Liu Jia
Liu Jia ( born February 16, 1982 in Beijing, China) is an Austrian table tennis player of Chinese origin. They won the 2005 European Championship in singles.
Life
From 1992 to 1995, Liu visited the boarding of the shisha Hai Sports School in Beijing. After completion of this school, she qualified for admission to the professional club Shian Nuntan. A close friend there was the later Olympic gold medalist ( Athens 2004) and World Champion (Shanghai 2005) Zhang Yining. Liu won the school championship and finished third in the youth rankings. However, due to the hard competition from other Chinese players, they had little chance of international assignments. The life in the boarding dampened the joy of table tennis game and her parents advised her to stop the training and study instead. During this time she received an offer from Japan, but they would not accept. There was about her future coach Liu Yan June finally the opportunity to travel to Austria, where they arrived in March 1997.
Without speaking German or English, but to play with the possibility of the association TTC Linz AG Froschberg, she moved to Upper Austria. Within the first year they learned the language and achieved a first sporting success by winning the 1st International Austrian Youth Championships in Linz after moving. On 16 February 1998 her birthday, her Austrian citizenship was granted and she was admitted to the National Team.
The 1.60 m wide and 49 -pound left-hander, soon called in Austria Susi, won multiple titles at European Youth Championships (1998 in single, double with Iana Weberova and mixed with Josef Simoncik (CZE ), 1999 in singles and mixed with Yu Kalun (NED ) ) and rose in the world rankings on the Top -100. Since 1999, she trained as an Army athlete in the army sports center with an army training center ( HSLZ ) of the Austrian army. The following year she came at the European Championships in singles and doubles to the quarter-finals and could not defeat ( World No. 48) for the 2000 Olympic Games qualifying in Sydney, where she reached the finals of the top 32. At the 2000 World Team Championships, she lost only one game.
This was followed by the quarter finals at the 2001 World Championships in Osaka, several State Championships and the bronze medal in the Mixed Doubles ( with Werner Schlager ) at the European Championships 2002 in Zagreb. A shoulder injury in 2003 was the more athletic career Lius in question, but was cured during a stay of several months at Chinese doctors and therapists in China. In 2004 she improved, including a victory at the Malaysia Open table tennis championships in the world ranking up to 13th place and took part in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens in part.
In 2005 she won the Table Tennis European Championships and began to prepare for qualifying for the 2008 Olympics in her hometown of Beijing, where she participated as a member of the Austrian team. She reached in a single round 3 with the Austrian team came they in Group A to second place behind hosts China, but in the bronze play-off the team retired on lap 1 against Japan from the tournament.
Best Merits
- 2014: Winner of the DHS Europe Cup
- 2010: 2nd place in singles at European Championship
- 2008: 2nd place in singles at European Championship
- 2005: European Champion in singles and No. 3 in mixed competition with Werner Schlager
- 2005: Winner of the European ranking tournament Europe TOP 12
- 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 Olympic participation
- Various Pro Tour Tournament Win
- More times Austrian champion
Publications
- Liu Jia / Peter Lenglacher: Beijing - Linz and back, Rudolf Trauner Verlag, ISBN 3854994184
Private
Liu Jia, together with her Danish husband David Arvidsson one daughter ( * July 2011).
Results from the ITTF database