Olympic medal-winning gymnast visits the 6 Hours of Shanghai

An interested visitor to the 6 Hours of Shanghai today was Marcel Nguyen, a VIP guest of Porsche AG.  The 26-year-old German is an Olympic silver-medal winning gymnast in both the floor and parallel bars disciplines, winning both medals at the 2012 London Olympic Games.

The FIA WEC communications department took the chance to ask him what his first impressions were of endurance racing: 

“It’s the first time I’ve been to this kind of race; I’ve been to DTM in Germany but never to a 6 hour race.

“It’s very cool seeing these cars.  I drive a Porsche sportscar myself and am interested in cars so it’s nice to hear the sound of them when they drive through the pits and to see how it works behind the scenes. 

“I talked to two of the Porsche drivers and we talked about the differences between the fitness they need for endurance racing and what I need for gymnastics, and about the injuries they might get.  They have a doctor with them always, just as we do, and it was very interesting. 

“I maybe don’t want to do a race, but I would be interested to do a circuit day where you learn how to drive around a track properly.  That would be cool!”

Fiona Miller

Photo (courtesy of Porsche AG):  SHANGHAI INTERNATIONAL CIRCUIT (SHANGHAI, CHINA), 6 HOURS OF SHANGHAI, 9TH NOVEMBER 2013, RACE.  Porsche AG Team Manthey's Marc Lieb shows off his 'office' to Olympic medal-winning gymnast Marcel Nguyen in Shanghai.