Name Chen Yueling Role Olympic athlete | ||
 | ||
Olympic medals Athletics at the 1992 Summer Olympics – Women's 10 kilometres walk | ||
Education Brigham Young University | ||
1992 Olympics Women's 10K walk
Chen Yueling (simplified Chinese: 陈跃玲; traditional Chinese: 陳躍玲; pinyin: Chén Yuèlíng; born December 24, 1969 (also reported as April 1, 1968) in Liaoning, China) is now an American race walker, who became the first ever female Olympic Race walking champion in 1992 while competing for China. She was virtually tied with former Soviet, Unified Team member Alina Ivanova with 200 meters to go. Ivanova then accelerated past Chen to the finish, while Chen held form. After a short celebration, Ivanova earned a disqualification, while Chen was awarded her gold medal.
She had done mountain climbing and long distance running before she started training at the Tieling Sports School in 1985. Spotted by Chinese walking coach Wang Kui, she joined the Liaoning provincial walking team. In 1989 she won the Asian Championships in New Delhi.
She also won the 1990 Asian Games and took silver at the 1991 Universiade. She left China for the United States in 1994.
She competed for her new country at the 2000 Olympics, finishing 38th.
She has been active in charitable activities in the United States and has done professional modeling. As of 2001, she was employed as Director of Asian Marketing for the health and nutritional company, Imagenetix, Inc,.