Liu Xiang (, born 1 September 1996) is a Chinese competitive

swimmer Swimming is an individual or team racing sport that requires the use of one's entire body to move through water. The sport takes place in pools or open water (e.g., in a sea or lake). Competitive swimming is one of the most popular Olympic ...

Early life

Born Liu Jiaxin in

Tianhe District Tianhe District () is one of the eleven districts of Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province. In Chinese, the name Tianhe literally means "a river in the sky/heavens", which is also a Chinese name for the Milky Way. It is bordered by Yuexi ...

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 ...

, she is the only daughter to her parents. Both of her parents were basketball players, but she chose swimming. Liu is an alumnus of

South China Normal University South China Normal University (SCNU; ) is a comprehensive university that is part of Double First Class University Plan and Project 211 in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, in the People's Republic of China. It is a Chinese state Doubl ...

Swimming

At the

2015 World Aquatics Championships The 16th FINA World Aquatics Championships, FINA World Championships (russian: Чемпионат мира по водным видам спорта 2015), also Aquatics 2015, were held in Kazan, Russia from 24 July to 9 August 2015. Russia host ...

, Liu won the bronze medal in the 50-meter backstroke behind teammate

Fu Yuanhui Fu Yuanhui (; born January 7, 1996) is a Chinese competitive swimmer who specializes in backstroke. She won a bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics in the 100-meter backstroke. Early life On January 7, 1996, Fu was born in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, C ...

at the

in Kazan, Russia. She also competed at the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

. In the

2018 Asian Games The 2018 Asian Games ( id, Pesta Olahraga Asia 2018 or ''Asian Games 2018''), officially known as the 18th Asian Games and also known as Jakarta-Palembang 2018 or Indonesia 2018, was a Asia, continental multi-sport event that was held from 18 A ...

Liu broke the 27-second barrier in the women's 50m backstroke as she set a world record and took the gold medal.

Personal bests

Long course (50-meter pool)

Short course (25-meter pool)

Key: NR = National Record, AS = Asian Record, WR = World Record

References

1996 births Living people Olympic swimmers for China Chinese female backstroke swimmers Chinese female freestyle swimmers Swimmers at the 2016 Summer Olympics World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming Swimmers at the 2018 Asian Games Asian Games medalists in swimming Swimmers from Guangzhou World record holders in swimming Asian Games gold medalists for China Asian Games silver medalists for China Medalists at the 2018 Asian Games 20th-century Chinese women 21st-century Chinese women {{PRChina-swimming-bio-stub