Life after the cheering crowd

"Accidents will happen during livestreams, especially since I'm a newcomer to the field. When you fumble for the right word or expression, you have to keep your wits about you. It's important that you're doing it in earnest," he says.

He suggests that customers only buy things they need and emphasizes the importance of rational consumption.

He understands that social networking sites are an integral part of people's modern lives and that in big cities, where the pace of life is fast, online shopping can save time. Livestream hosts should do their due diligence and select good products and offer them at a reasonable price to customers.

He says that, due to the sporadic COVID-19 outbreaks in China, he has canceled some planned domestic business trips and offline events, but that means he can focus more on his online activities and livestreaming job.

Xing posted an explanation on his Sina Weibo when he said: "No matter at any stage of life, people should radiate their light and heat to those around them, just like the sun. I choose to bring laughter to viewers and encourage them to keep fit via my livestreams."

Retired Olympic racewalking champion Wang Liping forwarded the post and commented that athletes, when they retire, can change direction and do new things.

According to Xing, in China, a gymnast, on average, starts training at the age of 5 and retires at 30. When Chinese Olympic champion gymnasts retire, they choose different options for life beyond the arena.

Xing says that some like to stay involved with the sport, becoming coaches or taking jobs in provincial sports bureaus, and in the early days, some would work as coaches abroad. Some start their own businesses, usually related to sports, and some enter the entertainment sector, taking part in reality shows or even, like female gymnast Liu Xuan, trying their hand at acting.

When Xing retired from the national gymnastics team at the end of 2005, he coached for the following five years, nurturing the next generation of athletes.

"My life didn't change much. Everything was done in a systematic way－dormitory, training room and canteen, just like the old days," he says.

"The difference was that I shouldered more responsibility, because, as a coach, I had to be responsible for my students. However, as just a gymnast, I only had to take care of myself."

But some things don't change－especially the indomitable spirit and love for gymnastics.

He was invited by some online short-video platforms to be a commentator on the artistic gymnastics at the recent Tokyo Olympics. The Chinese men's artistic gymnastics team missed out on the gold medal and finished third behind the Russian Olympic Committee and Japan.

"The brutal reality about a competitive sport is that there is only one gold medal," he says. "Therefore, for athletes, our first aim is to win it. Although we compete with athletes from other countries, we're good friends when we're outside the arena."

He says audiences should view such contests in a rational way and not judge a person by their success or failure.

While nowadays, Olympic champions can communicate with fans through social networking sites, in the past, the general public could only get to know champions like Xing through the coverage they received in traditional media.

Xing recalls that, after winning Olympic gold in 2000, his life remained pretty much the same as before, except that he received more fan letters. He continued his normal training regimen, always preparing for the next major contest.

"For the current gymnasts, they don't have much time to relax. They're always on the go, preparing for national and international contests. China's 14th National Games is scheduled for September, and the Paris Olympics is just three years away," he says.