A former national gymnastics champion, once seen as an Olympic prospect, overcame career-ending injury, unforeseen hardships to build a stable, fulfilling life on her own terms.
He Ao’er won the national gymnastics championship at age 16, but retired at 17 due to an injury. After placing third in the Miss Hong Kong pageant, she joined TVB, where she spent five years as an extra with few lines or screen time.but her acting career was completely derailed by her family’s massive debt of 10 million and the resulting public backlash. With only a few thousand in her pocket, she traveled alone to Shanghai to start over as an extra. While filming a fitness tutorial, she suddenly developed facial paralysis; she endured the discomfort and underwent acupuncture for half a month before returning to work.Today, she runs three fitness studios, boasts over 800,000 followers, and is married to a hairdresser outside the entertainment industry whom she’s been dating for seven years. Such is the life journey of the young gymnast who once held the hopes of all Hong Kong.
Few people
realize that He Ao’er—the little girl with the high ponytail and dimples who was the subject of a media frenzy across Hong Kong ten years ago—won a gold medal at the Hong Kong Junior Gymnastics Championships at the age of ten,and when she stood on the top step of the podium at a national competition at age sixteen, everyone was convinced that He Ao’er was the next Olympic hopeful, eagerly awaiting her to compete on the world stage and bring glory to her country.
Who would have thought that just one year later, He Ao’er’s height would shoot up to 1.68 meters, and her old knee injury would worsen to the point where she could barely even squat down and stand back up? Gazing at the walls of the training hall lined with her past medals, she simply said two words: “Goodbye.” Her once-promising Olympic future came to an abrupt end.
Later, He Ao’er entered the Miss Hong Kong pageant, placed third, and joined TVB. Everyone thought she was finally about to make it big, but for five whole years, she was stuck in bit parts and didn’t even get a single complete line of dialogue longer than ten characters.Just as she was finally starting to make a name for herself, her family’s investment failed, leaving them with tens of millions in debt, and she was unjustly dragged into a baseless media scandal that never resolved. It was truly a case of “when it rains, it pours”—her once-promising acting career was completely derailed.If anyone else had faced such a series of setbacks, they would most likely have collapsed long ago.
But He Ao’er was the kind of person who wouldn’t back down. She changed her name, pocketed the few thousand yuan she had left, and headed to Shanghai on her own. She started out as an extra earning 100 yuan a day, crammed into a 10-square-meter rental apartment and surviving on instant noodles for every meal. She saved up like this for three years,she saved up enough capital to open a children’s fitness studio of about ten square meters. She filmed workout tutorials on her phone to share with her online followers, but unexpectedly, halfway through filming, she suffered a sudden case of facial paralysis—one side of her face froze up so badly that her mouth was crooked.The doctor repeatedly urged her to stop working for half a year and rest properly, but she gritted her teeth and endured half a month of acupuncture treatments. Wearing a mask, she was back in front of the camera before you knew it.
She persevered year after year, and now He Ao’er’s fitness account has amassed over 800,000 followers; she’s opened three studios and enjoys a stable and substantial income.Last year, she quietly tied the knot with a hairdresser outside the entertainment industry whom she’d been dating for seven years. The wedding was attended by just two tables of close friends and family—no media chasing after them for photos, no trending topics causing a stir—and she’s been living a quiet, peaceful life ever since.
She has single-handedly torn away all the labels
once attached to He Ao’er—such as “gymnastics goddess,” “Miss Hong Kong runner-up,” and “debt scandal”—leaving no trace behind.Life is rarely a smooth sail from start to finish. Falling to rock bottom isn’t something to fear; if you grit your teeth and climb back up step by step, all the hardships you’ve endured will ultimately become your own personal badges of honor.
