Sun sets on China's golden era of sport

Hurdler Liu Xiang's retirement highlights lack of fresh national talent

Star hurdler Liu Xiang's retirement, announced officially on his micro blog on April 7, brings to an end an era of outstanding Chinese athletes who demonstrated the country's ability to excel on the world stage.

He leaves a massive void, with no new crop of exceptional sports stars emerging to continue the momentum that he and other greats unleashed.

Liu shared the international sporting spotlight with iconic figures such as basketball hero Yao Ming and tennis star Li Na. Their groundbreaking feats saw China standing high as a top sporting nation, but experts say such scenes may be over for the time being.

"In the next few years, there might not be any athlete who can fill the big shoes left by Liu, Yao and Li and excel as they represent China in mainstream global events," says Tan Jianxiang, a sports sociology professor at South China Normal University.

"Boasting a combination of athletic prowess, international influence and marketing value, the three stars earned a level of recognition for Chinese sports at the highest level that their predecessors never achieved.

"Now that they have all retired, China's sporting leaders have to reflect on their careers and consider an adjustment to the system for developing talent to produce future stars."

Liu has been struggling to return to fitness since he pulled his Achilles tendon at the 2012 London Olympics.

He says in a statement posted on his micro blog: "I am officially retiring today to say goodbye to my beloved tracks and hurdles. It's a well-considered decision but a hard one to make. I've tried all my best to recover from the injury over the past two years since the 2012 London Olympics, dreaming that I could start over again.

"But my foot denied my attempts over and over again. I realized I couldn't withstand the high intensity for training and racing. I hate my foot as much as I love my track and my hurdles."

Liu was the first athlete to prove that Chinese sportsmen could compete against their Western counterparts in mainstream events when he won the 110m hurdles gold medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics in 12.91 seconds.

The image of him leaping on top of the podium while raising the Chinese national flag at the presentation ceremony is one of the most memorable moments in China's sporting history. His inspiring achievement gave his fellow sportsmen and sportswomen the confidence to challenge the world's best.

Adam Zhang, a sports researcher and founder of the Key-Sports consultancy, says, "The biggest legacy of Liu's career is that he showed that Asian athletes could succeed in sprint events and inspired a generation of not only athletes but ordinary Chinese people to be more confident in international competition."

A similar impact was made by Yao's National Basketball Association supremacy and Li's two Grand Slam singles wins.

Tan says the three stars' combination of confidence and straightforward personalities broke the stereotype of colorless Chinese athletes. "In this regard, none of the active athletes have matched what they did so far," he says.

However, Liu's career was tarnished by a lack of transparency over his fitness and concerns about the influence of commercial considerations.

Mark Dreyer, an observer of Chinese sport, says, "The fact that he lined up at both the 2008 and 2012 Olympics while far from fully fit raises uneasy questions about the role of his sponsors behind the scenes."

According to Chinese media reports, the State track and field administration had signed 17 endorsement deals worth a total of 100 million yuan ($16 million) for Liu before the 2012 Games. If he had not appeared the administration would have had to pay a penalty of as much as much as 300 million yuan.

However, Liu said in his microblog statement on April 7: "My life has been full of dramas. Even knowing that I would possibly hurt myself, I was determined to race in London as I don't want to be called a coward or the guy who escaped at the last minute."

Dreyer says: "Liu's triple triumphs of becoming Olympic champion, world champion and world record holder in his prime from 2004 to 2007 can never be taken away.

"Those performances transformed the image of Chinese athletics, even if the world is still waiting for his successor to emerge."

Liu says he plans to finish his academic studies at East China Normal University and then work to improve the fitness of young people in China.

Bio

Liu Xiang

Age: 32

Hometown: Shanghai

Height: 1.89 meters

Weight: 85 kilograms

Sport: 110m hurdles

Ups and downs of a remarkable athletics career

2001: Liu Xiang emerges on the world stage by winning the 110m hurdles at the Universiade, his first major international meeting, in Beijing, then wins again at the National Games.

2004: Wins the 110m hurdles final at the 2004 Athens Olympics, equaling the then world record time of 12.91 seconds and setting a new Olympic record. Liu is the first Chinese man to win an Olympic gold medal in track and field.

2006: Sets a new world record of 12.88 seconds to win the Super Grand Prix in Lausanne, becoming the first Asian to hold a world record in a sprint event.

2007: Wins gold in 12.95 seconds at the World Athletics Championships in Japan to become world champion for the first time.

2008: After shouldering national expectations of a repeat Olympic victory, Liu withdraws from his first-round heat in the 110m hurdles at the Beijing Olympics after suffering a tear to his right Achilles tendon. The disappointed home crowd at the Bird's Nest stadium is left in stunned silence.

2009: After a 13-month absence to recover from injury, Liu makes a strong comeback as he finishes second at the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix in September.

2010: Liu confirms his return to form at the Guangzhou Asian Games in November by winning the final with an event record time of 13.09 seconds.

2012: Liu wins the Prefontaine Classic in the US in 12.87 seconds, matching the then-world record, albeit with wind-assistance of 2.4 meters per second.

Suffers another huge blow at the London Olympics as he pulls his Achilles tendon again while approaching the first hurdle in the first-round heat. Liu hops along the full 110-meter course and kisses the last hurdle before pulling out of the Games.

Has surgery, then starts a long rehabilitation that has sidelined him from competition ever since.

2015: Officially announces his retirement on April 7.

sunxiaochen@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily Africa Weekly 04/10/2015 page30)