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Everyone knows that athletics has always been a strong point for foreign athletes, and most of the new world records are mainly black.
But in 2001, the dash of a yellow man made the world tremble, he was the national pride - Liu Xiang. From now on Chinese it can also impact the track and field events that black people are good at.
However, the loss of a game in 2012 made Liu Xiang from Chinese pride to disdain, what did he experience?
The growth of Asian flyers
Liu Xiang's parents are ordinary workers, and they know that if there is no knowledge or skill in the future society, the child is likely to become an ordinary person like himself.
Therefore, although their life is very difficult, they still want to save the best for their children. Liu Xiang grew up in such a loving family.
When he was a child, Liu Xiang liked running very much, and Liu Xuegen accompanied Liu Xiang to run by the Huangpu River. Therefore, Liu Xiang's physical fitness has been much better than his peers since he was a child.
In the second grade of primary school, Liu Xiang ushered in the first competition in his life, with long-term running training, Liu Xiang won the championship in one fell swoop, and this run also successfully attracted the attention of a coach.
This coach is Liu Xiang's first mentor, Zhong Suogui, and he can see at a glance that Liu Xiang, who has long hands and feet and amazing explosiveness, is a good seedling for practicing athletics.
Subsequently, Zhong Suogui immediately found Liu Xiang's parents and said that he wanted Liu Xiang to study with him.
Therefore, Liu Xiang officially opened his professional training road, as long as he got on the track, Liu Xiang seemed to not know how to be tired, Zhong Suogui also often said that Liu Xiang has been particularly fond of running since he was a child.
Although he has professional training with the coach, he is still too young, and the pace of running is definitely not as good as that of older professional athletes, so Liu Xiang's overall performance and ranking are not particularly excellent in Shanghai.
However, Liu Xiang met a second mentor at this time. That day, Liu Xiang participated in the competition in school as usual. And Gu Baogang, as the coach of the high jump team, also happened to be invited to be a judge.
At that time, Gu Baogang, who was responsible for recording results and selecting seedlings in the high jump event, happened to catch a glimpse of Liu Xiang, who was sprinting in the track and field competition.
He found that Liu Xiang not only was faster than others, but his Achilles tendon and steps were also larger than others, which happened to be a good seedling for practicing high jumping, and a big stride and explosive power can easily complete the high jump.
So, Gu Baogang found Zhong Suogui, saying that a good seedling like Liu Xiang should develop a lot, and wanted him to try it on the high jump team, and Zhong Suogui agreed.
After coming to the high jump team, Liu Xiang really did not expect it, and he became a rising star in the high jump team with his solid physical fitness and natural big Achilles tendon and big stride.
Gu Baogang and Zhong Suoguiyi combined, Liu Xiang now has two professional abilities in high jump and athletics, and the country just happens to have an athletics event that combines the two, which is the 100-meter hurdles that changed Liu Xiang's life.
Because the project requires athletes to have both big strides and running abilities, talent is very scarce, and Liu Xiang is such a rare talent.
Transform into a hurdle flyer
The two coaches hit it off, and Liu Xiang smoothly switched to this athletics event that would affect his life. In 1996, at the age of 13, Liu Xiang participated in hurdles for the first time.
With his solid foundation in the high jump team and track and field team, he won the 1996 Shanghai Junior Athletics Championship hurdles championship, which was Liu Xiang's first hurdle championship medal and will be the starting point of his legendary career.
In 1999, after 3 years of training in the sports school, Liu Xiang was favored by Sun Haiping, the coach of the Shanghai track and field team, and was officially selected for the Shanghai Junior Sports Team, and coach Sun Haiping is also a generation of talent.
Coach Sun has trained Chen Yanhao, known as the "Asian hurdle king", and he is also Liu Xiang's first opponent.
At that time, Liu Xiang's physical condition was not particularly perfect, and years of high-intensity training left him with injuries, which were likely to affect his career if left untreated.
