Amy Chow, Magnificent #4

This is Amy Chow, Olympic gold medalist. (take note, every magnificent seven girl is gold medalist, and you'll find out why when we talk about Kerri, the seventh gymnast.)

"Did You Know?" Fact:
Amy was the first Asian-American gymnast to win a medal of both gold, silver, AND even bronze. Also, she has a skill named after her, like many girls on the team! Kerri, Amanda, and Jaycie (haven't talked about her)also do!!!

Chow began gymnastics training in 1981, and began competing in national and international competitions in 1990. She is primarily known for her performance at the 1996 Olympics where she won a silver medal on the uneven bars and a team gold. She also competed in the 2000 Summer Olympics, likely winning a bronze medal at Sydney on the team competition that took nearly ten years to award when China member Dong Fangxiao was disqualified for age violations. Chow, however, qualified to the all-around finals where she was the second-ranked American woman, finishing in fourteenth place. [1]

Chow has two gymnastic moves named after her, the "Chow/Khorkina" (Stalder 1 1/2 pirouette) and the "Chow II" (Stalder to Shaposhnikova).[citation needed] She was nicknamed "the Trickster" 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 Yurchenko 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.

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 School. In 2007[2] she graduated medical school at Stanford University, having earned an undergraduate degree in biology from Stanford in 2002. As of August 2008[update], she is a pediatrics resident at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford.[3] She is licensed as a physician and surgeon.[4]

Amy has been a pole vaulter, 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.

That's Amy's story!