Liu Zige (simplified Chinese: 刘子歌; traditional Chinese: 劉子歌; pinyin: Liú Zǐgē, born 31 March 1989) is a world record holding professional swimmer from China. She swam for China at the 2008 Olympics, where she won the women's 200m butterfly in a new world record of 2:04.18.
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Liu Zige |
| Nationality | Chinese |
| Born | 31 March 1989 Benxi, Liaoning, China |
| Height | 1.81 m (5 ft 11 in) |
| Weight | 67 kg (148 lb; 10.6 st) |
| Sport | |
| Sport | Swimming |
| Strokes | butterfly |
Career
editShe 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.[citation needed]
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
edit- 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
- 2013 World Aquatics Championships – 1st Women's 200 m butterfly
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Aussie coach sells training program secrets to China Archived 3 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "AFP: Chinese woman smashes 200m butterfly record". 21 October 2009. Archived from the original on 25 January 2013. Retrieved 31 July 2012.
- ^ "BBC SPORT | Other sport... | Swimming | Phelps' indifferent run continues". BBC News. 11 November 2009. Retrieved 31 July 2012.
External links
edit- Liu Zige at World Aquatics
- Liu Zige at Swimrankings.net
- Liu Zige at Olympedia (archive)
- Liu Zige at Olympics.com
- http://2008teamchina.olympic.cn/index.php/personview/personsen/5347
