Zhou Guohua (born 10 October 1990) is a visually impaired

Paralympian The Paralympic Games or Paralympics, also known as the ''Games of the Paralympiad'', is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of physical disabilities, including impaired muscle power and impaire ...

athlete An athlete (also sportsman or sportswoman) is a person who competes in one or more sports that involve physical strength, speed, or endurance. Athletes may be professionals or amateurs. Most professional athletes have particularly well-deve ...

from

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

competing mainly in T12 classification sprint events. In London in 2012 she became the T12 record holder at 100m.

Life

Zhou was born in Ulanqab in Inner Mongolia in 1990 with poor eyesight. She was discovered in

Dongguan Dongguan (; ) is a prefecture-level city in central Guangdong Province, China. An important industrial city in the Pearl River Delta, Dongguan borders the provincial capital of Guangzhou to the north, Huizhou to the northeast, Shenzhen to the so ...

in 2009 where she was working as a masseuse. Luo Jinhui from the local disable association identified her athletic stature and suggested she could make a better living as an athlete. By 2011 she was able to become a professional after taking medals at the national paragames. She did not compete a lot in international events until just before the 2012 Paralympics where she took two gold medals in Croatia at 100 and 200 metres.Zhou Guohua: Setting New World Record at London Paralympics
20 September 2012, WomenofChina, Retrieved 22 August 2016 Zhou won two medals at her first Summer Paralympics, the 2012 London Games, including the gold medal in the women's 100m sprint. Here she set a new world record of 12.05 seconds in the T12 event. The time was so quick that this would place her in the top women in the world irrespective of her disability. She is also a World Championships and Asian Games medalists, winning five medals over four tournaments. At the 2014 Asian Para Games she set an Asian record in the 400m T12 sprint with a time of 58.45.

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Zhou, Guohua 1990 births Paralympic athletes of China Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Paralympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Paralympic gold medalists for China Paralympic silver medalists for China Paralympic bronze medalists for China Living people Chinese female sprinters Medalists at the 2012 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2016 Summer Paralympics People from Ulanqab Runners from Inner Mongolia World Para Athletics Championships winners Paralympic medalists in athletics (track and field) Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Paralympics 20th-century Chinese women 21st-century Chinese women