Li Wenwen

Chinese female weightlifter Li Wenwen is a gold-medal-winning champion as well as a world record holder, competing in the +87kg category.

A newcomer to the women’s weightlifting scene, Wenwen is making waves amongst the community following an impressive start to her professional career. Competing in the heavyweight women’s category +87kg, it was in 2019 that Wenwen won her first major international medal when she competed in the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) World Cup, held in Fuzhou, China at which she won silver in both the snatch and clean & jerk events, enabling her to take home silver at the competition overall. It was soon after that Wenwen continued to impress weightlifting fans around the world when she won her first gold at the Asian Championships during 2019 in Ningbo, China, making her the official Asian Weightlifting Champion in her category. Continuing in her extremely successful career to date, Wenwen also competed at the 2019 World Championships at which she once again took home the coveted gold medal, making her a World Weightlifting Champion. Not surprisingly Wenwen is a three-time world record holder in the junior snatch and clean & jerk, as well as the senior clean & jerk world record, at a staggering 332kg.

Having only joined her national team in 2018, Wenwen’s rise to fame has come as a big surprise to the weightlifting scene. Now at the top of the Olympics ranking, Wenwen achieved a shocking defeat at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics qualifier over heavyweight World Champion Tatiana Kashirina.