This young Singapore girl will never say die

Nicole Tay Xi Hui, a very young gymnast from Singapore, yesterday experienced both the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum.

Barely five feet tall, Hui caught the attention of the crowd and some fellow competitors as she performed in the balance beam where she was one of the 10 finalists.

No, she wasn’t doing great, but what caught the attention of the others was the fact that she had fallen off the beam not once but thrice, and still had the heart to go on.

After her third fall, Hui broke down. And after wiping her tears away, she was back on the beam to finish her routine and, as the crowd egged her on, never to fall again.

On her dismount, Hui had an almost perfect landing, and the crowd gave her a big round of applause.

Hui jumped into the waiting arms of her male coach, like a child jumping into the arms of her father. Again, she was crying, burying her face into his chest.

Then her teammates, one by one, hugged her, too, each one of them trying to console Hui, who eventually finished sixth in the event won by Vietnam’s Do Thi Ngan Thuong.

Later on, more than an hour after, she was back in action, competing in the floor exercise finals where 10 gymnasts had advanced.

During the event’s awarding ceremony, Hui was crying once more, and the crowd gave her a bigger round of applause.

She had just won the gold.