Wang Chunyu (; born 17 January 1995) 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 ...

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

athlete who specialises in the

800 metres The 800 metres, or meters ( US spelling), is a common track running event. It is the shortest commonly run middle-distance running event. The 800 metres is run over two laps of an outdoor (400-metre) track and has been an Olympic event since the ...

. She has a personal best of 1:57.00 minutes. She was the gold medallist at the

Asian Athletics Championships The Asian Athletics Championships is an event organized by the Asian Athletics Association. History The competition courted controversy with the IAAF when political in-fighting arose after Israel was excluded from participation in 1977. That e ...

in 2013 and the runner-up at the 2011 World Youth Championships. 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 ...

in China's

Anhui Anhui , (; formerly romanized as Anhwei) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the East China region. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze River ...

province, Wang had her first successes at provincial level winning a series of events in 2010. She began entering national competitions in 2011 at the age of sixteen and became the youngest ever winner on the national indoor circuit with a victory in

Nanjing Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...

in February. She entered the 800 m at the

2011 World Youth Championships in Athletics The 2011 World Youth Championships in Athletics were the seventh edition of the World Youth Championships in Athletics. They were held in Lille Métropole, France, with stadium-based events at Stadium Lille-Métropole in Villeneuve d'Ascq, on 6� ...

and improved through the rounds, reducing her best from 2:07.13 to 2:03.23 by the end of the competition. In the final she nipped

Jessica Judd Jessica Warner-Judd (born 7 January 1995) is an English middle- and long-distance runner. She won two individual medals in the Under-20 and U23 age-group races at the European Cross Country Championships and a gold medal for the 5000 metres at ...

at the line to take the

silver medal A silver medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc ...

behind the favourite

Ajeé Wilson Ajeé Wilson ( ; born May 8, 1994) is an American middle-distance runner who specializes in the 800 meters. She is the 2022 World indoor champion at the 800 meter distance, after earning silver medals in 2016 and 2018. Wilson won bronze medals ...

. The sixteen-year-old Wang set a personal best of 2:01.34 minutes to win at the China City Games junior competition – this was the fastest run by a Chinese athlete in over five years and the best by a Chinese youth since

Ma Junren Ma Junren (; born October 28, 1944) is a famous and controversial Chinese track coach. He trained several world-class middle and long distance female runners including Wang Junxia and Qu Yunxia, who hold several world records. He and his pupils a ...

-trained Lin Na ran at the 1997 Chinese Games. Chunyu competed exclusively on the national circuit in 2012 and her best run of the season came at the

Chinese Athletics Championships The Chinese Athletics Championships ( zh, 全国田径锦标赛) is an annual track and field competition which serves as the national championship for the People's Republic of China. It is organised by Chinese Athletic Association, China's nationa ...

, where she was just two hundredths of a second behind Zhao Jing, with a time of 2:01.48 minutes. At the start of the 2013 outdoor season she placed sixth in the 800 m at the

IAAF Diamond League The Diamond League is an annual series of elite track and field athletic competitions comprising fourteen of the best invitational athletics meetings. The series sits in the top tier of the World Athletics (formerly known as the IAAF) one-day mee ...

meeting in

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 ...

then went on to win her first major title in the form of the 800 m

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have bee ...

at the

2013 Asian Athletics Championships The 2013 Asian Athletics Championships were the 20th edition of the biennial athletics competition between Asian nations. It was held at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Balewadi, Pune, India between 3–7 July. Around 522 athletes f ...

. She beat Bahrain's Ethiopian-born Genzeb Shumi by a margin of almost two seconds. On 31 July 2021, she qualified for the final of women's 800 metres at

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 ...

in Tokyo with her personal best of 1:59.14, thus becoming the first Chinese athlete to ever have reached the Olympic final of this competition. She finished 5th in the final with 1:57.00, her personal best.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wang, Chunyu Living people 1995 births People from Suzhou, Anhui Runners from Anhui Chinese female middle-distance runners Olympic female middle-distance runners Olympic athletes for China Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics Asian Games gold medalists for China Asian Games gold medalists in athletics (track and field) Athletes (track and field) at the 2018 Asian Games Medalists at the 2018 Asian Games World Athletics Championships athletes for China Asian Athletics Championships winners Asian Indoor Athletics Championships winners Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics