She won the gold medal in the 58 kg class in both competitions, making her the first woman to win gold medals in weightlifting in two consecutive Olympics.Chen was born in Suzhou, Jiangsu.
She won her first gold medal in 1995 at the Junior Asian Women Weightlifting Championship, and another at a 1998 world championship.
She was slated to compete at the 2000 Summer Olympics but was scratched from the Chinese Olympic lineup for strategic reasons a short time before the games began.
She has also won the National Games and East Asia Games and set the world record in her weight class in the snatch and lift in 2006.