By Tsering Dhundup
DHARAMSHALA, Aug. 8: Choeying Kyi, a Tibetan Olympian representing China in the speed walking discipline, faced a disappointing conclusion at the Paris Olympics as she finished 14th in the mixed marathon walk relay on Wednesday.
Paired with X. H. He of China, they completed the mixed marathon of 42.195 km in 2:59:13. During the race, Tibetan refugees in the French capital cheered for Choeying Kyi waving the Tibetan flag. The race was held in the Trocadero area of Paris, with the course looping underneath the Eiffel Tower.
Choeying Kyi, also known as Shijie Qieyang in Chinese, is a four-time Olympian and the first Tibetan to win an Olympic gold medal. Born on 11 November 1990 into a Tibetan herder’s family in a village in Amdo province, Tibet, she made her debut in speed walking in 2010 at the Chinese Race Walking Junior Championships in Baoji.
She won the gold medal in the Women’s 20 km walk race at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Originally, she won the bronze medal, but after Russia’s Olga Kaniskina was disqualified for doping in March 2016, she was awarded the silver medal. With the subsequent disqualification of Elena Lashmanova, she was promoted to gold. The International Olympic Committee’s announcement of her winning the gold came in 2023, 11 years after the original race in London.
In subsequent Olympics, she finished in 5th place at the 2016 Summer Olympics and 7th at the 2020 Summer Olympics. She has won several domestic and international medals in the discipline among which a gold medal in 35km race walk mixed team at the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.
Tibetan athletes competing for China often use Chinese transliterated names officially for competitions. Choeying Kyi competes under the name Shijie Qieyang, and Sonam Dhargyal, the first Tibetan mixed martial artist in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), is officially known as Su Mudaerji due to the transliteration of his name. Critics say that China’s policy of transliterating Tibetan names harms the essence of their Tibetan identity and plays a role in portraying Tibetans to the world as Chinese rather than recognizing their distinct Tibetan heritage.
