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2016-04-19 12:53:00 CET

Tuesday’s talent: Chinese hero going for gold at home

We pay tribute to Chinese superstar Xue Chen

Xue Chen (left) is aiming to add to her haul of medals in her home tournament in Fuzhou this week. Photo credit: FIVB.Xue Chen (left) is aiming to add to her haul of medals in her home tournament in Fuzhou this week. Photo credit: FIVB.

For our Tuesday Talent we pay homage to one of China’s most iconic and famous beach volleyball stars Xue Chen who bids for gold at the Fuzhou Open this week.

Chen has enjoyed a glittering career, the highlight of which was a bronze medal together with former partner Xi Zhang in their home Olympic Games of Beijing in 2008.

The brilliant Chinese is a force to be reckoned with on court and developed a real penchant for precious metals, and has amassed an incredible 17 gold, 13 silver and 13 bronze medals from 117 FIVB tournaments since 2006. Imagine the size of her trophy cabinet!

She was just 17 when she teamed up with Zhang – and that partnership was the catalyst for the dynamic duo to go on and enjoy enormous success on the sand. It not only ramped up the interest in beach volleyball in their homeland but propelled the pair to superstar status.

The two of them collected a phenomenal 38 medals from 81 FIVB tournaments as a team – 15 of them gold.

While the pair were gutted to miss out on a medal when finishing fourth in the London Olympics in 2012, they soon bounced back in style, storming to perhaps their finest moment when winning gold in the World Championships in Poland a year later.

Now with partner Xinyi Xia, Chen is aiming to win her first gold medal in three years at this week’s Fuzhou Open on home soil.

But the competition is hot – not least from five other Chinese teams also fighting for top spot on the podium.

After overcoming injury problems which saw her take part in just one tournament in 2015, it’s great to see such a legend of the game on court!

And who knows, another gold medal could be proudly hanging around her neck come the end of this week…

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