Chen Yanqing (; born May 4, 1979) 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 ...

who competed in the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

and 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 ...

. She won the gold medal in the 58 kg class in both competitions, making her the first woman to win gold medals in weightlifting in two consecutive Olympics. Chen was born in

Suzhou Suzhou (; ; Suzhounese: ''sou¹ tseu¹'' , Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Soochow, is a major city in southern Jiangsu province, East China. Suzhou is the largest city in Jiangsu, and a major economic center and focal point of trade ...

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, Postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an Eastern China, eastern coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is o ...

. She won her first gold medal in 1995 at the Junior Asian Women Weightlifting Championship, and another at a 1998 world championship. She was slated to compete at the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

but was scratched from the Chinese Olympic lineup for strategic reasons a short time before the games began. She has also won the National Games and East Asia Games and set the world record in her weight class in the snatch and lift in 2006.

Personal life

Chen was born to a poor rural family who live in a small farming village called Xishan () on an island near

, two hours west of

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

. Her parents are both

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...

growers. In 1989 her parents sent her to a state athletic school after coach and former weightlifter Cao Xinmin discovered her at a sports match in Suzhou. Her parents have mixed emotions about her career in weightlifting, but her earnings have helped raise her family's standard of living. After she was scratched from the 2000 Summer Olympics, she retired in 2001 to study business at Soochow University in

. She returned from retirement to compete in the 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chen, Yanqing 1979 births Living people Chinese female weightlifters Olympic gold medalists for China Olympic weightlifters for China Sportspeople from Suzhou Weightlifters at the 2004 Summer Olympics Weightlifters at the 2008 Summer Olympics World record holders in Olympic weightlifting Olympic medalists in weightlifting Asian Games medalists in weightlifting Weightlifters at the 2006 Asian Games Medalists at the 2008 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics Weightlifters at the 1998 Asian Games Asian Games gold medalists for China Weightlifters from Jiangsu Medalists at the 1998 Asian Games Medalists at the 2006 Asian Games World Weightlifting Championships medalists 20th-century Chinese women 21st-century Chinese women