Amy Chow
Encyclopedia
Amy Yuen Yee Chow is a retired American
gymnast and a member of the famous Magnificent 7
, the first American team to win Olympic gymnastics gold. Chow was coached by Mark Young and was the first Asian American woman to take an Olympic medal in her sport.
Chow began gymnastics
training in 1981 at the age of 3. Her mother Susan wanted her daughter to be a ballerina and tried enrolling her in ballet schools, none of which would take a child that young. She then signed Amy up for classes at West Valley Gymnastic School, where she went on to join an accelerated programme at the age of 5, training under Mark Young and Diane Amos for her entire career. Her younger brother Kevin, born a year later than her in 1979, was also a gymnast.
Another notable competition Chow took part in as part of the national team was the 1995 Pan American Games, where she was part of the gold-medal winning team and also clinched a gold in the Vault, silver in the Uneven Bars and bronze in the All-Around. Chow also made it to the team for the 1995 World Championships, but had to forgo that because of a sprained ankle sustained just days before the competition.
on her favorite event, the Uneven Bars, and a team gold. She nearly missed a spot in the team when she fell off the beam during the Olympic Trials, scraping her face on the side of the beam, but getting up to complete the routine despite the obvious pain. Although Chow only participated in the Uneven Bars and Vault events at the Olympic team finals, sitting out the Floor Exercise and Balance Beam, her performance took her to a career high. In the Bars event finals, she completed a very difficult routine with an almost flawless dismount, scoring a 9.837. She even edged out the more experienced Dawes to clinch an event final silver. Chow shared the medal with Bi Wen Jing of China, although the commentators felt Chow should not have had to share the medal with Bi as the latter made a glaring mistake that the judges did not take into account. Post '96, Chow and the rest of her Magnificent Seven teammates went on many tours and performed in numerous shows such as the John Hancock Tour.
. Chow's decision to make a comeback and try for a shot at her second Olympics was something she never managed to verbalize quite so clearly. She contacted Mark Young and asked him to train her for it; he relented despite the fact that he was already retired by then as her dedication and determination touched him. Chow juggled rigorous hours back at the gym with her medical research work back at Stanford, where she was working at her Biology undergraduate degree. She even took time off school for this. Chow was not the only member of the Magnificent Seven who decided to try for a spot in the 2000 Olympics team. Dominique Dawes
, Dominique Moceanu
, Shannon Miller
and Jaycie Phelps
also shared Chow's sentiments and tried out. In the end however, only Chow and Dawes made it to the team, with the rest not making the cut due to personal injuries. Chow proved she was in top form by qualifying second in the All-Around of the Olympic Trials. She was also named by Béla Károlyi
as one of three leaders in the 2000 team, the other two being Elise Ray
and Jamie Dantzscher
. The team initially placed fourth at the team finals. Chow, however, qualified to the all-around finals where she was the second-ranked American woman, finishing in fourteenth place.
. As a result of the falsification, Dong's results were nullified, and the Chinese team was stripped of the medal by the IOC. The FIG originally submitted a recommendation to the IOC on February 27, 2010, that the United States team be awarded the bronze medal after recommending the fourth-place United States team be moved to third place in the team competition after disqualifying China for violating the minimum age violation, advancing her age by three years and three days. This violation was found in 2008 when Dong was a judge at the vaulting competition. To this, Chow has said that while the team was disappointed with their fourth place finish in 2000, she nevertheless felt bad for the Chinese team as the latter worked as hard as them to medal.
and the tucked double-double dismount on bars in international competition. Chow also competed one of the most difficult balance beam routines ever performed. It consists of a standing piked full, flic-flac, layout, flic-flac, layout series, a full-twisting swing down, and a round-off, flic-flac, triple full dismount. Despite being a very reserved person of few words and one who always preferred being out of the limelight (this resulted in a more subdued stage presence as compared to her more gregarious Magnificent Seven teammates), Chow gained the respect and admiration of many a gymnastics fan with her pure talent and penchant for perfecting the most difficult routines on any apparatus. She maintained a competition-level standard of difficulty in all her routines even in gala shows and tours.
, continuing with the sport even at Stanford. Chow has been a pole vault
er, and has competed as an unattached athlete at "open" track and field events in the discipline. Because she received money following the 1996 Olympic Games, she was ineligible to be a collegiate athlete.
, having earned an undergraduate degree in biology from Stanford in 2002.
at Stanford. She is licensed as a physician and surgeon. She married Jason Ho, an orthopedic surgeon, on July 10, 2010 in Saratoga, California. Upon completion of her residency at Lucile Packard in June 2010, she set up private practice as a general pediatrician in northern California, where she lives with her husband.
twice; in 1998 in her capacity as a member of the 1996 U.S. gymnastics team, and again in 2005 in her individual capacity. In 2004, she was inducted into the San Jose, California
Sports Hall of Fame.
In Spring 2003, Chow was nominated a fellow by The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans, based on her achievements and personal merits. She was also a recipient of the Outstanding Overseas Chinese Award.
In 2008, Chow was inducted into the Olympic Hall of Fame in the team category, alongside the rest of the Magnificent Seven. The team received their award in Chicago with other Olympic greats.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
gymnast and a member of the famous Magnificent 7
Magnificent Seven (Gymnastics)
The Magnificent Seven is the name given to the 1996 United States Olympic Women's Gymnastics Team that won the first ever Gold Medal for the United States in the Women's Team Competition at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics...
, the first American team to win Olympic gymnastics gold. Chow was coached by Mark Young and was the first Asian American woman to take an Olympic medal in her sport.
Early life
Chow was born to Nelson and Susan Chow, who had immigrated to the United States from Shanghai and HongKong respectively.Chow began gymnastics
Artistic gymnastics
Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics where gymnasts perform short routines on different apparatus, with less time for vaulting . The sport is governed by the Federation Internationale de Gymnastique , which designs the Code of Points and regulates all aspects of international elite...
training in 1981 at the age of 3. Her mother Susan wanted her daughter to be a ballerina and tried enrolling her in ballet schools, none of which would take a child that young. She then signed Amy up for classes at West Valley Gymnastic School, where she went on to join an accelerated programme at the age of 5, training under Mark Young and Diane Amos for her entire career. Her younger brother Kevin, born a year later than her in 1979, was also a gymnast.
1989-1993
Chow's performance at West Valley was brilliant and at the age of 11 in 1989, she became the first elite gymnast the school produced. Chow began competing in national and international competitions in 1990.1994-1995
Her very first international competition as a part of the US gymnastics team was the 1994 World Championships at Dortmund, Germany. This proved to be a memorable experience as she overcame her nerves after a poor showing in preliminaries (she fell from the vault twice and thrice on a single balance beam routine) to perform admirably at the team finals, playing a great part in helping the team clinch a silver medal. The poor showing of the team at the preliminaries was also attributed to the sudden departure of Shannon Miller, the anchor of the team.Another notable competition Chow took part in as part of the national team was the 1995 Pan American Games, where she was part of the gold-medal winning team and also clinched a gold in the Vault, silver in the Uneven Bars and bronze in the All-Around. Chow also made it to the team for the 1995 World Championships, but had to forgo that because of a sprained ankle sustained just days before the competition.
1996
Chow is primarily known for her performance at the 1996 Olympics where she won a silver medalSilver medal
A silver medal is a medal awarded to the second place finisher of contests such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, and contests with similar formats....
on her favorite event, the Uneven Bars, and a team gold. She nearly missed a spot in the team when she fell off the beam during the Olympic Trials, scraping her face on the side of the beam, but getting up to complete the routine despite the obvious pain. Although Chow only participated in the Uneven Bars and Vault events at the Olympic team finals, sitting out the Floor Exercise and Balance Beam, her performance took her to a career high. In the Bars event finals, she completed a very difficult routine with an almost flawless dismount, scoring a 9.837. She even edged out the more experienced Dawes to clinch an event final silver. Chow shared the medal with Bi Wen Jing of China, although the commentators felt Chow should not have had to share the medal with Bi as the latter made a glaring mistake that the judges did not take into account. Post '96, Chow and the rest of her Magnificent Seven teammates went on many tours and performed in numerous shows such as the John Hancock Tour.
