Paralyzed former gymnast Sang Lan gave birth to a baby boy early yesterday, her family announced on her microblog account.

Weighing 2.8 kilograms, the child was delivered by cesarean section at 00:19am in Beijing, said the Weibo post.

The 33-year-old new mother is the first patient who suffered a high cervical spinal cord transection to successfully deliver a baby by C-section in China, it was reported.

Sang married her agent Huang Jian last year and announced she was pregnant this year.

A member of China's national gymnastics team, Sang fell during a warm-up for a vault event final at the Goodwill Games in New York in July 1998.

Only 17 at the time, the fall left Sang paralyzed from the chest down.

After remaining in New York for a year receiving rehabilitation at Mount Sinai Hospital, she returned to China and became a television personality and advocate for the disabled.

Sang was an ambassador for Beijing's successful 2008 Olympics bid and selected as an Olympic relay torchbearer.

In 2011, she claimed that during her warm-up someone tried to remove a mat from where she was about to land. Distracted, she fell and hit her head on the floor.

Sang filed a US$1.8 billion lawsuit in the US, initially against three people and five institutions.

Subjects of the lawsuit included media mogul Ted Turner who founded the Goodwill Games, AOL Time Warner Inc, the US Gymnastics Federation, TIG Insurance Co and two legal guardians appointed to look after her following the accident, accusing them of failing to fulfill obligations to care for her.

The number of defendants cited in the lawsuit was later increased to 25.

She also accused her former legal guardians' son of sexual harassment during her rehabilitation at their house 13 years ago.

Sang reached a settlement with three insurance companies and USA Gymnastics.

The insurers agreed to pay an undisclosed sum and cover future medical and rehabilitation fees in the US and China.

Originally they had paid Sang only for fees incurred in the US and not in China.

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