When Qiao Liang landed in Iowa in 1993, preparing to start a new life at the University of Iowa on a full scholarship after a successful career on the Chinese national gymnastics team, he didn't expect his homecoming to become a national topic of conversation 15 years later.
Qiao (better known as Chow in the West) had arrived in the US with a handful of luggage. However, when he returned to his homeland last week, he brought a group of elite American gymnasts with him to vie for gold in the Beijing Olympics.
China's former top gymnast is the latest Chinese-born coach to join the US Olympic team, along with former Chinese volleyball icon Lang Ping, coach of the US women's volleyball team and James Li (Li Li), manager of the US men's track and field team.
Qiao Liang talks to reporters last week after arriving in Beijing for the Olympics as coach of the US women's gymnastics team. [China Daily] |
Qiao was assured a ticket to the Beijing Games when his star pupil, Shawn Johnson, was chosen for the US Olympic gymnastics team after finishing first in the US trials last June.
"Qiao has made a successful life for himself overseas, probably the most successful among the former Chinese gymnasts who went abroad," his former colleague Lu Shanzhen said. Lu is now the deputy head coach of Chinese national gymnastics team,
Lu met Qiao in 1988, when the gymnast joined the Chinese national team after excelling in domestic meets. At the time, Lu had been coaching the squad for five years. Now they head rival teams who will be battling for supremacy at the Beijing Games.
The stage was set a year ago when Qiao's US team defeated Lu's Chinese team at the 2007 World Championships by a narrow margin. Johnson also dethroned Chinese star Cheng Fei, Lu's best athlete on the floor exercises. Johnson also won the coveted all-around title that Lu's pupils have never gotten.
"In the past two years, he brought Shawn Johnson onto the world stage", Lu said. "We've been watching closely." 
Qiao's success has brought attention to the fact that there are a number of Chinese-born gymnastics coaches working in the US.
There's Qiao's wife, Zhuang Liwen, also a former member of the Chinese national team, who helped build Chow's Gymnastics and Dance Studio in West Des Moines, Iowa.
Lu Li, who won gold the 1992 Barcelona Games on the uneven bars, has her own gym, All-Around Champion (AAC), in Fremont, California. In March 2000, Lu began working at Gold Star Gymnastics Academy in Mountain View, California, coaching high-level gymnasts and serving as the assistant coach for its competitive team.
China's first world champion gymnast, Li Yuejiu, who won the men's floor exercises in 1981 World Gymnastics Championships in Moscow, moved to the US in 1986. He began his coaching career in Las Vegas along with his wife, Wu Jiani, his national teammate.
While some worry that these globetrotting coaches could adversely affect the chances of the Chinese team, most Chinese fans are proud of what they've achieved. Thanks to Qiao, Lu Li and Li, the two gymnastics powerhouses of China and the US have never been as closely matched as they are now.
The results of this cross-pollination are Americans such as Johnson mastering the extremely difficult techniques that Chinese gymnasts excel in and at the same time demonstrating the explosive power and bubbly personality most American gymnasts possess.
This combination can also be seen now among Chinese gymnasts, especially after Li returned to coach the Chinese team in 2005. China gained a record eight gold medals at the 2006 World Gymnastic Championships in Denmark one year after Li's return.
"We could learn from them (US gymnasts)," Li said, while still calling China "the best gymnastic academy" in the world. "I hope I can find a training method that combines the best of both countries."
Asked whether he is nervous about his first time home in 15 years as the head of a strong US team to compete against his old hometown team, Qiao answered: "Sports are sports. We're not politicians."