Sun Yingjie

Who is Sun Yingjie?

Sun Yingjie is a Chinese female long-distance runner who competes in events ranging from 5000 metres to the marathon. She rose to prominence by winning two gold medals at the 2002 Asian Games. In 2003, she won a bronze medal in the 10,000 metres at the World Championships in Paris. She won two golds at the 2003 Asian Athletics Championships and won the Beijing Marathon in an Asian record time that year.

She represented China at the 2004 Athens Olympics, reaching the top eight in the 5000 m and 10,000 m finals, and set a national record to win the gold at the 2004 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships. The following year Sun ran at the 2005 World Championships and won the Beijing Marathon for a second time. Two days after her win, she won a silver medal at the 2005 Chinese National Games, but failed a drug test. A former training partner confessed in court to spiking her drink with androsterone, but she still received a two-year ban from the sport. She returned to competition in 2008 but was far from her best form and did not qualify for the 2008 Summer Olympics.