She had a great beam routine at Doha last year but then declined throughout the year, falling on almost all beam routines and struggling elsewhere, culminating in a spectacular meltdown at the Mexican Open. Zeng suffered an ankle injury in late 2011 and never fully bounced back from it, rapidly losing her DTY and making no progress on floor. I would imagine that it's a big factor in her decision, coupled with general loss of enthusiam for her sport. Edit- another factor I keep forgetting about is the loss of her coach, He Hua was fired last year. It's probable she did not adjust well to the coaching group she was subsequently placed in.
I don't use weibo/baidu myself or as a source for obvious reasons but here's some backup.
Disclaimer - No, not a 100% verifiable bavkup but I think it's the only one saying anything about her return to her province. However, I do not make stuff up or state explicitly when I am unsure. Many people in the know have confirmed this, and they are the source. Not a forum.
Wonderfully expressive dancer.
Quality beamer too.
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Farewell and hopefully she will be happy in whatever she decides to do.
There is no proof...
ReplyDeleteIt's China, it's possible there won't be except for her disappearance.
DeleteFeel free to not believe me. But I absolutely do not and will not post something as fact if I wasn't 100% sure that it was and had permission to post if it's it's breaking news.
I believe it. Even in her good beam set from Qatar (thanks for posting), her side aerial looked like the landing really killed her ankle. After her coach celebrates her good job, you can see her working ankle around. Poor girl - hope she finds success in what she does next.
Deletewas she the one who failed to qualify for 2013 beam finals in antwerp or am i confused? I loved her floor routine; i'm sad its the first i'm even hearing of her (admittedly, team china is my least favorite of the big 4, just because its so hard to find out anything about them).
ReplyDelete-Kari
Yeah, she had a beautiful beam but fell. Shouldn't really have made the team as it was kind of a certainty that would happen.
DeleteYes, or if it's not that it's closed news so nobody knows it.
Several reliable sources have confirmed the news. There won't be an official announcement because things don't work that way in China.
ReplyDeleteYeah, USAG they ain't. The retirement news and ceremonies for the 08 veterans were very much the exception. But that is probably in people's heads.
DeleteIt was nice to see confirmation from sources although I didn't doubt it at all ha. Someone doubted me on tumblr so it's quite split there but whatever.
The poster on Tumblr seems to take it on faith that returning to the Hunan team = returning to the Hunan team TO TRAIN. It doesn't. In Zeng Siqi's case, it probably means returning to the Hunan team to fill out retirement paperwork.
DeleteSigh. So so so so so much talent never really shown to full potential. I haven't felt like China have made the most of the talent that they did have over the last quad, not entirely their fault but also through badly timed injuries, lots of girls who never found consistency.. but probably at least partly to do with the training methods, coaching, not peaking girls well enough and sometimes poor choices with construction of routines (re: YJN and the worlds medals she has lost on beam...). Hopefully this quad is better.
ReplyDeleteThat is a backup, not proof. The sources and people who have backed it up isn't public domain information. This is China, an official announcement is highly unlikely and news filters down through sources, not official outlets. Cheng Fei is not officially retired and neither is Deng Linlin so paperwork can mean nothing.
ReplyDeleteHi Catherine, USAG's training camp began today. Athletes expected to miss it are not there: Maroney, Priessman and Hundley. I'm a little heartbroken Finnegan is not in attendance as well, I thought this year was her chance so I expected to see more of her earlier in the season. I hope she makes it to classics and nationals for consideration for Nanning. Biles is in attendance - I thought with her injury and gym change, she might not have attended this selection camp.
ReplyDeleteYes it's disappointing about Finnegan, hopefully she's healthy. It's great that Biles is there but I'd imagine she will be saved for Pac Rims? Jesolo might be too soon, but then again she could be 100% and ready to go.
DeleteWell, I'm interested to see how everyone does anyway - even though Finnegan is out. It looks like you're right about Biles - I saw the same thing reported by Gymnastike and then the most recent update from USAG on Jeselo. How do you know everything ahead time?
DeleteHa it's a guess and helped by the nominative list. I never use wogymnastike for news. The girls had to show full routines at this camp and Finnegan may need more time.
DeleteIs a u.s gymnast going to the youth Olympic games
ReplyDeleteI don't think so. MAG sent a gymnast in 2010 but I don't know how athletes qualified in 2010. None of the US WAG Juniors seem to be attending the Junior Pan American Games (the weekend between Jeselo and Pacific Rim and only qualifying meet for Americans). I think USAG would have said something about it if a team were to be sent. I believe the YOG also take place during US Nationals, so there are scheduling problems all around.
DeleteNo, they made a statement last year stating that they would not be sending one, at least for WAG. Reasoning is that it clashes with Nationals. They might also think it could be detrimental to pacing or too much pressure or something.
DeleteAt least in 2010 (don't know if it was the same for this yr)- they were only going to be able to have ONE coach credential for MAG and WAG combined...
DeleteMost of the US coaches are not going to let one of their athletes go off w/ another coach (both men and women)
The list for Jesolo is right. So excited to see how Dennis, Gowey and Skinner will do.
ReplyDeleteHi Catherine,
ReplyDeleteDo you want to know who else retired? Madalina Blendea.
http://puzzlegym.ro/2014/03/noutati-in-loturile-nationale/
The article (in Romanian) basically says that Blendea left the national team because of too many injuries and illnesses. It's so sad because she had so much potential but was very unlucky overall. In my opinion, it was kind of a predictable retirement. If you click on the link in the first sentence, it will give you a PDF of all the gymnasts on the Romanian national team, junior team, and individual clubs. It's on page 21 of the pdf and you can see that Blendea's name is not on there.
The article also says that Diana Damian also left the team (don't know much about her) and that there are also some additions to the team (future generations).
Sorry, I thought I should tell you since you were discussing retirement and I knew how much you liked Blendea.
Yeah I saw she's off the NT but at the time of writing it wasn't fully clear what the story was. I really did hope she could stay healthy, such a shame. ROU have lost quite a few junior gymnasts to retirement, Diana and probably Mada are the latest.
DeleteThe reason is complexed. But as a Chinese gymfan and a sister who has supported Siqi since 2010, I really happy to see some foreign fans remember her beauty. It's a pity that this talented girl did not shine as her coach Ling Jie used to be, She may go to university later and in the future, she may meet something even larger than the Worlds and I believe gymnastics have brought her a lot and it's great to start the new life at a young age.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, losing her coach was probably the biggest reason for her decline in performance. A bond between a performer and coach has a massive influence on a gymnast, Siqi was not just performing for herself, but she was doing it for her coach, the person she worked with every day to perfect her routines. Once you change this, it can have a detrimental effect on performance.
ReplyDelete