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Name: Liu Chunhong 
Date of Birth: January 29, 1985 in Yantai, Shandong province

Entry for Beijing: women's weightlifting, 69kg class 

Career highlights: Gold medal, 2004 Athens Olympics; Winner, 2003 World Championships; Winner, 2005 National Games 

Despite four years of struggle, Liu Chunhong believes she has it in her to defend her Athens gold medal in Beijing.

After overcoming a right elbow injury that almost ended her career, the 23-year-old rallied to win a titanic struggle and book her spot in the Beijing Games.

'I'd love nothing more than to win an Olympic gold medal,' Liu told Xinhua in June. 'I'm very confident I can defend my title. There are a lot of capable young lifters but when I step on the stage, I won't let anyone steal my gold.'

Liu, who was named among the Best Lifters of the Century by the International Weightlifting Federation in 2005, was the dominant force in women's weightlifting in the early part of the decade.

But at the time that her younger teammates Cao Lei and Zhang Ning began improving, Liu's form started to slip as the elbow injury that she suffered in 2005 kept her out of training for more than a year.

Her absence allowed Russian Oxana Slivenko to dominate the 69kg class with consecutive titles at the world championships in 2006 and 2007.

 Now, on the eve of the Beijing Games, Liu is hoping to regain her dominance after a year of 'high-quality' training.

'I can just imagine the crowd here in Beijing in August, I just cannot wait for the time to come,' she said. 'It's the biggest competition of my life and I enjoy the big moments. I look forward to the big opponents too, Slivenko, for example.

'I had some quality training over the past 12 months, it might be the best training in my career, so I'm not afraid of anybody.'




No 19: Liu Chunhong