This Day, That Year: Dec 9

Editor's note: This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of New China.

On Dec 9, 1979, Ma Yanhong, who was born in 1963, became the first Chinese gymnast to win a gold medal at the World Gymnastics Championships.

At the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, Ma tied with Julianne McNamara of the United States for gold on the uneven parallel bars, as seen in this item from China Daily. It was also the first Olympic gold medal for China in women's gymnastics.

In 2003, Ma became the first Chinese woman to be inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame.

Chinese athletes have proved good at the sport. Li Ning won three gold medals (in floor exercise, pommel horse and rings) at the 1984 Games, which was also the first Olympics in which the People's Republic of China participated. Li was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2000, the first from China.

During the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Li Xiaoshuang won the country's first men's gymnastics individual all-around title over Russia's Alexei Nemov.

The Chinese gymnastics team has won a total of 26 gold medals in the Olympics. Team China peaked at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, when it won nine golds.

In May, Li Xiaopeng, a five-time Olympic medalist (including four golds) and an 11-time medalist in the World Championships, was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame.

At the just-concluded FIG Individual Apparatus World Cup in Cottbus, Germany, Chinese gymnasts claimed four gold medals－on rings, pommel horse, women's vault and uneven bars－as well as one silver and one bronze. The event is one of the series needed to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.