Sun Haiping naturally did not want to see such a talented player, because of injury and regret to bid farewell to the sports world, so he resolutely signed the surgical responsibility letter and took all the risks of the operation.
Liu Xiang's knee injury was only healed after undergoing rehabilitation surgery, and it can be said that if it were not for Sun Haiping's immediate decision, we might not have seen Liu Xiang's wonderful performance at all.
Because of this successful operation, Liu Xiang was able to be selected for the national track and field team with excellent results and win glory for the country. The year 2000 was also the most unusual year in Liu Xiang's career.
Liu Xiang has officially become a member of the national team and is the youngest athlete on the track and field team at that time.
Here, Liu Xiang felt the intensity of training that he had never experienced before, and practiced repeatedly every day on the key movements of starting, starting, crossing hurdles, running between hurdles, and sprinting.
Such hard training is not only to be able to defeat senior brother Chen Yanhao and win glory for Sun Haiping, but also to be able to stand on the podium on behalf of the country and break the fallacy that "yellow people cannot enter the top eight in the world".
Soon after, Liu Xiang finally ushered in the first competition of the national team, the Chilean Youth Championship, and scored 13.87 seconds in the first match.
Although he only finished fourth and did not stand on the podium, this distance became Liu Xiang's next goal.
In November of the same year, in the 60-meter hurdles event of the Lyon Indoor Athletics Grand Prix in France, Liu Xiang once again entered the final with his extraordinary talent.
Shortly after the start, an American runner on the adjacent track accidentally fell, and Liu Xiang successfully won the top three. However, the referee declared Liu Xiang ineffective because he had fallen.
So, Liu Xiang and master Sun Haiping looked for the referee theory, obviously it was an American player who fell, how to say that it was Liu Xiang? And the referee looked contemptuous.
"It's impossible for a yellow person to be in the top three."
Hearing this, Sun Haiping immediately played back the video of his recorded match to the referee, which confirmed that Liu Xiang was indeed the third to cross the finish line, and only then did the referee admit this fact with a red face.
However, this episode also left a deep mark in Liu Xiang's heart, and he secretly made a vow.
"I want to prove that the yellow race can win the track and field championship!"
After that, Liu Xiang trained harder, and at the 2001 World University Games, he stood in the final again and won the Universiade hurdles championship in 13.33 seconds, which was a historic moment.
At the same time, he also used this achievement to refresh the results of his senior brother Chen Yanhao and achieve his first small goal.
In July 2002, at the IAAF Grand Prix in Switzerland, Liu Xiang finally set the Asian record with a time of 13.12 seconds, which has been a blockbuster ever since.
The dazzling Chinese red of the Athens Olympics
2004 was Liu Xiang's real highlight moment, and under the detailed guidance of Sun Haiping, he began to rush out of Asia and into the world.
For Liu Xiang, who is in his early 20s, Alan Johnson, a generation of famous American athletes, is the first target he wants to challenge, and for the 32-year-old Johnson, Liu Xiang is the ultimate challenge of his sports career.
A month before the start of the Olympics, Liu Xiang and Johnson welcomed a warm-up competition for the Olympics, the IAAF Grand Prix.
On the field, Liu Xiang defeated Johnson with a slight time difference to become the runner-up, which also strengthened Liu Xiang's determination to defeat Johnson in the Olympic Games. At this moment, Johnson is no longer the mountain that cannot be crossed in Liu Xiang's heart.
A month later, Liu Xiang stood on the Olympic field as he wished. Before the competition, the National Athletics Management Center gave Liu Xiang the goal of "rushing to the final to win the medal", but this is the minimum standard for Liu Xiang, and his goal is to impact the championship.
On August 24, the first 110m hurdles race, began. With a gunshot, Liu Xiang finished first in the group in 13.27 seconds; On August 25, the second round of the 110-meter hurdles began, and Johnson, who was originally Liu Xiang's most advantageous competitor, accidentally fell, and Liu Xiang successfully entered the semifinals with a time of 13.26 seconds.
