Li Jiawei

Li Jiawei
Li at the ITTP Pro Tour Liebherr Austrian Open in Wels, Austria, on 28 October 2007
Full name	Li Jiawei
Nationality	Singapore
Residence	Singapore
Born	(1981-08-09) 9 August 1981 (age 35) Beijing, China
Playing style	Right-handed shakehand grip
Equipment(s)	Stiga blade
Highest ranking	3rd (Oct 2005)
Club	Beijing Holdings (in China Table Tennis Super League)
Height	1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)
Weight	60 kg (130 lb) (2008)

Olivia Li Jiawei (Chinese: 李佳薇; pinyin: Lǐ Jiāwēi; born 9 August 1981) is a Chinese-born Singaporean table tennis player, four-time Olympian and two time Olympic medalist.At the time her active performance was ranked among the top ten athletes in her sport by the International Table Tennis Federation. She trained in Beijing's famous Shichahai Sports School with Olympic medalist Zhang Yining, Li Jiawei was subsequently talent-scouted by Singapore talent scouts in Beijing. In 1995, she moved to Singapore and in the following year, she commenced her international career as a competitive table tennis player. She became a Singapore citizen at the age of 18 years under the Foreign Sports Talent Scheme.

As a singles player, Li was ranked sixth in the world by August 2008. Her highest ranking was in December 2005, when she was placed third. Li is also a key player for the Singaporean women's team and doubles, and mixed doubles events, having participated in three Olympics and achieving a medal for the latter two. She finished in fourth place in singles at both the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens and the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. On 15 August, the Singapore women's team composed of Li and her teammates Feng Tianwei and Wang Yuegu defeated South Korea 3–2 in the semifinals. However, in the finals on 17 August, the team lost to China and earned a silver medal, marking the first time that Singapore had won an Olympic medal since the nation's independence in 1965. The momentous occasion came 48 years after Tan Howe Liang won the country's first medal, a silver in weightlifting at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. Li ended 2008 on a high, winning gold in the women's team event with Feng and Wang at the ITTF Pro Tour ERKE German Open in Berlin in November, and in the doubles with Sun Beibei at the ITTF Volkswagen Pro Tour Grand Finals in Macau in December 2008.