Pulling the cord on constraint

But with the negative impact of sudden deafness on her psychology, Ye could not parachute as well as before. Before she gave birth to her daughter Liang Yahan on Aug 10, 2004, Ye asked for a long maternity leave and spent the entire second half of 2004 in her parents' home in Chengdu to rest psychologically.

It was a wise move as Ye found herself regaining her competitive edge after returning from maternity leave.

In July 2006, she won gold medals for both the women's team accuracy and women's individual accuracy categories in the 30th World Military Parachuting Championship in Russia. In 2009, she won the gold medal in the women's individual accuracy category in the 33rd World Military Parachuting Championship in Slovakia.

"In a competition of either the team accuracy or individual accuracy category, one's heels have to land on spots the size of coins. To prepare for both categories, parachuters have to practice several hundred times a day. It is boring," Liang says.

But the biggest problem for Ye is that such dedication means she cannot see her daughter, now a fourth-grader in a primary school in Beijing, very often.

Apart from major domestic and international competitions, she and teammates are in training sessions in Qionglai and Pingquan county in Hebei province each year.

"Each training session takes two or three months. The longest time I stay with my daughter is during the Spring Festival when we are together for several days," Ye says.

When her daughter was a toddler, Ye would weave a sweater for her in her spare time to show her love.

During the summer vacation, her daughter stayed with her during the training session in Qionglai. "When I parachuted well, she would present me a flower fresh from the fields in the airport. When I did not do well, she would show her disappointment in an exaggerated way," Ye says with a broad smile.

But it may be another two years before she can lead a normal life with her daughter. "I might retire in 2015," Ye says.