Then, according to the established tactics of the coaching staff, Liu Xiang successfully reached the final with a time of 13.18 seconds. In the end, Liu Xiang ushered in his own highlight moment on August 27, and a battle recorded in the history of Chinese athletics was about to begin.
Liu Xiang stood at the starting line with a proud posture, which was also the first yellow man ever to reach the Olympic final in the hurdles event, and the 21-year-old Liu Xiang was so prominent among a group of black athletes.
With the sound of the starting gun, Liu Xiang started smoothly, leading, sprinting, and Liu Xiang won. Under the passionate explanation of the on-site commentary, Liu Xiang made history on behalf of Chinese.
12.91 seconds is a statistic worthy of going down in history, and Liu Xiang has become a well-deserved Olympic hero.
When Liu Xiang, known as the "yellow bullet", stood on the championship podium wearing a bright five-star red flag, and then stuck out his tongue to the audience, people saw a big boy with sunshine.
When he faced the camera and announced to the world that "China has me, Asia has me", people felt the confidence and domineering of this proud son of heaven.
Since then, Liu Xiang has continuously set new records. On July 12, 2006, at the Swiss Athletics Super Grand Prix, Liu Xiang shocked the world again with a time of 12.88 seconds.
Just when Chinese people were glad to have such an Asian flyer and hoped that Liu Xiang would be able to set new results again at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, an accident occurred.
The hero's fall triggers scolding
The depth of love, the weight of hope, the depth of responsibility. On August 18, 2008, in the Beijing Olympic men's 110m hurdles qualifiers, Liu Xiang failed to collect his strength in time due to someone rushing to run, and finally fell at the starting line.
The 80,000 spectators and countless others sitting in front of the TV were shocked, praying that the Olympic hero, who had high hopes for him, would stand up and win glory for his country again.
However, what awaits them is the news that Liu Xiang cannot continue to participate in the competition. Subsequently, with the help of the coaching staff and team doctor, Liu Xiang reluctantly left the field and announced his withdrawal.
Inside and outside the arena, spectators and media were overwhelmed with verbal criticism, portraying Liu Xiang, a hero who had fought for the country, as a "coward" and "a man who fell on his home field."
Suddenly, an invisible shadow shrouded the bird's nest, although the coaching staff specifically explained that Liu Xiang was already injured before the competition, coupled with the explosive power of the moment of running, which caused the injury to increase, so he had no choice but to withdraw from the competition.
However, those who have joined the "just crusade" do not pay any attention to the facts before them.
And Liu Xiang has not responded or argued to this, but just endured everything silently, because he believes that the hero is not late, and he will eventually prove himself with facts.
In 2012, at the London Olympics, Liu Xiang once again represented China on the Olympic stage, I don't know if it was an accident or a joke made by heaven and Liu Xiang.
Liu Xiang suffered a recurrence of a foot injury, ruptured his Achilles tendon on the way through the hurdles, and faced withdrawal again.
This time, he did not choose to withdraw directly from the competition as he did four years ago, but jumped on one foot to complete the race, and kissed the hurdles on the field after completing the race, which may also be another level of dashing farewell.
And the keyboard warriors once again launched a denunciation of Liu Xiang, they thought that Liu Xiang was worse this time than the last time, it was like a "show".
They only saw Liu Xiang's two defeats, but they could not see Liu Xiang's pain, nor the honors Liu Xiang had achieved for the country.
summary
Although Liu Xiang lost the competition due to injury, we should not forget that this hero once stood on the top of the world on behalf of China, let alone that this hero broke the rumor that the yellow race could not reach the track and field final.
Since 2000, Liu Xiang has participated in 48 international hurdle competitions, winning a total of 36 gold medals, 6 silver medals and 3 bronze medals. He has fought for his dreams and has always stood bravely in the ring, he is a great fighter.
Liu Xiang has now retired, but his spirit of hard work and glory for the country will always exist in people's hearts, and we should be more tolerant of such heroes, and do not deny or selectively forget the honor they have brought to the country.