Liu Hongmei

Biography

Liu Hongmei entered the world on 27 December 1973, the daughter of a city maintenance worker and a security guard. She wore the Chinese national jersey for a decade, from 1992 through 2002. At the 1992 IIHF Women's World Championship, she made her debut on the international stage. Two years later, across five games at the 1994 IIHF Women's World Championship, she found the net eight times. In 2001, she traveled to Winnipeg and picked up conversational English. The Hockey News dubbed her "the Chinese women's team's answer to Wayne Gretzky" and flagged her as a "player to watch" heading into the 2002 Winter Olympics.

At those Olympics, Liu served as China's captain and played forward. Her uniform shoulder carried the Swoosh logo. She scored three goals over the tournament, including two against Germany. During the match with Kazakhstan, she played through a shoulder injury. With overtime winding down and just 1 minute 39 seconds left, she netted a close-range goal to seal a 2–1 victory and seventh place. Afterward, she admitted, "I had very complicated feelings at the time. Originally, we could win without overtime. After scoring the goal, I thought we had finally won. Yes, it's really not easy." She and teammate Yang Xiuqing tied as the team's top scorers, each with three goals.

Following the 2002 Games, Liu and four other players stepped away from the national team. China Consumer Daily noted that their departures sapped the squad's strength. Over her career with the national side, Liu amassed 44 points on 27 goals and 17 assists. In a 2015 piece for Sina Corporation, Wang Xuefeng described her as "a star player" who earned "highly praised by the international ice hockey community."