100 Treasured Chests: Hairy Edition

From: OUT

Ji Wallace

Gymnast

Ji Wallace (born 23 June 1977 in Lismore, Victoria, Australia) is an Australian gymnast and Olympic trampoline silver medalist.

Earlier in his career Wallace won several Australian national titles and made an international breakthrough in 1996 by winning gold in the DMT (double mini trampoline) 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 in the DMT, a triple-triple.

He competed at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, where he received a silver medal in trampoline.

In 2005, he came out publicly as gay, and was the first Australian to be named a Gay Games Ambassador.  In an August 2012 letter to the Sydney Star Observer, a gay-oriented weekly tabloid newspaper, he revealed he is HIV-positive.

Wallace returned to his trampoline roots in order to qualify for the Beijing Olympics, but missed Olympic selection at the 2007 World Championships in QC Canada.

Wallace was a cast member with the Cirque du Soleil in their show ZAIA 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, successfully 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