Yang Wenyi (simplified Chinese: 杨文意; traditional Chinese: 楊文意; pinyin: Yáng Wényì; born January 11, 1972, in Shanghai) is a former freestyle and backstroke swimmer from China, whose best performance was winning the gold medal in the 50 m freestyle at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain and in the same year she won the same event at the 4th Asian Championships.
She was the first woman in history to go under the 25-seconds barrier in the 50m freestyle when she was 20 years old. She was one of "Five Golden Flowers" of Chinese swimming.
She was born in 1972 in Shanghai and she joined the national team and began intense training in 1986. During her career she broke national swimming records eighteen times.
After retirement, she owned "Jinyi Sports Promotion Ltd", holding sports contests and running "Yang Wenyi Swimming Club". The club is located in Minhang, Shanghai.
Contents
High performances
1987 – Pan Pacific Swimming Championships
Bronze – 4x100 m medley relay
1988 – Asian Swimming Championships
Gold – 50 m freestyle (24.98 WR)
Gold – 100 m backstroke (1:03.08, Asian best)
Gold – 4x100 m medley relay
Gold – 4x100m freestyle relay
1988 – Seoul Olympic Games
Silver – 50 m freestyle
1990 – Beijing Asian Games
Gold – 50 m freestyle
Gold – 100 m backstroke
Gold – 4x100 m freestyle relay
1991 – World University Games
Gold – 50 m freestyle
1992 – Barcelona Olympic Games
Gold – 50 m freestyle (24.79 WR)
Honours
1989 – Selected one of National Top Ten Athletes
1989 – Voted one of forty Sports Stars in forty years since the founding of new China in 1949