Beautiful Rio thoughts from Chinese pioneer Feng Shanshan

Paris, France: Much has changed for Feng Shanshan in recent years. The 34-year-old retired from professional golf in 2022 and has experienced a lot since her time as a player on the LPGA Tour.

She is involved as a coach for the Chinese national team and is a brand ambassador for numerous companies. She travels around the world as often as she can when she gets the chance and spent some time in Tibet last summer.

Feng even got married, sharing the happy news on her Instagram page last August on Chinese Valentine's Day. But perhaps most importantly, the 2020 Olympic bronze medalist recently became a mother.

Feng posted photos of her son on Instagram on April 19, taken at the little one's full moon party, a Chinese tradition that celebrates a newborn after his or her first month of life.

Motherhood is a new adventure for Feng, who admits she hasn't spent much time with children. And it's got her thinking about how her former LPGA Tour colleagues manage to be both a mother and a professional athlete – a challenge she appreciates a little more now that she's moving from hitting drivers to changing diapers.

“When I decided to retire three years ago, I wanted to go on a diet and lose some weight so I could look prettier and fit into nicer clothes. I also wanted to find a boyfriend. He became my husband,” Feng said.

“I went from being single to being married and becoming a mother in a year or two. I think everything has gone well and I'm really happy right now, even though I'm still learning a lot of different things because everything is very new to me.”

Feng's son will not know his mother as a professional golfer – unless she decides to come out of retirement at some point – but the rest of the world will never forget her humor and spirit as Feng competed around the globe on the LPGA Tour.

Her cow-print pants were famous, and you never knew what the Chinese-born golfer would say next in post-round interviews. But for all her silly antics and bubbly, exuberant personality, Feng was a fierce competitor on the golf course.

In her 15 years as a member of the LPGA Tour, she won ten titles, one of which was a major title: the 2012 KPMG Women's PGA Championship at Locust Hill Country Club in Pittsford, New York.

Feng rose to number one in the Rolex Women's World Golf Rankings after winning the Blue Bay LPGA in her home country in 2017, becoming the first player from China to do so, a position she held for 23 weeks until April of the following year.

But the most significant achievement of Feng's career was her performance at the 2016 Rio Olympics, an event that cemented her place as one of the biggest stars in women's golf and changed the course of her life in profound ways.

Feng won the bronze medal in Rio and achieved a total score of 10 under par – one stroke behind Lydia Kowho took silver, and six behind Park In Beewho won gold for Korea.

Feng said: “Many people ask me what is more important: winning a major or the Olympics. I have always said: 'Of course the Olympics, because they are held every four years. There is only one Olympic Games.'

“Every year we have five majors, so in four years we have 20 chances to win a major, but only once in the Olympics. I always thought that winning the Olympics, or even just trying to play in the Olympics, was the most important thing for me as a golfer. I was very lucky to be able to play twice and win a medal as well.

“Being at the Olympics was a dream come true… and at the end I stood on the winner's podium, which was even more amazing, even though the medal color wasn't gold. I said we're all gold medalists, because the gold medal is the gold medal, and the silver medal is the light gold medal, and the bronze medal is actually the rose gold medal.”

Feng was unsure whether she would qualify for the Tokyo Olympics because she took an extended break throughout the 2020 LPGA Tour season due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

She returned to professional competition in 2021 and eventually played well enough to secure a spot in the 60-player field in Japan – postponing her impending retirement.

“I decided to play in 2021 even though I was already 31,” Feng said. “I knew I was going downhill. I was not at the peak of my career, but I was still the top-ranked Chinese golfer. I thought I still had the responsibility to play in the Olympics. Since I won the bronze medal in Rio, I wanted to try to get a gold medal before I retired, so I decided to play in the Tokyo Olympics.”

“That was my goal. Even though the result wasn't what I wanted, I still gave 100 percent and don't regret it.”

At the Olympic Games in Paris this week, China will be represented by Lin Xiyu And Yin Ruoningtwo LPGA Tour athletes who followed in Feng's footsteps, just as she had hoped young players would do after her KPMG victory.

Lin is a standout competitor on the tour, having achieved 29 top-10 finishes and earned $5,643,448 in career earnings since joining the organization in 2014. She represented China alongside Feng at both the Rio and Tokyo Olympics, finishing ninth at the latter.

Yin won her first Rolex award at the 2023 DIO Implant LA Open, becoming only the second Chinese player to win on the LPGA Tour alongside Feng. She once again joined Feng's esteemed company at the 2023 KPMG Women's PGA Championship, capturing her first major title on the Lower Course of Baltusrol Golf Club, fittingly at the same major that Feng herself won over a decade earlier.

Yin rose to number one in the Rolex Women's World Golf Rankings last September and held that position for four weeks. At this year's Dow Championship, the 21-year-old also became a three-time LPGA Tour champion, winning together with her playing partner and fellow 2022 LPGA Tour newcomer, Atthaya Thitikul of Thailand.

Yin and Lin lead a group of outstanding players from China who are currently members of the LPGA Tour. Although Feng is not responsible for the individual success of every Chinese professional golfer, she was the catalyst that ignited that spark of inspiration, which was her goal from the beginning of her career.

“I was the first Chinese golfer to stand on the podium,” Feng said. “After I won the medal, of course I wanted more people to see how good Chinese golfers can be and hopefully more people will start to join the sport. That happened after 2016. We could see how many more young golfers in China started to play golf. I was very happy about that.”

When the women's competition begins today at Golf National, Feng can observe the future she helped create.

“I really wish they could make my dream of winning a gold medal come true,” Feng said. “Now I have no chance. But I believe Chinese players will be able to do it in the future.”

*This article by Sarah Kellam first appeared on the International Golf Federation website at