Liu Shiying (athlete)
Liu Shiying (; born 24 September 1993) is a Chinese athlete who competes in the javelin throw. She is the first Asian athlete to win an Olympic gold medal in women's javelin throw. Career. Born in Muping County, Yantai, Shandong Province, Liu competed in track and field as a teenager and came to prominence nationally with a win at the Chinese City Games. 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 . She entered the 2012 World Junior Championships in Athletics  as the leading athlete and improved her best to in the qualifying round. She improved again to 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. She had won a gold medal herself at the 2012 Asian Junior Athletics Championships a month earlier. Liu made a gradual progression into the senior ranks. She was sixth at the 2012 Chinese Athletics Championships, then improved to fourth behind Chang Chunfeng at the 12th Chinese National Games in 2013 with a personal best of – her  first throw beyond sixty metres. She did not compete at a major event in 2014, but a new best throw of gave her her highest world ranking yet at 21st (behind only Asian Games winner Zhang Li among Asian women). She established herself internationally with a win at the 2015 Asian Athletics Championships, taking the gold medal for China in a championship record of (beating the mark set by her compatriot Li Lingwei in 2013). On 6 August 2021, she won the gold medal in women's javelin throw at 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo with 66.34 metres, 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. On 23 September 2021, she won the gold medal in women's javelin throw at 2021 National Games of China in Shaanxi with 64.33 metres.