A01=Lijia Xu
Asian sailing
Author_Lijia Xu
Ben Ainslie
Category=DNBS1
Category=SCBB
Category=SPNG
Chinese sailing team
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_sports-fitness
ILCA
ILCA 6
ILCA world champion
Jon Emmett
Laser
Laser Radial
Laser world champion
London 2012
Olympics
Optimist
Optimist world champion
Rio 2016
Sailing
Woman sailor
World sailor of the year
Product details
- ISBN 9781917801003
- Dimensions: 129 x 198mm
- Publication Date: 02 Sep 2025
- Publisher: Fernhurst Books Limited
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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Golden Lily is the fascinating autobiography from Asia’s first ever dinghy sailing gold medallist.
It tells of her learning to sail and becoming a full-time athlete at just 10 years old. At that age Lijia Xu was taken away from her parents and enrolled in the gruelling Chinese training regime, a programme meticulously prescribed across all sporting disciplines to catapult the nation’s talented youngsters to international champions.
It is a rare insight into a shocking world of relentless physical training and unquestioning mental compliance. Lijia’s honest and heart-felt account takes you on her journey from physical disabilities and debilitating injuries to learning to think for herself, eventually going on to achieve her dream of becoming an Olympic gold medallist.
Now, ten years since its first publication, Lily has updated the story. She tells of her third and final Olympic campaign at Rio 2016 and then training to be a sports journalist and covering Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 as a reporter. Lijia opens up about her secret relationship with her English coach and their subsequent marriage, as well as talking about her post-Olympic sailing including IMOCA 60s, M32s, J80s and Waszps.
This is an inspirational story of a young woman’s will to succeed despite all that her background threw at her.
Lijia Xu was born in Shanghai in 1987. She was approached to become a sailor in 1997 and from the age of 10 Lijia travelled all year round to sail and train; becoming a full-time sailor shortly after her 10th birthday. She was a double winner of the Optimist World Championships before moving onto Olympic campaigning, winning bronze at Beijing 2008 and gold at London 2012. She is now a sports journalist covering the Olympics and many sailing events. Jeremy Atkins wrote and privately published four sailing books before buying Fernhurst Books from John Wiley & Sons. He is a past national champion, has run Class Associations worldwide for 20 years and been involved in running sailing clubs for nearly 50 years. He is currently President of Draycote Water Sailing Club and Secretary of the Imperial Poona Yacht Club.
