Born in 1992, Sui Lu was eligible for the 2008 Olympics. Despite being strong worker on the beam and the floor exercise, her relative inexperience left her off that important team.
After the disappointment of not making the Olympics, Sui Lu saw a lot of success during the next quadrenium:
In early 2009 she had strong performances in the World Cup circuit that included a gold on floor at Cottbus. As an event specialist she was named to the Chinese team set to compete at Worlds in London. In the prelims, she placed 8th on beam and 2nd on floor. However since two of her teammates, Deng Linlin and Yang Yilin, had already advanced to the beam final, Sui Lu did not get the chance to fight for the title. But on floor she collected a bronze medal, after a clean execution that ended with a stuck double pike.
As a part of the 2010 World team Sui Lu competed only beam and floor during the team final. She fell off the beam on her first skill and scored a 13.000 but managed to come back on floor and give her team their highest score with a 14.733. China claimed the bronze. Shortly after Worlds, at the Asian Games, Sui Lu showed her AA potential by taking home the title with a 58.400. She also collected gold with her team and on her best events: beam and floor.
Worlds in Tokyo in 2011 were particularly successful for Sui Lu. She competed her two best events during the team competition and gave her team their highest scores on beam and floor. She also qualified to the event finals on those events and medalled on both. On floor she took silver, performing to the tango music “Por una Cabeza” ; on beam she had a spectacular routine with a difficulty of 6.6 and an execution of 9.266 that won her the title with a 15.866.
A lock for the Olympic team, once more Sui Lu competed on her best events at the team final where she once more gave her team their highest scores on beam and floor. However the team finished in fourth place. Individually, Sui Lu advanced to the beam final in first place and as the defending world champion. In the final, her 6.5 difficulty was one tenth short of the difficulty score of her main rival, her teammate Deng Linlin. Sui Lu had to settle for silver after she scored a 15.500 against her teammate’s 15.600.
Sui Lu retired after competing one last time at the National Games in Dalian, China there she took a silver on her best events beam and floor.
Fun fact: Both Sui Lu and Beth Tweddle were born on April 1st, however Beth is 7 years older as she was born in 1985. Beth and Sui Lu shared the podium at the 2009 Worlds where Beth won the title at the age of 24 and Sui Lu took the bronze at only 17.
Here is Sui Lu making a statement on beam during the final at the Tokyo Worlds in 2011.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aHELPgdUdg
Article by: Isabel Iz
Photo cover: Brigid McCarthy