Chen Xiexia (; born January 8, 1983, in

Panyu Panyu, alternately romanized as Punyu, is one of 11 urban districts of the prefecture-level city of Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong Province, China. It was a separate county-level city before its incorporation into modern Guangzhou in 200 ...

Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong Kon ...

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

) is a

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 ...

weightlifter Olympic weightlifting, or Olympic-style weightlifting (officially named Weightlifting), is a sport in which athletes compete in lifting a barbell loaded with weight plates from the ground to overhead, with each athlete trying to successfully lift ...

Career

She won three golds at the

2007 World Weightlifting Championships The Royal World Weightlifting Championships 2007 were held at the 700th Anniversary Sports Complex in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The event took place from September 17 to September 26, 2007. Medal summary Men Women Medal table Ranking by Big (Tot ...

. and the first gold medal for

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

in the

2008 Summer Olympics 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 Na ...

in the 48 kg class, setting an Olympic Record by lifting a total of 212 kg. She also won 3 golds at the 2007 Asian Championships, with a world record of 120 kg in

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 ...

. At the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics Gymnasium on Day 1 of the Olympic Games, 152 cm Xiexia, 25, yelled "jia you!" (come on!), and succeeded on all six attempts (snatch: 95 kg; clean and jerk: 117 kg). On 12 January 2017 it was announced that because of a doping violation she had been disqualified from the 2008 Olympic Games, and was stripped of her gold medal. Chen Wei-Ling of

Chinese Taipei "Chinese Taipei" is the term used in various international organizations and tournaments for groups or delegations representing the Republic of China (ROC), a country commonly known as Taiwan. Due to the One-China principle stipulated by th ...

, originally the bronze medalist, was awarded the gold medal instead.

References

1983 births Living people Chinese female weightlifters Olympic weightlifters of China People from Panyu District Weightlifters at the 2008 Summer Olympics Weightlifters from Guangzhou Doping cases in weightlifting Chinese sportspeople in doping cases Competitors stripped of Summer Olympics medals 20th-century Chinese women 21st-century Chinese women {{PRChina-weightlifting-bio-stub