Liu Hong (racewalker)

Liu Hong (simplified Chinese: 刘虹; traditional Chinese: 劉虹; pinyin: líu hóng; born 12 May 1987) is a Chinese female race walker. She is the world record holder over the Olympic 20 km distance with a time of 1:24:38 hours, set in 2015.

In this Chinese name, the family name is Liu.
Liu Hong
Personal information
NationalityChinese
Born (1987-05-12) 12 May 1987
Anfu County, China
Height1.60 m (5 ft 3 in)
Weight50 kg (110 lb)
Sport
CountryChina
SportAthletics
Event(s)20km race walk
Medal record
Women's athletics
Representing  China
Olympic Games
2016 Rio de Janeiro20 km walk
2012 London20 km walk
World Championships
2011 Daegu20 km walk
2015 Beijing20 km walk
2019 Doha20 km walk
2009 Berlin20 km walk
2013 Moscow20 km walk
Asian Games
2006 Doha20 km walk
2010 Guangzhou20 km walk

Liu has won multiple medals in the World Championships in Athletics, including three gold medals in 2011, 2015, and 2019 and two silver medals in 2009 and 2013. She placed fourth at the Summer Olympics in both 2008 and 2012. Liu is the 2016 Olympic 20 km racewalking gold medalist. Liu is a two-time gold medalist at the Asian Games, winning in 2006 and 2010. She was the runner-up at the IAAF World Race Walking Cup 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 Asian Games titles in 2006. After a poor global debut at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics (19th), she rebounded with a fourth-place finish at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. However, since Russia's Olga Kaniskina 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, taking the bronze medal. Later that year she took the national title at the 11th Chinese National Games.[1]

Liu retained her title at the 2010 Asian Games and broke the Games record with a time of 1:30:06 hours.[2] She opened her 2011 season with a win on the 2011 racewalking circuit at the Memorial Mario Albisetti.[3] She followed this with a win in Taicang, equalling her personal best in the process.[4] A third circuit win came in Dublin that year. She won the gold medal at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics. 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.[5]

She placing third behind Qieyang Shenjie who also broke her Asian record, at the 2012 London Olympics. Liu won at the 2012 IAAF World Race Walking Challenge Final, however, and defeated Qieyang en route to breaking Jin Bingjie's 22-year-old Asian record for the 5000 m walk at the Chinese University Games.[6] She set an event record in her first race of 2013, winning the Memorial Albisetti in a time of 1:27:06 hours.[7]

She broke the world record 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 and Olga Kaniskina's times that were not ratified as records due to a lack of international judges.[8]

After testing positive for higenamine in May 2016, she was banned from 13 June to 13 July 2016.[9][10]

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 period off the competitions due to pregnancy, in 2019 she became the first woman ever to finish a women's 50-kilometer race walk in less than four hours, finishing in 3 hours, 59 minutes, 15 seconds at the Chinese Race Walk Grand Prix.[11] Later that year, she won her third gold medal as 20 km race walking world champion at the 2019 World Championships in Athletics in Doha, Qatar.[12]

International competitions
YearCompetitionVenuePositionEventNotes
Representing  China
2006 World Junior Championships Beijing, China 1st 10,000 m 45:12.84
World Race Walking Cup A Coruña, Spain 6th 20 km 1:28:59
Asian Games Doha, Qatar 1st 20 km 1:32.19
2007 World Championships Osaka, Japan 19th 20 km 1:36:40
2008 Olympic Games Beijing, China 4th 20 km 1:27:17
2009 World Championships Berlin, Germany 3rd 20 km 1:29:10
2010 World Race Walking Cup Chihuahua, Mexico 13th 20 km 1:36:34
Asian Games Guangzhou, China 1st 20 km 1:30:06
2011 World Championships Daegu, South Korea 1st 20 km 1:30:00
2012 Olympic Games London, United Kingdom 3rd 20 km 1:26:00
2013 World Championships Moscow, Russia 3rd 20 km 1:28:10
2014 World Race Walking Cup Taicang, China 2nd 20 km 1:26:58
2015 World Championships Beijing, China 1st 20 km 1:27:45
2016 Olympic Games Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 1st 20 km 1:28:35
2019 World Championships Doha, Qatar 1st 20 km 1:32:53

References
  1. Jalava, Mirko (25 October 2009). Liu Xiang begins campaign; Li Shaojie bags fourth gold – Chinese National Games, Day 4. IAAF. Retrieved on 23 March 2011.
  2. Strong night for India as Asian Games kick off before a crowd of 75,000 in Guangzhou – Asian Games, Day 1. IAAF (22 November 2010). Retrieved on 23 March 2011.
  3. Sampaolo, Diego (21 March 2011). Chinese dominate in Lugano. IAAF. Retrieved on 23 March 2011.
  4. Wu, Junkuan (24 April 2011). China eyes race walking gold in Daegu worlds Archived 7 November 2012 at the Wayback Machine. Xinhua. Retrieved on 24 April 2011.
  5. Jalava, Mirko (30 March 2012). Asian records fall in Taicang Race Walking Challenge. IAAF. Retrieved on 3 April 2012.
  6. Jalava, Mirko (18 September 2012). Walking records galore at China’s National University Games. IAAF. Retrieved on 27 January 2013.
  7. Chinese walkers stroll off with two victories in Lugano. IAAF (17 March 2013). Retrieved on 24 March 2013.
  8. Liu breaks 20km race walk world record in La Coruna. IAAF (6 June 2015). Retrieved on 6 June 2015.
  9. Liu banned for one month in 2016. TrackArena.com(27 July 2016). Retrieved on 1 August 2016.
  10. Liu banned for one month in 2016 II. Athletics Weekly. Retrieved on 1 August 2016.
  11. https://www.apnews.com/34285765a1b2443895079c3346d0b1aa
  12. China sweeps podium in women's 20 km race walk Euronews
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