If it were not for her slight limp, Wang Qihong would make the perfect model, with her slender figure, well-carved face, silky hair tied up to resemble Audrey Hepburn and poise of a well-disciplined dancer.

The 31-year-old former national champion of rhythmic gymnastics used to have the world at her feet until bone cancer took her right leg at the age of 17.

Though her days of twirling, vaulting and dancing with ribbons before audiences are long gone, she seems to be coping well with her artificial leg, as well as with her coaching job at a provincial gymnastics team in South China's Guangdong Province.

"Two of my former students got to sixth place in the rhythmic gymnastics group competition during the Athens Games, and that's the best Olympic record in the history of China's rhythmic gymnastics," Wang said in introducing her favorite disciples, Lu Yingna and Hu Mei, to China Daily.

Wang was attending the just-concluded 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China as a delegate representing athletes and people with disabilities in Guangdong Province.

"Now I am training a team of five rhythmic gymnasts for the group competition at the 2012 London Games," she said, adding that her girls, aged 13 to 19, are too young for the Beijing Games.

"A rhythmic gymnast is in her prime between 18 and 22, because the essence of this sport is the feminine beauty of a mature and graceful woman."

Wang said she was strongest in the ball routine because she was born with an exceptionally lithe and supple body.

But Wang's personal aspiration in this discipline was cut off before her prime. She was diagnosed with bone cancer in June 1993, one year after she won a gold in the rope routine at the National Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in China.

"Although there was only a one percent chance of the tumor being malignant, I was the unlucky one. About two weeks later, my leg had to be amputated," Wang said.

"I only cried once, not for my lost leg, not for the torture of two years of chemotherapy, but because of the depressed atmosphere at the hospital."

"Rhythmic gymnastics gives me a huge amount of pleasure and also encourages me to be an optimist," she said.

Wang has started to get used to her prosthetic leg and no longer gets angry at reporters who quiz her about it. However she still blushes when it becomes the center of attention.

As the star performer of Guangzhou's rhythmic gymnastics team, her cancer scare left the team in tatters and it fell apart after she left. Then, two years later and after some surgery, she returned as coach.

"It was a record-breaking move to accept that coaching offer. First, I was the youngest rhythmic gymnastics coach in China (she was 19). Second, I was the only rhythmic coach with an artificial leg, perhaps in the whole world," Wang said.

She bought a video camera with her first month's salary to record the performance of her students, and later explained audio-visually how they could improve.

"Sometimes, I have to do demonstrations with my left leg and upper body, putting all the weight on my artificial leg. The joint often bleeds for hours due to scratches made by the artificial leg," she said.

The Guangdong provincial team has benefited from Wang's 23 years of experience on the floor mats and it rose quickly from the verge of "bankruptcy" to a position of strength. It ranked third overall in the national championships this September.

"The thing that definitely keeps you challenged in this sport is you have to be extremely well read. You have to follow everything, from the classics to high fashion to technology," she said.

Wang got her undergraduate degree in P.E. through self-schooling, and her master's in sports management at night school.

She has been responsible for choreographing moves for the Guangdong team for many years and is now part of the think tank deciding how to arrange the routines for the national team at the Beijing Games.

She said she adores Chinese traditional music, especially the native ensembles of Guangdong.

"Chinese music was very popular in Europe a few years ago, and the movements I choreographed to go with Chinese music were very well-received. But these days, symphonies are making a comeback in Europe, and that's why I'm reading up on Western masterpieces."

She is also something of a bedroom DJ, using computers to mix soundtracks for her students' performances.

Wang also has a passion for designing. When her students performed at the University Games in Bangkok in August they were wearing leotards she designed.

"I made the foot and lower leg resemble a long boot to make their legs look longer and slimmer," Wang said.

Her latest dream is to take an opera troupe around East Europe, Italy and Russia -- all of them strong rivals for Olympic gold in rhythmic gymnastics.

"I love opera, and I love traveling. I wouldn't mind emptying my purse to realize that dream," she said.