By South China Morning Post | Created at 2024-12-07 06:01:16 | Updated at 2024-12-13 01:08:50
5 days ago
Former Chinese gymnast and world champion Wu Liufang gained 3.5 million followers in a single day after her social media account was reinstated following a brief suspension due to provocative dance clips that sparked significant online backlash.
Wu, 30, born in Liuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region in southern China, was once a member of the Chinese Women’s Gymnastics Team and celebrated as the “balance beam princess” for her multiple world championship victories on the balance beam.
However, her career took a tragic turn during the Olympic trials in May 2012 when she suffered a neck injury from a fall, preventing her from competing in the London Olympics and abruptly ending her gymnastics career.
After retiring, Wu enrolled at Beijing Sport University in 2014. Following her graduation, she explored various jobs to make a living, including teaching and coaching gymnastics at a sports school, before settling in Hangzhou to pursue live-streaming.
While working as a teacher, she encountered issues with unpaid wages. When she accepted a coaching position at a sports school in eastern China’s Zhejiang province, the promised tenure was not honoured as it was given to others.
In 2019, she began live-streaming in Hangzhou, where she earned a modest base salary of only 3,000 yuan (US$400) for streaming six hours a day.
Wu once shared: “My family wasn’t well-off, and I devoted all my youth to gymnastics. But I didn’t reach the pinnacle – an Olympic championship. I had to rely on myself.”
However, Wu’s journey to internet fame has not been without challenges.
