Ji Wallace (born 23 June 1977 in Lismore,

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

) is an Australian

trampoline gymnast Trampolining or trampoline gymnastics is a competitive Olympic Games, Olympic sport in which athletes perform acrobatics while bouncing on a trampoline. In competition, these can include simple jumps in the straight, pike, tuck, or straddle posit ...

and Olympic silver medalist. Earlier in his career, Wallace won several Australian national titles and made an international breakthrough in 1996 by winning gold in the

double mini trampoline Double mini trampoline, sometimes referred to as double mini or DMT, is a gymnastics discipline within trampolining. Participants perform acrobatic skills on an apparatus smaller than a regular competition trampoline. The apparatus has both an a ...

(DMT) discipline at the 19th Trampoline World Championships in Vancouver. In the world championships held in Sydney, he set a world record for completing a jump with the highest

degree of difficulty Degree of difficulty (DD, sometimes called tariff or grade) is a rating used in several sports and other competitions to indicate the technical difficulty of a skill, performance, or course, often as a factor in scoring. Sports which incorporate a ...

in the DMT, a triple-triple. He competed at the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, officially branded as Sydney 2000, and also known as the Games of the New Millennium, were an international multi-sport event held from 15 September to 1 October ...

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, where he received a silver medal in

trampoline A trampoline is a device consisting of a piece of taut, strong fabric stretched between a steel frame often using many coiled spring (device), springs. People bounce on trampolines for recreational and competitive purposes. The fabric that use ...

."2000 Summer Olympics – Sydney, Australia – Gymnastics"
''databaseOlympics.com'' (Retrieved on 15 August 2008) In 2005, he

came out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBTQ people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. This is often framed and debated as a privacy issue, ...

publicly as

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...

, and was the first Australian to be named a Gay Games Ambassador. In an August 2012 letter to the ''

Sydney Star Observer The ''Star Observer'' is a free monthly magazine and online newspaper that caters to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex communities in Australia. Since 20 June 2019 the ''Star Observer'' has been owned by media company Out Pu ...

'', a gay-oriented weekly tabloid newspaper, he revealed he is

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of '' Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the im ...

-positive. Wallace returned to his trampoline roots to qualify for the Beijing Olympics, but missed Olympic selection at the 2007 World Championships in Quebec, Canada. Wallace was a cast member with the

Cirque du Soleil Cirque du Soleil (, ; ) is a Canadian entertainment company and the largest contemporary circus producer in the world. Located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, Montreal, Saint-Michel, Montreal, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul on 16 Jun ...

in their show

ZAIA ''Zaia'' was a Cirque du Soleil Cirque du Soleil (, ; ) is a Canadian entertainment company and the largest contemporary circus producer in the world. Located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, Montreal, Saint-Michel, Montreal, it was f ...

in Macau, China. In October 2008 while performing an acrobatic move, Ji fell badly causing significant injuries; he spent 21 months rehabilitating his right ankle, learning to walk again. In August 2010, he took a coaching job in Montreal at the Cirque du Soleil headquarters but, in 2012, returned to his native Australia, where he is now head coach of Sky School, a trampoline program run by trampoline park chain

Sky Zone Sky Zone is a Provo, Utah–based company that operates indoor trampoline parks. The company is often credited with opening the first indoor trampoline park in 2004, History Sky Zone was founded in 2004 by entrepreneur Rick Platt in the Las Ve ...

References

External links

* * * 1977 births Living people Australian male trampolinists Gymnasts at the 2000 Summer Olympics LGBTQ gymnasts Australian gay sportsmen Olympic gymnasts for Australia Olympic medalists in gymnastics Olympic silver medalists for Australia People with HIV/AIDS Cirque du Soleil performers Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics World Games bronze medalists for Australia World Games medalists in gymnastics Medalists at the Trampoline Gymnastics World Championships Sportsmen from Victoria (state) Medalists at the 1997 World Games {{Australia-Olympic-medalist-stub