The Inspirational Story of Chinese, Olympic Gymnast: Shang Chunsong

Shang Chunsong rose to international prominence at the 2013 World Championships when she was 17. Since then, people have continued to make insensitive and border line racist comments about her age, even though she is now 20 years old. The media, fans, coaches, and even other gymnasts have been making remarks about Chinese gymnasts being underage since 2008 when the Chinese team beat the US in Beijing. Regarding the accusations towards Shang Chunsong, they are even more disgusting because she grew up in ShiYanPing, one of the poorest regions of China, and is malnourished.

• Chunsong grew up in ShiYanPing.


• Her parents were construction workers.


• Her family was very poor and she was malnourished from a young age.


• Her brother, Lei who is 6 years older than her, lost his vision. His illness was curable at first, but the family couldn't afford it.


• Chunsong and Lei had to climb a treacherous, several mile, mountain trail to get to school. In ther mornings Lei would carry Chunsong on his back to school. At night, Chunsong would have to guide Lei with her hand back because he lost his vision.


• In 2003, Chunsong was selected at the age of 7 to join the Gymnastic Centre in Yongshun county.


• There was no salary and the family couldn't afford monthly pay to the club, so at only age 13, Lei quit school to become a blind masseur.


• Chunsong started earning a salary in 2006 when she made the provisional team. When she earned a large sum of money from her success at the 2013 National Games, she used it to buy her brother a house.


• Chunsong says her greatest wish is to "find a cure for her brother's eyes, so he can see how beauitful the world is."


• Chunsong has had to overcome illness. Due to her small frame she gets ill almost every winter. Even during this Olympics, she had a very bad fever. It was clear in podium training and qualifications that she was very sick. :(

• During 2013 Worlds, Nastia Liukin, 2008 Olympic champion and current NBC gymnastics commentator, tweeted about Aly Raisman, 2012 & 2016 Olympic champion, sending her a photo of Shang Chunsong, which shows she "isn't 17"
  

  
  
  

  The picture I just got from @Aly_Raisman is beyond hilarious. #Sheis17 #OrNot

  — Nastia Liukin (@NastiaLiukin) October 5, 2013

  
  

• Jordyn Wieber, 2012 Olympic champion, also joined in saying Shang wasn't 17

@NastiaLiukin @Aly_Raisman Got the same one :) hahahah #Not17

— Jordyn Wieber (@jordyn_wieber) October 6, 2013

• During 2015 Worlds, British gymnast, Sam Oldham, tweeted that this "kid" couldn't be 19

• 2008 Olympian, Bridget Sloan, snapchatted about how she wanted to see the Chinese birth certificates during Rio qualifications. She did end up apologizing to someone who called her out on instagram though.