Xue Chen (; born 18 February 1989 in
Fuzhou,
Fujian
Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its cap ...
) 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 ...
beach volleyball player, measuring in height. Her hometown is Fuzhou, but she trains in
Sanya
Sanya (; also spelled Samah) is the southernmost city on Hainan Island, and one of the four prefecture-level cities of Hainan Province in South China.
According to the 2020 census, the total population of Sanya was 1,031,396 inhabitants, li ...
,
Hainan
Hainan (, ; ) is the smallest and southernmost province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), consisting of various islands in the South China Sea. , the largest and most populous island in China,The island of Taiwan, which is slightly l ...
. She has also trained in
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
under coach
Dane Selznick. She competed at the 2020 Olympics with X. Wang in Tokyo held in 2021.
Career
Xue began playing
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...
as a child, but disliked the physical contact of that sport. She then played
indoor volleyball from the age of 10 to 13 before settling into beach volleyball.
She began training for her sports career in 2000 at the Fuzhou Sports Training School. In 2002, she attended the Athletic Sports College of Fuzhou and became a member of the Chinese national beach volleyball team. Xue then made her Swatch-FIVB World Tour debut in 2005, playing in two events with
You Wenhui and winning the FIVB Top Rookie award for 2006.
Early 2006 Xue became the youngest player to ever win a major event, when on 28 May 2006 the 17-year-old won the $400,000 China Shanghai Jinshan Open.
Later in 2006, Xue and
Zhang Xi won the gold medal in the women's team competition at the
2006 Asian Games
6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number.
In mathematics
Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...
. The pair also won the bronze medal in women's beach volleyball at the
2008 Summer Olympics.
The pair had great success in 2010, which included winning the Grand Slam in Moscow, Russia, for the second time. They also achieved an extraordinary gold-medal win on the FIVB World Tour Women's Final in Åland, Finland,
by snapping the record gold-medal winning-streak of Brazil's
França–
Silva
Silva is a surname in Portuguese language, Portuguese-speaking countries, such as Portugal and Brazil. It is derived from the Latin word , meaning "forest" or "woodland". It is the family name of the House of Silva.
The name is also widespread i ...
duo on 21 August 2010. In 2009 they won the gold medal at the Asian Beach Volleyball Championships in Haikou, China, and retained the title in 2010. They then went on to win gold at the Sanya Open in Hainan, the Guangzhou Asian Games, and the Asian Beach Games. The team of Xue and Zhang were ranked 4th overall on the 2010
FIVB Beach Volleyball World Rankings and finished the season ranked first in the FIVB World Rankings.
Xue and Zhang represented China in the
2012 London Olympics
The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...
and ended 4th in the female beach volleyball competition.
She competed at the 2020 Olympics with X. Wang in Tokyo held in 2021.
Playing partners
*
Zhang Xi 2010–present
*
Zhang Ying 2008–2009
*
Zhang Xi 2006–2008
*
Yan Ni 2003–2006
* Xia Xinyi 2017–present
* Ma Yuanyuan 2017–Present
* X. Wang (at 2020 Olympics in Tokyo held in 2021)
See also
*
China at the 2012 Summer Olympics#Volleyball
*
References
External links
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Xue, Chen
1989 births
Living people
Chinese female beach volleyball players
Olympic beach volleyball players of China
Olympic medalists in beach volleyball
Olympic bronze medalists for China
Asian Games medalists in beach volleyball
Asian Games gold medalists for China
Medalists at the 2006 Asian Games
Medalists at the 2010 Asian Games
Medalists at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Beach volleyball players at the 2006 Asian Games
Beach volleyball players at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Beach volleyball players at the 2010 Asian Games
Beach volleyball players at the 2012 Summer Olympics
Sportspeople from Fuzhou
Volleyball players from Fujian
Beach volleyball players at the 2020 Summer Olympics
21st-century Chinese women