OC Office, February 23, 2012: Deng Linlin; born April 21, 1992 in Fuyang, Anhui is a Chinese gymnast. She was a member of the Chinese team that won the team gold medal at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, People’s Republic of China, and is a three-time World Cup gold medalist. She was the 2009 World Champion and the current national champion on balance beam.
Deng Linlin began her gymnastics career in her hometown of Fuyang,,,, Anhui, at the Anhui Fuyang Sports School and later attended the Anhui Provincial Sports School. She was selected to the Chinese national team in 2004 and made her international competitive debut in 2008, when she competed in several events on the World Cup circuit. At the World Cup meet in Doha in March, she won the gold medal on the balance beam and placed second on floor exercise behind her teammate Jiang Yuyuan. At the World Cup in Moscow, Deng won gold medals on both beam and floor.
At the 2008 Chinese National Championships, Deng finished in third place in the all-around, behind Jiang and Yang Yilin and also placed third on vault. At the 11th Chinese National Games in 2009, Deng won the gold in the all-around competition.
In 2009, she became the world champion on balance beam. In addition, she finished seventh on the floor exercise and eleventh in the all-around competition, after an uncharacteristic fall on her own strong event, balance beam.
Deng continued her international success in 2010, garnering a team bronze medal at the 2010 World Championships with the Chinese team as well as an individual silver medal on the balance beam. She was also chosen to compete in the 2010 Asian Games, where she won a gold with the team and an individual silver on the balance beam.
Deng was a member of the Chinese team at the 2008 Olympic Games and participated in the preliminary and team final rounds of competition. In the preliminary team competition, Deng performed on all four apparatuses. She was ranked ninth overall after the preliminary round; however, Deng did not advance to the individual all-around final because no more than two gymnasts may represent each country in the all-around competition.
For the team final, Chinese coaches decided to replace Jiang with Deng on vault only 20 minutes before the competition. Deng performed solidly on all the three events in the team final, sticking a double twisting Yurchenko vault and received a 15.250. Deng also performed on balance beam and floor exercise, with a score of 15.925 on beam and a 15.150 on floor respectively. [8] She was also one of the two Chinese gymnasts who performed on three apparatuses in team final, together with Cheng Fei.
Deng and Jiang, along with and national teammate Nai Ruoyu, were featured in a documentary about the lead-up to the Beijing Olympics titled 2008 (pinyin: Zhù Mèng; released internationally as Dream Weavers: Beijing 2008 [9]) which premiered at the China Film Archive in July 2008