Olympic Champion He Kexin Retires

Sep 9, 2013 by Anne Phillips

2008 Olympic Uneven Bars Champion He Kexin of China performed her final competitive routine over the weekend at the Chinese National Games. Kexin announced her retirement prior to the competition. She appeared to be at peace with her decision during the meet, smiling after a fall from uneven bars and graciously waving to the crowd after her final competition routine.

Watch Kexin's final routine, scoring a 14.667 (6.8D) to place 5th on the event:

At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Kexin helped China to the team gold medal in addition to her individual gold on uneven bars. Kexin beat out all around champion Nastia Liukin in a tiebreaker to take the gold. Kexin was known for competing one of the most difficult bar routines in the world. Her signature skills included a jaeger mix grip catch to jaeger combination as well as a laid out jaeger to pak salto combination.

Kexin was a staple on the Chinese teams from 2008 through 2012. Just one year after her first Olympic victory, she was crowned 2009 World Champion on uneven bars. In 2010 and 2011, she represented the Chinese team in World Championships competition and helped them to the bronze medal both years. At the 2012 London Olympics, she won uneven bars silver behind Russia's Aliya Mustafina. Kexin will close out her career with a total of six World and Olympic medals.

Watch Kexin's gold medal bar routine at the 2008 Olympic Games:

Aside from her gymnastics accolades, Kexin is remembered for being part of the 2008 Chinese Olympic team's age controversy. According to Chinese records, Kexin was born January 1, 1992, making her twenty one years old currently. However, several news sources reported that Kexin was was born in 1994, making her just 14 at the time of the 2008 Games. In the end, Chinese officials maintained that Kexin was in fact old enough to compete, stating that the news services had not confirmed her age before filing their news reports.

Regardless of her age, Kexin will go down in history as one of the best bar workers to grace the sport.