Liu Shiying (athlete)

Born in Muping County, Yantai, Shandong Province,^[2] Liu competed in track and field as a teenager and came to prominence nationally with a win at the Chinese City Games.^[3] A win at the national junior championships in 2012 saw her rise to the top of the world junior rankings with a personal best of 57.52 m (188 ft 8 in).^[2]

She entered the 2012 World Junior Championships in Athletics as the leading athlete and improved her best to 58.47 m (191 ft 9 in) in the qualifying round.^[4] She improved again to 59.20 m (194 ft 2 in) in the final and led until the final round when Sweden's Sofi Flinck had a large personal best to knock Liu into the silver medal position.^[5] She had won a gold medal herself at the 2012 Asian Junior Athletics Championships a month earlier.^[6]

Liu made a gradual progression into the senior ranks. She was sixth at the 2012 Chinese Athletics Championships,^[7] then improved to fourth behind Chang Chunfeng at the 12th Chinese National Games in 2013 with a personal best of 60.23 m (197 ft 7 in) – her first throw beyond sixty metres.^[8] She did not compete at a major event in 2014, but a new best throw of 62.72 m (205 ft 9 in) gave her her highest world ranking yet at 21st (behind only Asian Games winner Zhang Li among Asian women).^[9][10]

She established herself internationally with a win at the 2015 Asian Athletics Championships, taking the gold medal for China in a championship record of 61.33 m (201 ft 2 in) (beating the mark set by her compatriot Li Lingwei in 2013).^[11]

On 6 August 2021, she won the gold medal in women's javelin throw at 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo with 66.34 m (217 ft 7 in), thereby becoming the first Asian to win an Olympic gold medal in women's javelin throw and the second Chinese athlete to be crowned the Olympic champion in any field event.^[12]

On 23 September 2021, she won the gold medal in women's javelin throw at the 2021 National Games of China in Shaanxi with 64.33 metres.^[13]