Liu Zige

Liu Zige (zh-sp|s=刘子歌|p=Liú Zǐgē, born March 31, 1989 in Shanghai) is a female Chinese swimmer.

She won the women's 200m butterfly Gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. In the final, she clocked a time of 2:04.18, smashing Jessica Schipper's world record by over 1 sec, 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 Swimming Championships in Montreal, where she placed 20th in the 200m fly 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 Jessica Schipper's swimming coach, Ken Wood, and Wood sold Schipper's training program to Liu's coach. [ [http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hHp_Q4bQIfr0kP0FsGud_3InNUYw Aussie coach sells training program secrets to China] ] . She would eventually beat Schipper and broke her world record in 200 meter butterfly during the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Major achievements

*2007 National Champions Tournament - 1st 200m butterfly
*2008 Beijing Olympics women's 200-meters-butterfly Gold

References

External Links

* http://2008teamchina.olympic.cn/index.php/personview/personsen/5347