Xue Bai (; name means ''White Snow''; born 15 December 1988 in

Heilongjiang Heilongjiang () formerly romanized as Heilungkiang, is a province in northeast China. The standard one-character abbreviation for the province is (). It was formerly romanized as "Heilungkiang". It is the northernmost and easternmost province ...

) is a female

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

long-distance runner who specializes in the

10,000 metres The 10,000 metres or the 10,000-metre run is a common long-distance track running event. The event is part of the athletics programme at the Olympic Games and the World Athletics Championships, and is common at championship level events. The race ...

Career

Bai won both the 5000 and the 10,000 metres at the 2005 Asian Championships, and she finished fourth in the 10,000 m at the 2006 World Junior Championships. She finished twenty-first in the 10,000 metres at the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

. She won the

Beijing Marathon The Beijing Marathon () is an annual marathon race held around October in Beijing, People's Republic of China, since 1981. The race begins at Tiananmen Square and finishes in Celebration Square in Olympic Green. The full marathon is the only ...

in 2008.

2009 World Championships

The Berlin 2009 Marathon event was Bai's first time taking part in World Championships and only second time taking part in an international marathon. She won the 2009 World Championships Women's Marathon gold medal, becoming the youngest ever women's world marathon champion at the age of 20. Bai pulled away from Japan's

Yoshimi Ozaki is a Japanese long-distance runner, who specializes in the marathon. She won the 2008 Tokyo Women's Marathon in a personal best time of 2:23:30 hours. A year later she took the silver medal in the event at the 2009 World Championships in Athle ...

in the last kilometer to finish the 42.195 km race in two hours 25 minutes and 15 seconds. Bai Xue became the first Chinese athlete to win a marathon race at the World Championships. It was also the first gold medal for China in the event in Berlin, taking its medal tally to 1-1-2. And it was also the first gold in 10 years for Chinese women athletes' at the world championships.

Liu Hongyu Liu Hongyu (; born January 11, 1975, in Liaoning) is a female Chinese race walker. Achievements See also *China at the World Championships in Athletics The People's Republic of China (PRC) first competed at the IAAF World Championships in At ...

won the last gold medal in the women's 10 km walk in Seville in 1999. She is also the second Chinese to win a major international marathon after

Zhou Chunxiu Zhou Chunxiu (; born November 15, 1978, in Sheqi County, Henan) is a Chinese marathon runner. She competed at the 2008 Olympic Games, finishing the marathon in 3rd place. She placed fourth in the marathon at the 2005 World Championsh ...

, who took the

London Marathon The London Marathon is an annual marathon held in London, United Kingdom, and is the 2nd largest annual road race in the UK, after the Great North Run in Newcastle. Founded by athletes Chris Brasher and John Disley in 1981, it is typically held ...

title in 2007. She returned to China after the championships and defended her title at the Beijing Marathon, beating young national opposition in

Zhang Xin Zhang Xin (, also known as Xin Zhang and Xin "Shynn" Zhang, born 1965) is a Chinese billionaire businesswoman, having primarily earned her fortune in the real estate industry. With her husband Pan Shiyi, she is the co-founder and former CEO of ...

and Zhu Xiaoling. She continued her good form at the 11th Chinese National Games a few weeks later, setting a 10,000 m personal best on the way to winning the gold medal. At the

2010 London Marathon The 2010 London Marathon was the 30th running of the annual marathon race in London, England, which took place on Sunday, 25 April. The elite men's race was won by Ethiopia's Tsegaye Kebede in a time of 2:05:19 hours and the elite women's ...

, she was in contention for much of the race but fell away at the 30 km point, ending up in seventh place with a run of 2:25:18.Brown, Matthew (2010-04-25)
Commanding victories for Kebede and Shobukhova - London Marathon report

IAAF World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body for ...

. Retrieved on 2010-04-28.

Personal bests

Her personal best times are: *

1500 metres The 1500 metres or 1,500-metre run (typically pronounced 'fifteen-hundred metres') is the foremost middle distance track event in athletics. The distance has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896 and the World Championships in Athletic ...

⁣ – 4:24.51 min (2004) *

3000 metres The 3000 metres or 3000-metre run is a track running event, also commonly known as the "3K" or "3K run", where 7.5 laps are run around an outdoor 400 m track, or 15 laps around a 200 m indoor track. It is debated whether the 3000m shoul ...

⁣ – 9:16.32 min (2004) *

5000 metres The 5000 metres or 5000-metre run is a common long-distance running event in track and field, approximately equivalent to or . It is one of the track events in the Olympic Games and the World Championships in Athletics, run over laps of a stan ...

⁣ – 15:09.84 min (2007) *

⁣ – 31:17.62 min (2009) *

Marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of , usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There are also wheelchair div ...

⁣ – 2:23:27 hrs (2008)

References

External links

*
Team China 2008

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bai, Xue 1988 births Living people Chinese female marathon runners Chinese female long-distance runners Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes for China Sportspeople from Qiqihar World Athletics Championships medalists Runners from Heilongjiang Athletes (track and field) at the 2010 Asian Games Asian Games competitors for China World Athletics Championships winners