Amy Yuen Yee Chow is an American former artistic gymnast who competed at the 1996 and 2000 Summer Olympics.
25 Facts About Amy Chow
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Amy Chow is best known for being a member of the Magnificent Seven, which won the United States' first team gold medal in Olympic gymnastics.
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Amy Chow is the first Asian-American woman to win an Olympic medal in gymnastics.
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Amy Chow began gymnastics training in 1981 at the age of 3.
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Amy Chow's mother wanted her to be a ballerina and tried enrolling her in ballet schools, none of which would take a child that young.
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Amy Chow then signed Amy up for classes at West Valley Gymnastics School in Campbell, California, where she joined an accelerated program at the age of 5, training under Mark Young and Diane Amos.
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At 11 years old, Amy Chow became the first gymnast at her school to reach the elite level.
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Amy Chow made the United States team for the 1995 World Championships, but had to withdraw because of a sprained ankle sustained just days before the competition.
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Amy Chow is primarily known for her performance at the 1996 Summer Olympics, where she won a gold medal with the team and a silver on the uneven bars.
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Amy Chow edged out the more experienced Dawes to tie for silver with Bi Wenjing of China, although the commentators felt Chow should not have had to share the medal, as Bi made a visible mistake that the judges did not take into account.
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Amy Chow agreed, despite the fact that he was retired by then.
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Amy Chow juggled a rigorous training regimen with medical research at Stanford University, where she was working toward her undergraduate degree in biology, but ultimately took time off school to train.
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Amy Chow proved she was in top form by finishing second in the all-around at the Olympic Trials.
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Amy Chow was named by Bela Karolyi as one of three leaders of the 2000 team, the other two being Ray and Maloney.
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Amy Chow said that while the American team had been disappointed with its fourth-place finish in 2000, she nevertheless felt bad for the Chinese gymnasts because they had worked equally hard to medal.
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Amy Chow was nicknamed "the Trickster" within the gymnastics community for her extreme difficulty on each apparatus and her ability to perform complicated skills with apparent ease.
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Amy Chow was the first American woman to perform a double-twisting Yurchenko vault and a tucked double-double bars dismount in international competition.
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Amy Chow competed one of the most difficult balance beam routines ever performed.
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In 1994, Amy Chow received an advanced level certificate of merit for piano.
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Amy Chow competed in pole vaulting as an unattached athlete at "open" track and field events.
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Amy Chow attended Stanford University and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in biology in 2002.
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Amy Chow graduated from Stanford Medical School in 2007 and completed her residency in pediatrics at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital.
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Amy Chow married Jason Ho, an orthopedic surgeon, on July 10,2010, in Saratoga, California.
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Amy Chow was inducted into the US Gymnastics Hall of Fame twice: in 1998 as a member of the 1996 Olympic team, and again in 2005 as an individual.
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Amy Chow was a recipient of the Outstanding Overseas Chinese Award.