Liu Zige

Liu Zige (simplified Chinese: 刘子歌; traditional Chinese: 劉子歌; pinyin: Liú Zǐgē, born March 31, 1989 in Benxi, Liaoning) is a world record holding swimmer from China. She swam for China at the 2008 Olympics, where she won the women's 200  butterfly in a new world record (2:04.18).

Liu Zige
Personal information
Full nameLiu Zige
NationalityChinese
Born (1989-03-31) 31 March 1989
Benxi, Liaoning, China
Height1.81 m (5 ft 11 in)
Weight67 kg (148 lb; 10.6 st)
Sport
SportSwimming
Strokesbutterfly
In this Chinese name, the family name is Liu.

Career

She won the women's 200 m butterfly Gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. In the final, she clocked a time of 2:04.18, breaking Jessicah Schipper's world record by over 1 second, and won China's only gold medal in swimming at the Games. Her teammate, Jiao Liuyang, took the silver in 2:04.72, also under the former world mark. Schipper took the bronze in 2:06.26.

Liu's win was considered a big upset, as she was relatively unknown prior to the Beijing Games. She made her international debut at the 2005 World Championships, where she placed 20th in the 200 m butterfly at 2:14.25. She progressed steadily afterwards, and prior to the Olympics, her best time was 2:07.76, from the Chinese Olympics Trials.

Liu, nicknamed "Lucy," spent some time training under Jessicah Schipper's swimming coach, Ken Wood, and Wood sold Schipper's training program to Liu's coach.[1] She would eventually beat Schipper and broke her world record in 200 meter butterfly during the 2008 Summer Olympics.

In 2009, Liu regained the 200m butterfly world record from Schipper at the Chinese National Games, with a time of 2:01:81[2] to win the gold medal. She later added the short course world record at the World Cup in Stockholm (2:02:50).[3] She then even shortened that time in the next meet at Berlin with the time of 2:00.78.

Major achievements
  • 2007 National Champions Tournament – 1st 200 m butterfly
  • 2008 Beijing Olympics women's 200 m butterfly Gold
  • 2009 World Aquatics Championships – 2nd Women's 200 m butterfly

See also

References
  1. Aussie coach sells training program secrets to China Archived 2008-09-03 at the Wayback Machine
  2. "AFP: Chinese woman smashes 200m butterfly record". Google.com. 2009-10-21. Retrieved 2012-07-31.
  3. "BBC SPORT | Other sport... | Swimming | Phelps' indifferent run continues". BBC News. 2009-11-11. Retrieved 2012-07-31.
Records
Preceded by
Jessicah Schipper		 Women's 200 metre Butterfly
World Record Holder (Long Course)
August 14, 2008 – July 29, 2009		 Succeeded by
Mary Descenza
Preceded by
Jessicah Schipper		 Women's 200 metre Butterfly
World Record Holder (Long Course)
October 21, 2009 – present		 Succeeded by
Incumbent
Preceded by
Yuko Nakanishi		 Women's 200 metre Butterfly
World Record Holder (Short Course)
November 11, 2009 – December 3, 2014		 Succeeded by
Mireia Belmonte
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