2000
She also competed in the 2000 Summer Olympics2000 Summer Olympics
The Sydney 2000 Summer Olympic Games or the Millennium Games/Games of the New Millennium, officially known as the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was celebrated between 15 September and 1 October 2000 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...
. Chow's decision to make a comeback and try for a shot at her second Olympics was something she never managed to verbalize quite so clearly. She contacted Mark Young and asked him to train her for it; he relented despite the fact that he was already retired by then as her dedication and determination touched him. Chow juggled rigorous hours back at the gym with her medical research work back at Stanford, where she was working at her Biology undergraduate degree. She even took time off school for this. Chow was not the only member of the Magnificent Seven who decided to try for a spot in the 2000 Olympics team. Dominique Dawes
Dominique Dawes
Dominique Margaux Dawes is a retired United States artistic gymnast. She was 10-year member of the U.S. national gymnastics team, the 1994 U.S. all-around senior National Champion, a three-time Olympian, a World Championships silver medalist and a member of the gold-medal winning "Magnificent...
, Dominique Moceanu
Dominique Moceanu
Dominique "Domi" Helena Moceanu is an American gymnast who was a member of the Olympic Gold medal winning 1996 U.S...
, Shannon Miller
Shannon Miller
Shannon Lee Miller is a former artistic gymnast from Edmond, Oklahoma. She is the most decorated gymnast in U.S. History, and considered one of the greatest gymnasts the United States has ever produced...
and Jaycie Phelps
Jaycie Phelps
Jaycie Lynn Phelps is a United States Olympic gymnast and member of the 1996 Olympic Gold medal U.S. women's gymnastics team, Magnificent 7.-External links:*...
also shared Chow's sentiments and tried out. In the end however, only Chow and Dawes made it to the team, with the rest not making the cut due to personal injuries. Chow proved she was in top form by qualifying second in the All-Around of the Olympic Trials. She was also named by Béla Károlyi
Béla Károlyi
Béla Károlyi is a Romanian gymnastics coach. He was born in what was then Kolozsvár, Hungary, a region restored to Romanian administration after 1944. Károlyi and his wife, Márta, also of Hungarian origin, emigrated to the United States in 1981 and both have dual citizenships for Romania and the...
as one of three leaders in the 2000 team, the other two being Elise Ray
Elise Ray
Mary Elise Ray is an American gymnast who represented the United States at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney and the 1999 World Championships.-Biography and early career:...
and Jamie Dantzscher
Jamie Dantzscher
Jamie Annette Dantzscher is a retired American gymnast. She was a member of the bronze medal winning US team at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney...
. The team initially placed fourth at the team finals. Chow, however, qualified to the all-around finals where she was the second-ranked American woman, finishing in fourteenth place.
Post 2000
On April 28, 2010, Chow and the other women on the 2000 Olympic team were awarded the bronze medal in the team competition when it was discovered that the previous medal winners, the Chinese team, had falsified the age of team member Dong FangxiaoDong Fangxiao
Dong Fangxiao is a retired Chinese gymnast. She now lives in New Zealand with her husband, and competed at the 2000 Summer Olympics. She originally won a bronze medal with the Chinese team, however following an investigation, the International Gymnastics Federation ruled that she was under the...
