ACOG - News - IBM

(20 July 1996; Day 1)

LI Travels a Long Road to Compete for Switzerland

Many athletes at the Olympic Games traveled a long way to get to Atlanta. But the route that LI Donghua (SUI) traveled was more arduous than most. The Swiss team's best hope for a medal, LI won the men's 1995 World Championship in the pommel horse and was second in the world in that event in 1996.

In Saturday's compulsory competition, LI scored a 9.675, second only to Marius URZICA (ROM) at 9.712 in the first session.

"I was very happy at the end that it was the last compulsory exercise in my life," LI said after competing Saturday. "With my pommel horse exercise I'm satisfied even though Marius URZICA had a better score than me. I hope that I can qualify for the best six gymnasts of the mixed groups so that I can do the optional with the best gymnasts."

LI was named Switzerland's sportsman of the year for 1995, an honor voted on by the sports journalists of Switzerland.

LI is a native of China, from Chengdu, which is a 40-hour train ride from Peking. His competitive career in China was marred by serious injuries, including a vaulting accident in 1984 that nearly cost him his life and in which he injured his spleen and lost one kidney. He resumed his training a month later, but suffered another setback in September of 1986 when he tore both of his Achilles tendons while competing in Hawaii. The incident put him in a wheelchair for several weeks, but within a year he was competing again, winning the Chinese men's pommel horse title in 1988.

In the summer of 1988, the second phase of his difficult journey began. While in Peking, LI met Esperanza Friedli, a Swiss tourist. After she returned to visit him again in 1988, the couple married later that year and moved to Switzerland in 1989. Just as his injuries were behind him, he could no longer compete for China, and according to Swiss law it would be five years before he could become a Swiss citizen.

Unfamiliar with the language, LI washed cars for income while maintaining his training. In March of 1994, with his Swiss citizenship finally established, he competed internationally for the first time, placing third in the pommel horse in Brisbane. He has followed with a gold at the World Championship in his specialty in 1995, the silver in 1996, and, now, his first Olympic Games. Friedli is with him in Atlanta for the competition.

"I am very happy that my wife was able to watch me and that we can travel a little after the games, But first I hope to get a medal on the pommel horse."

This is an official publication of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games Sports Publications Department. Written by Theresa Kelly Gegen.



Olympic Factoid
The volunteer staff of the 1996 Olympic Games totaled 50,152. They worked an estimated 850,000 shifts.