East Meets Midwest - Two U.S. female gymnasts at worlds are coached by Chinese-born men, including Iowa's Shawn Johnson

Chow grew up near Beijing and was formed into a world class gymnast by a rigid system that left a young boy with no way to express his personality except in his tumbling, his twisting and turning, his somersaults and back flips. With his eyes closed and when he was flying through the air, Chow was free. When he landed, Chow belonged to the national coaches.

Johnson is still growing up in West Des Moines, Iowa. Her father is a carpenter, her mother is a school system employee and Johnson is a gymnast because, before she was a year old, she was escaping from her crib and appearing in the laundry room, where her startled mother thought, "How did this happen?"

Johnson has a small tattoo of Chinese characters to honor her coach. That is a freedom Chow couldn't have imagined ever having and it thrills him to see that freedom in his star pupil.

As the world gymnastics championships begin today, with the first day of women's team qualifying, two of the seven U.S. women are coached by Chinese-born men and a third by a Chinese-American man. Besides Chow, Chinese-born Peter Zhao is the Indianapolis-based coach of Samantha Peszek and Al Fong is the Blue Springs, Mo.-based coach of 14-year-old Ivana Hong.

Fong was born in the United States and he is married to Hong's co-coach, Armine Barutyan, who was born in Armenia.

"The perspective that has been brought to us by Liang and Peter, there's no way of saying how important that is," Fong said. "It is just a different way of approaching the sport, of seeing movements differently. It is also a bit of a different attitude."

Chow was a member of the 1989 Chinese men's national team. "That's all you have to know about his talent," Fong said. "If you're good enough to make the Chinese team, you're a great gymnast."

Sixteen years ago Chow came to the University of Iowa to learn English. He got a job as an assistant coach as well and he had always nurtured a hidden desire to own his own gymnastics school.

"It wasn't something I could maybe think about in China," Chow said. "But it was a hope always."

Chow doesn't like to talk about himself. He will politely answer one or two questions about himself and then redirect the conversation. "It should be about my gymnast," he says. "Not me."