Gong Lijiao (; born 24 January 1989) is a

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Olympic shot putter.

Career

She finished seventh at the 2007 World Championships, her international debut. At the 2008 Summer Olympics she finished fifth but received the bronze medal later after two competitors were stripped of their medals because of doping violations. She set a personal best throw of 19.46 metres in the qualifying round of the 2008 Olympics; this was the furthest mark for a female Chinese shot putter for over a decade. At the 2009

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, Gong further improved her personal best to 19.82 m, taking her to tenth place on the all-time Chinese shot putter's list. She won the bronze medal at the 2009 World Championships in

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with a personal best of 19.89 metres. She won the gold medal at the

2009 National Games of China The 11th National Games of China were held in various cities in Shandong from October 16 to October 28, 2009. Represented were 33 sports, 43 disciplines and 362 events, including 4 winter sports which were held in Shenyang, Changchun and Qingdao ...

in Jinan with a personal best of 20.35 metres. She won the gold medal at the

2009 Asian Athletics Championships The 18th Asian Athletics Championships were held in Guangzhou, China in 2009. Results Men's results Track Field Women's results Track Field Medal table Participating nations * (12) * (1) * (1) * (77) * (22) * (16) * ...

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with a personal best of 19.04 metres. She initially finished fourth in the London 2012 Summer Olympics, but was retroactively awarded the bronze medal after the winner,

Nadzeya Astapchuk Nadzeya Astapchuk ( be, Надзея Мікалаеўна Астапчук, ''Nadzeya Mikalayeuna Astapchuk''; russian: Надежда Остапчук, ''Nadezhda Ostapchuk;'' born October 28, 1980) is a Belarusian shot putter. She briefly was d ...

, was disqualified for failing a drug test. On 20 August 2016, the IOC announced Yevgeniya Kolodko, the Russian silver medalist of women's shot put, failed an anti-doping test. Gong therefore got the silver medal. In 2018, Gong won the Gold Medal on Women's Shot Put during the 18th Asian Games in Jakarta,

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. In 2021, she won the gold medal in women's shot put at 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 1 ...

In Tokyo with her personal best of 20.58 m, thereby becoming the first Chinese athlete to be crowned the Olympic champion in any field event and the first athlete from Asia to win an Olympic gold medal in women's shot put.

References

1989 births Living people Athletes from Hebei Sportspeople from Shijiazhuang Chinese female shot putters Olympic athletes of China Olympic gold medalists for China Olympic silver medalists for China Olympic bronze medalists for China Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2008 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2012 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics Asian Games gold medalists for China Asian Games silver medalists for China Asian Games medalists in athletics (track and field) Athletes (track and field) at the 2010 Asian Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2014 Asian Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2018 Asian Games World Athletics Championships athletes for China World Athletics Championships medalists Olympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field) Olympic silver medalists in athletics (track and field) Olympic bronze medalists in athletics (track and field) Medalists at the 2010 Asian Games Medalists at the 2014 Asian Games Medalists at the 2018 Asian Games World Athletics Championships winners Diamond League winners Asian Athletics Championships winners IAAF Continental Cup winners Asian Games gold medalists in athletics (track and field) 21st-century Chinese women {{PRChina-athletics-bio-stub