. As a result of the falsification, Dong's results were nullified, and the Chinese team was stripped of the medal by the IOC. The FIG originally submitted a recommendation to the IOC on February 27, 2010, that the United States team be awarded the bronze medal after recommending the fourth-place United States team be moved to third place in the team competition after disqualifying China for violating the minimum age violation, advancing her age by three years and three days. This violation was found in 2008 when Dong was a judge at the vaulting competition. To this, Chow has said that while the team was disappointed with their fourth place finish in 2000, she nevertheless felt bad for the Chinese team as the latter worked as hard as them to medal.
Other gymnastics highlights
Chow has two gymnastic moves named after her, the "Chow/Khorkina" (Stalder 1½ pirouette) and the "Chow II" (Stalder to Shaposhnikova). She was nicknamed "the Trickster" within the gymnastics community for her extreme difficulty on each apparatus and her ability to perform complicated skills with apparent ease. She was the first American woman to perform both the double-twisting YurchenkoYurchenko (vault)
Yurchenko is the name of both a specific vault and a vault family in artistic gymnastics. The Yurchenko was named after Soviet gymnast Natalia Yurchenko, who originated the vault in the early 1980s....
and the tucked double-double dismount on bars in international competition. Chow also competed one of the most difficult balance beam routines ever performed. It consists of a standing piked full, flic-flac, layout, flic-flac, layout series, a full-twisting swing down, and a round-off, flic-flac, triple full dismount. Despite being a very reserved person of few words and one who always preferred being out of the limelight (this resulted in a more subdued stage presence as compared to her more gregarious Magnificent Seven teammates), Chow gained the respect and admiration of many a gymnastics fan with her pure talent and penchant for perfecting the most difficult routines on any apparatus. She maintained a competition-level standard of difficulty in all her routines even in gala shows and tours.
Other Accomplishments
In addition to her gymnastic career, Chow is also a pianist. In 1994, she received an advanced level certificate of merit for piano. In high school she was also a competitive diver for Castilleja SchoolCastilleja School
Castilleja School is an independent school for 415 girls in grades six through twelve, located in Palo Alto, California. Castilleja is the only non-sectarian all-girls middle and high school in the San Francisco Bay Area...
, continuing with the sport even at Stanford. Chow has been a pole vault
Pole vault
Pole vaulting is a track and field event in which a person uses a long, flexible pole as an aid to leap over a bar. Pole jumping competitions were known to the ancient Greeks, as well as the Cretans and Celts...
er, and has competed as an unattached athlete at "open" track and field events in the discipline. Because she received money following the 1996 Olympic Games, she was ineligible to be a collegiate athlete.
Education
In 2007 she graduated medical school at Stanford UniversityStanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, having earned an undergraduate degree in biology from Stanford in 2002.
Career and personal life
, she was a pediatrics resident at Lucile Packard Children's HospitalLucile Packard Children's Hospital
Lucile Packard Children's Hospital is a children's hospital located on the Stanford University campus in Palo Alto, California. It is staffed by over 650 physicians and 4,750 staff and volunteers...
at Stanford. She is licensed as a physician and surgeon. She married Jason Ho, an orthopedic surgeon, on July 10, 2010 in Saratoga, California. Upon completion of her residency at Lucile Packard in June 2010, she set up private practice as a general pediatrician in northern California, where she lives with her husband.
Awards and Recognition
She was inducted into the U.S. Gymnastics Hall of FameHall of Fame
A hall of fame, wall of fame, walk of fame, walk of stars or avenue of stars is a type of attraction established for any field of endeavor to honor individuals of noteworthy achievement in that field...
twice; in 1998 in her capacity as a member of the 1996 U.S. gymnastics team, and again in 2005 in her individual capacity. In 2004, she was inducted into the San Jose, California
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
Sports Hall of Fame.
In Spring 2003, Chow was nominated a fellow by The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans, based on her achievements and personal merits. She was also a recipient of the Outstanding Overseas Chinese Award.
In 2008, Chow was inducted into the Olympic Hall of Fame in the team category, alongside the rest of the Magnificent Seven. The team received their award in Chicago with other Olympic greats.