Gong Zhichao (; born 15 December 1977) is a former

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players p ...

player from the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Career

Gong was one of the world's leading women's singles players between her first international titles in 1996 and her retirement in 2002. She won some of the world's biggest tournaments, including the venerable

All-England Championship The IPW:UK All-England Championship (formerly the FWA All-England Championship) was a professional wrestling championship which was originally contested for in Frontier Wrestling Alliance (FWA) and subsequently in International Pro Wrestling: Un ...

consecutively in

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

and 2001 over fellow countrywomen Dai Yun and Zhou Mi respectively in the finals. Her other titles included the 1996

Asian Championships An Asian Championship is a top level international sports competition between Asian athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. List of Championships (Summer Olympic Sports) ;Aquatics * Asia ...

, the 2000

Copenhagen Masters The Copenhagen Masters is a high-ranking tournament in badminton. It is an invitation tournament held annually since 1993 in the week between Christmas and New Year in Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and mos ...

; and the

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

(1996),

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

(1997), China (1997), Japan (1998, 2000), and

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

(2000) Opens. At the then biennial IBF (BWF) World Championships Gong was a silver medalist behind fellow countrywoman

Ye Zhaoying Ye Zhaoying (; born 7 May 1974) is a retired badminton player from Hangzhou, China. Officially ranked as the number one women's singles player in the world for the first time in December 1995, she lost and regained that ranking several times du ...

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

, and a bronze medalist in 2001. She played winning singles for Chinese

Uber Cup The Uber Cup, sometimes called the World Women's Team Championships, is a major international badminton competition contested by women's national badminton teams. First held in 1956–1957 and contested at three year intervals, it has been contes ...

(women's international) teams that reclaimed the world team title from

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

, and retained the title in

. Unfortunately for Gong, her biggest triumph in an event for individual players, women's singles at the 2000 Olympic Games, is tainted by controversy. According to his later statement, China's head badminton coach

Li Yongbo Li Yongbo (; born September 18, 1962) is a retired Chinese male badminton player and the former head coach of Chinese National Badminton Team. Career As a player, he was a men's doubles specialist noted for his quickness, reflexes, and power. ...

instructed Gong's semifinal opponent, teammate

, to "throw" the match against her, on his assumption that Gong would have the better chance to defeat

Camilla Martin Camilla Martin Nygaard (née Martin; born 23 March 1974) is a retired badminton player from Denmark. She and Lene Køppen, who played two decades earlier, are the only Danish women to have won both the All England and World Championships singl ...

in the final. Whatever the effect of these "instructions" on Ye, a two time former IBF World Champion, she lost the match to Gong 8-11, 8-11, who in turn defeated reigning IBF World Champion Martin for the gold medal 13–10, 11–3.

Achievements

Olympic Games

''Women's singles''

World Championships

''Women's singles''

World Cup

''Women's singles''

Asian Games

''Women's singles''

Asian Championships

''Women's singles''

IBF World Grand Prix

The World Badminton Grand Prix sanctioned by International Badminton Federation (IBF) since 1983. ''Women's singles''

References

External links

* * 1977 births Living people People from Yiyang Badminton players from Hunan Chinese female badminton players Badminton players at the 2000 Summer Olympics Olympic badminton players of China Olympic gold medalists for China Olympic medalists in badminton Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Badminton players at the 1998 Asian Games Asian Games gold medalists for China Asian Games silver medalists for China Asian Games medalists in badminton Medalists at the 1998 Asian Games World No. 1 badminton players 21st-century Chinese women 20th-century Chinese women {{PRChina-Olympic-medalist-stub