Chen Xiexia (; born January 8, 1983, in

Panyu Panyu, formerly romanized as Punyü, is one of 11 urban districts of the prefecture-level city of Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong Province, China. Since January 1975, Panyu County has been under Guangzhou's administration. In 1992, Panyu C ...

Guangzhou Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...

Guangdong ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...

) is a Chinese

weightlifter Weightlifting or weight lifting generally refers to physical exercises and sports in which people lift weights, often in the form of dumbbells, barbells or machines. People engage in weightlifting for a variety of different reasons. These can ...

Career

She won three golds at the 2007 World Weightlifting Championships. and the first gold medal for

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

in the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

in the 48 kg class, setting an Olympic Record by lifting a total of 212 kg. She also won 3 golds at the 2007 Asian Championships, with a world record of 120 kg in

clean and jerk The clean and jerk is a composite of two weightlifting movements, most often performed with a barbell: the clean and the jerk. During the ''clean'', the lifter moves the barbell from the floor to a racked position across the deltoids, without rest ...

. At the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics Gymnasium on Day 1 of the Olympic Games, 152 cm Xiexia, 25, yelled "jia you!" (come on!), and succeeded on all six attempts (snatch: 95 kg; clean and jerk: 117 kg). On 12 January 2017 it was announced that because of a doping violation she had been disqualified from the 2008 Olympic Games, and was stripped of her gold medal. Chen Wei-Ling of

Chinese Taipei "Chinese Taipei" is the term used in various international organizations and tournaments for groups or delegations representing the Republic of China (ROC), a country commonly known as Taiwan. Due to the One China principle stipulated by the ...

, originally the bronze medalist, was awarded the gold medal instead.

References

1983 births Living people Chinese female weightlifters Olympic weightlifters for China People from Panyu District Weightlifters at the 2008 Summer Olympics Weightlifters from Guangzhou Doping cases in weightlifting Chinese sportspeople in doping cases Competitors stripped of Summer Olympics medals 20th-century Chinese women 21st-century Chinese sportswomen {{PRChina-weightlifting-bio-stub