Cao Lei (; born 24 December 1983 in Qinhuangdao, Hebei) is a Chinese weightlifter. She was born in north China's Hebei Province and was raised in northeastern Heilongjiang Province.

Career

Cao Lei started weightlifting training at the age of 11 and attended Daging City sports school in 1997 when she was selected to the Heilongjiang province weightlifting team coached by Qixi Fu. Lei made her debut in the international field in 2001 after winning the national championships in Asian Championships 63 kilo category by winning gold with a result of 107,5 kg (a junior world record at the time) in snatch, and 127,5 kg in clean and jerk, totaling 235 kg. The next year she started training with national team under the supervision of Ma Wenhui and she moved 69 kilo weight class in which she won the junior world championships 2003 with 105+140 kg performance. In 2005 Cao placed fourth in the National games and later the year won gold in the East Asian Games. The next year she moved up one weight class and participated in the women's -75 kg at the

2006 World Weightlifting Championships The 2006 World Weightlifting Championships were held at the Handball Pavilion and Weightlifting Pavilion Dr. José Joaquín Puello in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The event took place from September 30 to October 7, 2006. Medal summary Me ...

and won the gold medal, snatching 118 kg and

clean and jerk The clean and jerk is a composite of two weightlifting movements, most often performed with a barbell: the clean and the jerk. During the ''clean'', the lifter moves the barbell from the floor to a racked position across the deltoids, without res ...

ing an additional 150 kg for a total of 268 kg. Later the same year, she took gold in the Asian Games, besting her year ranking mark to 120 kg in the snatch and 152 kg in the clean and jerk. At the

2007 World Weightlifting Championships The Royal World Weightlifting Championships 2007 were held at the 700th Anniversary Sports Complex in Chiang Mai Chiang Mai (, from th, เชียงใหม่ , nod, , เจียงใหม่ ), sometimes written as Chiengmai or Ch ...

she won the gold medal again in the same category, with a total of 286 kg. 2009 she finished her weightlifting grand slam by taking gold in Chinese National Games with a result of 125 kg in the snatch, 150 kg in the clean and jerk adding to 275 kg total. In the 2009 weightlifting world championships she wasn't able to sustain her supremacy over the 75 kilo weight class as

Svetlana Podobedova Svetlana Podobedova (russian: Светлана Подобедова; born May 25, 1986, Zima, Irkutsk) is a Russian-born Kazakhstani weightlifter Olympic weightlifting, or Olympic-style weightlifting (officially named Weightlifting), is a spo ...

of Kazakhstan swept three gold medals, Cao following her to take silvers in all three disciplines. Later that year she represented her country in East Asian Games taking gold with routine performance of 252 kg total.

Doping violation

During the

2008 Beijing Olympic The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nati ...

games, Cao was placed first in the women's -75 kg weightlifting division. She set new Olympic records in the snatch and clean and jerk events, as well as setting a new overall score record. However on 12 January 2017 it was announced that because of a doping violation she had been retroactively disqualified from the 2008 Olympic Games and was therefore stripped of her gold medal and her records annulled.

References

External links

Athlete Biography
at beijing2008
Olympic Profile
in Chinese * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cao, Lei Living people 1983 births Chinese female weightlifters Olympic weightlifters for China People from Qinhuangdao Weightlifters at the 2008 Summer Olympics Place of birth missing (living people) Asian Games medalists in weightlifting Weightlifters from Hebei Weightlifters at the 2006 Asian Games Weightlifters at the 2010 Asian Games Asian Games gold medalists for China Asian Games silver medalists for China Doping cases in weightlifting Chinese sportspeople in doping cases Medalists at the 2006 Asian Games Medalists at the 2010 Asian Games Competitors stripped of Summer Olympics medals World Weightlifting Championships medalists