Zulfiya Chinshanlo’s biography, net worth, fact, career, awards and life story

Intro Kazakh weightlifter
Is Athlete 
Weightlifter 
From Kazakhstan 
Type Sports 
Gender female
Birth 25 July 1993, Almaty, Kazakhstan
Age: 27 years
Stats
Height: 155
Weight: 53

Zulfiya Chinshanlo (Kazakh: Зүлфия Чиншанло; Russian: Зульфия Чиншанло; Chinese: 赵常玲, born 25 July 1993) is a Kazakh weightlifter. She set a world record in the clean and jerk on 29 July 2012 at the 2012 London Olympics by lifting 131 kg.

However, the validity of her record and title was called into question by a positive blood test result for the banned steroids oxandrolone and stanozolol, and she was “provisionally suspended” by the International Weightlifting Federation. Chinshanlo earned a gold medal at the 2014 World Championships. This was Kazakhstan’s first podium finish at the competition.

On 27 October 2016, the IOC stripped her of both her gold medal and world and Olympic records as a result of her doping positive.

Athletic career

On 8 November 2012, Kazakhstan London Olympic champion Zulfiya Chinshanlo got the Olympic Council of Asia award as the best Asian athlete, along with Ilya Ilyin and Olga Rypakova.

Zulfiya, according to her official profile, is an ethnic Dungan and speaks a Chinese language (Dungan language) as her first language.

According to Chinese official media Xinhua News, Zulfiya was born and grew up in Hunan Province, China, thus she has a Chinese name and can speak Chinese much more fluently than Russian. She emigrated to Kazakhstan in 2008 along with Maiya Maneza with the approval of Hunan sport officials on a five-year lease contract. She returned to China in 2012.

Chinese media wrote that the weightlifter received her Chinese ID in the Public Security Department of Changsha city on 22 October and was going to join the Chinese national team, because her 5-year contract with Kazakhstan allegedly expired.

But Kazakhstan sports authorities insist that Zulfiya Chinshanlo is a citizen of Kazakhstan:

“Zulfiya Chinshanlo is our sportswoman. I don’t know why foreign media is discussing a change of her citizenship. She is a citizen of Kazakhstan. She had been living and training in Kazakhstan since she was 14. No official claims have been submitted to our Agency or the Weightlifting Federation. Zulfiya was on vacation and decided to visit her relatives in China. After a break she will go back to training for the world championships and the next Olympics as a member of Kazakhstan national team,” Agency for Sports and Physical Culture Talgat Yermegiyayev said.

On 27 October 2012 Chinshanlo came back from China and announced:

“I would like to say that everything written about me in China is not true. I have proved it by coming back to Kazakhstan and being here right now. I would like to thank everyone who supported me. Once again, all these rumors are lies and I don’t want to return to discussing this issue again.”

However, according to official Kazakh records, Zulfiya was born 25 July 1993 in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Her father Salakhar Chinshanlo is a businessman who speaks fluently both Russian and Dungan language.

2012 London Olympics

Rank Athlete Group Body weight Snatch (kg) Clean & Jerk (kg) Total
1 2 3 Result 1 2 3 Result
DSQ 01 !  Zulfiya Chinshanlo (KAZ) A 52.70 92 92 95 95 125 131 135 131 226
02 !  Hsu Shu-ching (TPE) A 52.41 91 94 96 96 120 123 123 123 219
DSQ 03 !  Cristina Iovu (MDA) A 52.79 95 99 99 99 115 120 125 120 219

Major results

Year Venue Weight Snatch (kg) Clean & Jerk (kg) Total Rank
1 2 3 Rank 1 2 3 Rank
Olympic Games
2012 London, United Kingdom 53 kg 92 92 95 3 125 131 135 1 226 01 !
World Championships
2009 Goyang, South Korea 53 kg 87 87 90 5 120 125 129 01 ! 219 01 !
2011 Paris, France 53 kg 93 97 100 01 ! 120 126 130 01 ! 227 01 !
2014 Almaty, Kazakhstan 53 kg 95 98 98 02 ! 127 133 134 01 ! 232 01 !
Asian Games
2010 Guangzhou, China 53 kg 90 95 97 2 122 130 130 3 219 02 !
2014 Incheon, South Korea 53 kg 93 96 96 3 125 132 137 1 228 02 !
Youth Olympic Games
2010 Singapore, Singapore 58 kg 90 95 97 2 120 125 130 2 225 02 !
World Youth Championships
2009 Chiang Mai, Thailand 58 kg 85 89 92 03 ! 115 123 123 03 ! 207 03 !

In June 2016, IWF announced that retests of the samples taken from the 2012 Olympics indicated that Zulfiya Chinshanlo had tested positive for prohibited substances, namely Oxandrolone and Stanazolol. Three other Kazakhs failed the doping test: Ilya Ilyin, Maiya Maneza and Svetlana Podobedova. They were disqualified and had their Olympic medals revoked on Oct 27, 2016.

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