The life of Dongxiang Xu, Athlete of the Month

From a rural Chinese farming background to a three-time Olympian, Dongxiang Xu's story of how she came into rowing is one to remember.

World Rowing Athlete of the Month for December is Dongxiang Xu of China and here is a piece of her story.

Xu was born in a small agricultural village to farming parents and Xu's early memories are of her labouring on the family farm. From the age of five Xu remembers walking up a big hill to dig food and plant crops. She also remembers walking two to three kilometres to deliver food to where her parents were working. By the time she was ten years old Xu was working alongside her father.

From a young age Xu was known for her strong character. She was hard working, focused and rarely backed down from a challenge. Always active, one story is of Xu learning to ride a bike by herself and then going off exploring. Even at a young age she wanted to explore the world.

In 1996, at the age of 13, Xu watched the Atlanta Olympic Games on television and especially admired the Chinese gymnast, Huilan Mo. Mo did not win (she finished second) and Xu felt connected to her. When Xu saw the athletes receiving their medals she felt a desire to be part of that world and it was at this point Xu decided that getting an Olympic medal was what she wanted.

At that time Xu's father saw this reaction and realised something special in his daughter. Xu's father, however, was conflicted as he knew the sacrifice involved with being an athlete and having to leave home to go to a sports school. But he knew Xu's strength of will if she wanted to do something.

Xu started at high school and when a teacher saw that Xu had sporting talent, the teacher talked to Xu's parents about the pros and cons of going to a sports school. Xu wanted to go and, with her long limbs, she got put into shot put and discus.

Xu was then spotted by the rowing coach and changed sports although initially she struggled with the endurance side of rowing. To deal with that Xu trained harder choosing to get up at 5am every second day to run 10km. At this stage Xu was training more than six hours every day. Initially Xu had to wear a lifejacket in the boat as she didn't know how to swim so she took lessons in her spare time.

To start with Xu describes herself as a bit chubby and fair skinned. After rowing for a while she says she became a lot leaner and with darker skin. When she went home to see her parents they barely recognised her.

When Xu first started out in rowing she was still doing track athletics and was one of the best in the medium to long distance running. But soon rowing took over and it became her sole concentration.

Within a year of starting Xu was on the Chinese national rowing team and racing at the World Rowing Junior Championships in the women's single sculls. At the 2002 Asian Games she finished first in the lightweight women's double sculls. From then on Xu was the mainstay of China's lightweight double and was selected to go to the 2004 Athens Olympics in this boat class where she finished fifth. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics Xu was fifth again. Then last year in London Xu struck Olympic silver.

Story partly translated from http://baike.baidu.com/view/240848.htm