Ep 28: Lily Xu Lijia (x2 Olympic Medallist & x3 World Champion Medallist in Laser Radial)

Lily Xu Lijia (徐莉佳) is a Chinese sailboat racer who won the bronze medal in the women’s Laser Radial class at the 2008 Summer Olympics and the gold medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London where she was also the flag bearer for China at the closing ceremony. She also medalled at the 2006, 2008 and 2012 World Championships. In this STIMY Episode, Lily shared: 3:38: Why Lily had short hair until the age of 15 4:49: Why Lily told her mother to consider a divorce 7:55: Growing up with her disabilities 10:45: How Zhang Ning, her first coach, discovered and chose her to attend the Shanghai sailing training camp 13:30: Life in the Shanghai sailing program 15:43: The consequences of disagreeing with what they were told to do in the sailing program 16:35: The incident that led Lily to seriously study English 19:10: How Lily narrowly escaped death during a training session off the coast of Wujian; 21:46: Discovering a tumour in her left knee 24:33: Why Lily loves sailing 27:12: Why she adopted the name Lily 28:38: Her experience at the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics 36:02: Communicating with Jon Emmett during the 2012 London Olympics 41:48: Being China’s flag bearer for the Closing Ceremony at the 2012 London Olympics 44:00: Retiring from the sport after the 2012 London Olympics 45:01: Participating in her third Olympics at Rio; 47:34: Working in media 53:01: How COVID-19 has impacted her life & career 54:44: Being an author 55:31: One thing Lily would do differently 56:03: What Lily believes in that most people don’t Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/28