Zhou Guohua

Zhou of China and her guide Jie Li in 2012
Personal information
Nationality	Chinese
Born	(1990-10-10) 10 October 1990 (age 33) Ulanqab
Height	165 cm (5 ft 5 in)
Sport
Country	China
Sport	Athletics
Disability class	T12
Club	Guangdong Province
Coached by	Hu Zhengguan
Medal record Paralympic athletics Representing  China Paralympic Games 2012 London 100 m T12 2016 Rio 4×100 m T11–13 2012 London 200 m T12 2016 Rio de Janeiro 200 m T12 World Championships 2013 Lyon 100 m T12 2015 Doha 100 m relay T11–13 2023 Paris Long jump T11 Asian Para Games 2014 Incheon 100 m T12 2014 Incheon 4 × 100 m relay – T11–13 2014 Incheon 400 m T11/12 2022 Hangzhou 100 m T11 2022 Hangzhou 200 m T11

Zhou Guohua (born 10 October 1990) is a visually impaired Paralympian athlete from China competing mainly in T12 classification sprint events.^[1] In London in 2012 she became the T12 record holder at 100m.

Life

Zhou was born in Ulanqab in Inner Mongolia in 1990 with poor eyesight. She was discovered in Dongguan in 2009 where she was working as a masseuse. Luo Jinhui from the local disable association identified her athletic stature and suggested she could make a better living as an athlete. By 2011 she was able to become a professional after taking medals at the national paragames. She did not compete a lot in international events until just before the 2012 Paralympics where she took two gold medals in Croatia at 100 and 200 metres.^[2]

Zhou won two medals at her first Summer Paralympics, the 2012 London Games, including the gold medal in the women's 100m sprint. Here she set a new world record of 12.05 seconds in the T12 event. The time was so quick that this would place her in the top women in the world irrespective of her disability.^[2] She is also a World Championships and Asian Games medalists, winning five medals over four tournaments.^[3] At the 2014 Asian Para Games she set an Asian record in the 400m T12 sprint with a time of 58.45.^[4]