Sun Qingmei (; born June 19, 1966) is a Chinese former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played for the China national team at the

1991 It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving Post-soviet states, fifteen sovereign republics and the Commonwealth of Independent State ...

and

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

editions of the

FIFA Women's World Cup The FIFA Women's World Cup is an international association football competition contested by the senior list of women's national association football teams, women's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internationale de Footb ...

and won a silver medal at the

1996 Atlanta Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

Club career

During her childhood in Hebei, Sun's parents locked her in her bedroom in a bid to stop her playing football. She was a member of the state

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

team when she started football training in 1983 and joined the Hebei club in 1984. After the 1991 Women's World Cup, Sun accepted a transfer to the Japan Women's Football League with Matsushita Denki. She helped the

Takatsuki, Osaka 270px, Takatsuki City Hall is a city in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 348,020 in 164,494 households and a population density of 3.300 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Takatsuki is ...

-based team win the league title in the 1994 season.

International career

At the

1988 FIFA Women's Invitation Tournament The 1988 FIFA Women's Invitation Tournament, or International Women's Football Tournament, was organised by FIFA in China from 1 to 12 June 1988. The competition was a test to study if a global women's World Cup was feasible following the experie ...

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 ...

she was part of the hosts' team who lost the third place play-off to

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. The Chinese press voted her into the tournament's official all-star team. At the

1991 FIFA Women's World Cup The 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup was the first FIFA Women's World Cup, the world championship for women's national football teams. It took place in Guangdong, China from 16 to 30 November 1991. FIFA, football's international governing body sele ...

, Sun played the full 80 minutes in all four of China's games. The hosts reached the quarter-finals before losing 1–0 to

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. In the first ever

match, Sun scored the fourth goal in China's 4–0 win over eventual finalists

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

on 16 November 1991. In 1996 Sun won the Olympic silver medal with the Chinese team. She played all five matches and scored three goals. She retired from football after helping China retain the

AFC Women's Asian Cup The AFC Women's Asian Cup (formerly known as the AFC Women's Championship) is a quadrennial competition in women's football for national teams which belong to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It is the oldest women's international football ...

at the

1997 AFC Women's Championship The 1997 AFC Women's Championship was a women's football tournament held in the province Guangdong, China between 5 and 14 December 1997. It was the 11th staging of the AFC Women's Championship. The 1997 AFC Women's Championship, consisting of ...

in December 1997.

References

External links

*
Sun Qingmei at databaseOlympics.com
1966 births Living people Chinese women's footballers Chinese expatriate women's footballers China women's international footballers Olympic footballers for China Footballers at the 1996 Summer Olympics Olympic silver medalists for China 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup players Olympic medalists in football 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup players Footballers at the 1990 Asian Games Footballers at the 1994 Asian Games Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics Sportspeople from Handan Speranza Osaka-Takatsuki players Nadeshiko League players Expatriate women's footballers in Japan Asian Games gold medalists for China Asian Games footballers for China Women's association football forwards Medalists at the 1990 Asian Games Medalists at the 1994 Asian Games FIFA Women's Century Club Asian Games gold medalists in football {{PRChina-women-footy-bio-stub