Olympics' delay weighs heavily on older athletes

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With age no longer on their side, the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics has cast a long shadow on the career of some of China's veteran athletes, turning their pursuit for one more Olympic medal run into a nagging waiting game.

Liu Hong

Age: 32

Event: Race walk

Expecting to retirement to life as a full-time mom after finishing her fourth Olympics in Tokyo this summer, the postponement of the Games to 2021 has all of Liu's plans for her post-athletic life messed up.The veteran rack walker is now facing one extra year of rigorous training and traveling away from home to keep her dream alive of defending her gold in the women's 20km.

"One more year on the road will be extremely tough for me," Liu told 163.com on Tuesday. "My daughter is supposed to go to kindergarten and my husband has to give up his own career plans to continue helping me in training … All my plans now have been disrupted. I will take a break and I will see if I can continue. I just don't know at the moment."

After taking a one-year break following the 2016 Rio Olympics to give birth to her daughter, Liu came back in late 2018 focusing on retaining her gold at the Tokyo Games. She broke the women's 50km world record to win a race in Huangshan, East China's Anhui province in 3:59:15 to become the first woman in the world to crack the four-hour barrier for the distance, showing great form leading up to the Tokyo Games.

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