Liu Xiang, Chinese Olympic Star, Retires
#BREAKING China’s top track and field star Liu Xiang announces his retirement. http://t.co/2LQhDqDaz4
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, the pathbreaking Olympic champion whose later career was tormented by recurring injuries, announced his retirement from competition on Tuesday.
Mr. Liu, 31, had not competed since again injuring his right Achilles’ tendon during the 2012 London Olympics. He said on Tuesday that he had given up after more than two years of frustrating and ultimately failed physical rehabilitation.
“Of course my heart is still willing, but my foot has again and again said no to me,” he wrote in a posted to his Sina Weibo account. “There is no way it can take high-intensity training or competition. I hate my foot; I love my track and my hurdles. If my foot wasn’t injured, I … unfortunately in this world there are no ifs. I brought about the injury myself, and I can only silently accept it. To have the intention but not the ability is dispiriting and painful. For more than two years I’ve been at a loss, but today I’ve decided to give up, to leave. I want a new life.”
In 2004, Mr. Liu became the first Chinese man to win an Olympic gold medal in track, taking the 110-meter hurdles at the Athens Games with a time that tied the world record. Two years later he broke the world record, become the first man to run the race in under 12.9 seconds. In 2007, he won the world championships in the event.
Olympics '08: Gail Devers on Liu Xiang
Olympics '08: Gail Devers on Liu Xiang
Three time Olympic Gold medalist Gail Devers talks about the injury that forced Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang to drop out of the Beijing games. (Aug. 18)
Mr. Liu, whose given name — Xiang (翔) — means to soar, came into the 2008 Beijing Olympics under intense . State news media that Chinese citizens’ greatest desire for the Games was for Mr. Liu to defend his 2004 title.
“Officials from the State General Administration of Sports once told us if Liu could not win a gold in Beijing, all of his previous achievements would become meaningless,” his coach, Sun Haiping, China Daily in 2007.
But Mr. Liu pulled a hamstring that season and came into the Games nursing an inflammation of his right Achilles’ tendon. He of a preliminary heat of the 110-meter hurdles, leaving his coach and fans in tears.
He continued to face injuries in the following years. In 2012, he crashed out of the London Olympics he tore his right Achilles’ tendon as he tried to clear the first hurdle in another heat. He along the side of the track for the length of the race and then kissed the final hurdle before he was taken away in a wheelchair.
Mr. Liu has not competed since, but this year he was again trying to rehabilitate his injured Achilles’ tendon. His tendon did not appear to have healed during testing in February, his coach said, the state news agency Xinhua. They planned to see in the spring if it had improved and then make a final decision about the future of his career, Mr. Sun said.
“You shouldn’t bear too much burden,” Zuo Changchen, an in Beijing, wrote on Sina Weibo in response to the retirement announcement. “Thank you for all of the beautiful moments you have given us.”
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