loved to be in the gym. She wanted to learn, and to get better. She took correction so well. She would ask for correction. And she was very strong physically."
She was a future national champion, crowned two weeks ago in San Jose, Calif.[/quote]
national athlete and coach of the yeat:
[quote]Shawn Johnson. Liang Chow. United States. China.
In Stuttgart.
Coincidence? Or destiny?
Johnson and Chow, who will forever be linked, have a genuine close connection.
"I can finish his sentences," she said. "And after one of my routines, I only need to glance at him to know what he is thinking, and what he's going to say."
Chow knows her just as well.
"I think of her like I would my own daughter," he said.
Together, they were named USA Gymnastics' national athlete and coach of the year.
Together, they will take center stage in Stuttgart - he more nervous than she.
"It's a very different feeling," Chow said.
"There's a lot of pressure as a coach, when your athlete is leading the team. I take it very seriously. We have a big job. We have a big responsibility."
It's the same as when he was Chinese team co-captain.
"We have high expectations to win this meet," he said.[/quote]
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