Liu Hong (; born 12 May 1987) is a Chinese

race walker Race walking, or racewalking, is a long-distance discipline within the sport of athletics. Although a foot race, it is different from running in that one foot must appear to be in contact with the ground at all times. Race judges carefully asses ...

. She is the world record holder over the Olympic 20km distance with a time of 1:24:38 hours, set in 2015. Liu has won multiple medals in the

World Championships in Athletics The World Athletics Championships, known as the IAAF World Championships in Athletics until 2019, are a biennial athletics competition organized by World Athletics, formerly International Association of Athletics Federations. Alongside Olympic ...

, including four gold medals in 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2019 and a silver medal in 2009. She placed fourth at the

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games, also known as the Summer Olympics or the Games of the Olympiad, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inaugural Games took place in 1896 in Athens, then part of the King ...

in 2008 and was retrospectively upgraded to silver in 2012 Olympic 20 km racewalking. Liu is the 2016 Olympic 20 km racewalking gold medalist. Liu is a two-time gold medalist at the

Asian Games The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years for athletes of Asia. The Games were regulated by Asian Games Federation from the 1951 Asian Games, first Games in New Delhi, India in 1951, until ...

, winning in 2006 and 2010. She was the runner-up at the

IAAF World Race Walking Cup The World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships is a racewalking event organised by World Athletics. It has been held since 1961, and generally on a biennial basis. The first women's edition of the event happened in 1979. It was formerly know ...

in 2014. In her early career, she was the World Junior Champion in 2006.

Career

She first came to prominence by winning the World Junior and

titles in 2006. After a poor global debut at the

2007 World Championships in Athletics The 11th World Championships in Athletics, () under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), were held at Nagai Stadium in Osaka, Japan from 24 August to 2 September 2007. 200 of the IAAF's 212 member feder ...

(19th), she rebounded with a fourth-place finish at the

2008 Beijing 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 ...

. However, since Russia's

Olga Kaniskina Olga Nikolayevna Kaniskina (; born January 19, 1985 in Napolnaya Tavla, Kochkurovsky District, Mordovian ASSR, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union) is a Russian coach and former race walker. She won the silver medal in the 20 km walk at the 2006 ...

was disqualified in March 2016 for doping, Liu is expected to be awarded the bronze medal. She secured her first major medal at the

2009 World Championships in Athletics The 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics () were held in Berlin, Germany from 15 to 23 August 2009. The majority of events took place in the Olympiastadion, while the marathon and racewalking events started and finished at the Brandenbu ...

, taking the

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receives ...

. Later that year she took the national title at the 11th Chinese National Games. Liu retained her title at the

2010 Asian Games The 2010 Asian Games (), officially known as the XVI Asian Games () and also known as Guangzhou 2010 (), were a regional multi-sport event held from November 12 to 27, 2010 in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China (although several events commenced ear ...

and broke the Games record with a time of 1:30:06 hours. She opened her 2011 season with a win on the 2011 racewalking circuit at the Memorial Mario Albisetti. She followed this with a win in

Taicang Taicang is a county-level city under the jurisdiction of Suzhou, Jiangsu province, China. The city located in the south of the Yangtze River estuary opposite Nantong, being bordered by Shanghai proper to the south, while the river also delineates ...

, equalling her personal best in the process. A third circuit win came in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

that year. She won the

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have b ...

at the

2011 World Championships in Athletics The 13th IAAF World Championships in Athletics () was an international athletics competition that was held in Daegu, South Korea. It started on 27 August 2011 and finished on 4 September 2011. The United States topped the medal standings in the ...

. Liu broke the Asian record for the 20 km walk in Taicang in 2012, defeating Wang Yan's decade-old record with a time of 1:25:46 hours. She placing third behind Qieyang Shenjie who also broke her Asian record, at the

2012 London Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

. Liu won at the 2012 IAAF World Race Walking Challenge Final, however, and defeated Qieyang en route to breaking

Jin Bingjie Jin Bingjie (金冰洁 - ''Jīn Bīngjié;'' born 1 April 1971 in Liaoning) is a retired Chinese race walker. She won the bronze medal in the 5000 m walk at the 1986 World Junior Championships in Athletics then took third a year later in t ...

's 22-year-old Asian record for the 5000 m walk at the Chinese University Games. She set an event record in her first race of 2013, winning the Memorial Albisetti in a time of 1:27:06 hours. She broke the

world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organizatio ...

for the 20 km walk at the Gran Premio Cantones de La Coruña. Taking advantage of warm conditions, she completed the distance in 1:24:38 hours, walking the second 10 km faster than the first, to improve the world record by 24 seconds. This was the fastest time ever, also beating

Olimpiada Ivanova Olimpiada Vladimirovna Ivanova (; born 26 August 1970) is a Russian race walker. Her first gold medal was won in the 2001 Edmonton World Championships, where she beat the rest of the world with the time 1.27:48. A year later, in 2002, she won a ...

and

's times that were not ratified as records due to a lack of international judges. After testing positive for higenamine in May 2016, she was banned from 13 June to 13 July 2016. She won the gold medal with 1:28:35 in women's 20 km walk at Rio Olympic Games on 19 August 2016. After a year off competition to have a baby, in 2019 she became the first woman ever to finish the 50 kilometer walk in less than four hours, finishing in 3 hours, 59 minutes and 15 seconds at the Chinese Race Walk Grand Prix. Later that year, she won her third gold medal in the 20 km walk at the

2019 World Championships in Athletics The 2019 IAAF World Athletics Championships () was the seventeenth edition of the biennial, global sport of athletics, athletics competition organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), since renamed World Athleti ...

Doha Doha ( ) is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor (city), Al Khor and Lusail, it is home to most of the country's population. It ...

, Qatar.China sweeps podium in women's 20 km race walk

Euronews Euronews (stylised in lowercase) is a pan-European television news broadcasting, news network, headquartered in Lyon, France. It is a provider of livestreamed news, which can be viewed in Europe and North Africa via satellite, and in most of the ...

International competitions

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Liu, Hong 1987 births Living people People from Ji'an Athletes from Jiangxi Chinese female race walkers 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 Olympic athletes for China Olympic female race walkers Olympic gold medalists for China Olympic bronze medalists for China Olympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field) Olympic bronze medalists in athletics (track and field) Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2006 Asian Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2010 Asian Games Asian Games gold medalists for China Medalists at the 2006 Asian Games Medalists at the 2010 Asian Games World Athletics Championships athletes for China World Athletics Championships winners World Athletics Championships medalists World Athletics record holders Doping cases in athletics Athletes (track and field) at the 2024 Summer Olympics Asian Games gold medalists in athletics (track and field)