Li Shijia (; born October 7, 2003) is a Chinese

artistic gymnast Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics in which athletes perform short routines on different apparatuses. The sport is governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG), which designs the Code of Points and regulates ...

. She is the 2019 World bronze medalist on balance beam and the 2019 Zhaoqing World Cup champion on uneven bars and balance beam.

Career

Junior

2018

Li competed at the 2018

WOGA Classic The World Olympic Gymnastics Academy (WOGA) is a two-facility gymnastics club located in Frisco and Plano. The head coaches at WOGA are former USA Gymnastics women's national team coordinator Valeri Liukin, who was a Soviet medalist at the 1 ...

in Frisco, Texas, placing eleventh in the all-around and winning silver on balance beam behind

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

's Ayumi Niiyama. She finished fifth with the Chinese team at the 2018

City of Jesolo Trophy The City of Jesolo Trophy is an annual women's gymnastics competition held in Jesolo, Italy. There are competitions for the senior division and junior division. The United States won the senior team competition every year from 2010 to 2017.

. At the 2018 Chinese National Championships, Li finished seventh with the

Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...

team. She also placed thirteenth in the all-around and fifth on balance beam.

Senior

2019

Li placed fifth with the

team and in the all-around at the 2019 Chinese National Championships, as well as eighth on uneven bars. At this competition, she debuted a new double-twisting Yurckenko vault. At the 2019 Zhaoqing World Cup she won gold on uneven bars ahead of Liu Jingxing and on balance beam ahead of

Yin Sisi Yin may refer to: *the dark force in the yin and yang from traditional Chinese philosophy and medicine *Yīn (surname) (), a Chinese surname *Yǐn (surname) (), a Chinese surname *Shang dynasty, also known as the Yin dynasty **Yinxu or Yin, the S ...

. Her score in the balance beam final of 15.050 was the second-highest international score of the year behind Simone Biles. After upgrading her difficulty value on balance beam and floor exercise during the summer and placing second in the all-around at the final internal test, Li was named to the Chinese team for the

2019 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships The 2019 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships was held in Stuttgart, Germany from October 4–13, 2019. The championships took place at the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle, and was the third time the city of Stuttgart hosted the event following the ...

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

alongside

Chen Yile Chen Yile (, born 5 January 2002) is an elite Chinese female artistic gymnast. She is the 2018 Asian all-around and balance beam champion, and the 2017 Asian junior all-around and uneven bars champion. She was a member of the team that won the ...

, Liu Tingting, Qi Qi,

Tang Xijing Tang Xijing (; born January 3, 2003) is a Chinese artistic gymnast. She is the 2019 World all-around silver medalist, matching Jiang Yuyuan at the 2010 World Championships for the highest all-around finish for a Chinese woman in World or Oly ...

, and alternate Zhang Jin. She helped China qualify to the team final in second place behind the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Individually, Li recorded the seventh highest all-around score of all competitors, but qualified into the top group of six along with teammate Liu after American Grace McCallum's exclusion due to the two-per-country rule. She also qualified in second place into the balance beam final behind two-time world champion Simone Biles of the United States and ahead of the reigning world champion, Liu. During the team final, Li competed on vault and beam only. Her score of 14.266 on balance beam was the second highest of the day, behind only Biles. Overall, China finished fourth after counting three falls behind the United States, Russia, and Italy. Li was the youngest competitor in the all-around final and finished ninth after a slight mishap on the uneven bars. In the balance beam final, she won the bronze medal behind Biles and Liu, hitting a clean routine with a few broken connections to score 14.300.

2020

Due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, the 2020 Chinese National Championships were postponed from May to September. Li suffered a waist injury during training which limited her to competing on uneven bars. In the qualification round, which also served as a team final, Li placed tenth with the

team and ninth individually on the uneven bars, narrowly missing out on the event final by half a tenth of a point.

2021

At the

2021 Chinese Artistic Gymnastics Championships The 2021 Chinese Artistic Gymnastics Championships were held from May 4-9, 2021 in Chengdu, Sichuan. They also served as the qualifier for the gymnastics event at the 2021 National Games of China. Women's medalists Men's medalists Oly ...

she won gold at the balance beam and bronze at the all-around competition. As the top 8 all-around gymnasts would be included in the training squad for the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

this secured her a place in the team but a knee injury kept her from participating.

Competitive history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Li, Shijia 2003 births Living people Chinese female artistic gymnasts Medalists at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships 21st-century Chinese women