One
Liu Xiang was born on September 1, 1996 in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, to a sports family, to parents who were basketball players.
Although Liu Xiang was born in Guangzhou, her parents are not from Guangzhou, her father is from Yunnan, and her mother is from Qingdao, Shandong, because Liu Xiang's father stayed in Guangzhou to work after retiring from the army, so the family also lived in Guangzhou.
When Liu Xiang was born, it was the most popular time for Hong Kong dramas and Hong Kong films, and many Hong Kong actors at that time were very famous, such as Kwan Chi Lin, Li Jiaxin, Qiu Shuzhen and so on.
Among them, Li Jiaxin is praised by many people as the first beauty of Hong Kong films, with amazing looks, Liu Xiang's parents may also be loyal viewers of Hong Kong dramas, after all, Hong Kong and Guangdong speak Cantonese.
Therefore, after Liu Xiang was born, her parents named her Liu Jiaxin (this name was used until the second grade of primary school, and then changed her name to Liu Xiang).
Because Liu Xiang's parents were originally professional athletes, they had no intention of letting Liu Xiang go on the path of professional athletes in the future after Liu Xiang was born.
After all, outsiders may only see the scenery of athletes on the field, but they do not know the efforts they make off the field, but their parents as professional athletes have experienced it.
When Liu Xiang was very young, they planned to train Liu Xiang to become a big girl, let her learn dance, painting, calligraphy, and then practice swimming, so that her physical fitness should be better.
But what Liu Xiang's mother, Wang Huiying, did not expect was that after only 3 months of swimming, 5-year-old Liu Xiang learned four swimming styles (breaststroke, backstroke, butterfly, and climbing).
The most important point is that Liu Xiang is not very hard when learning to swim, but as long as the coach has a little guidance, she works hard, and her grades will improve very much.
This allowed the mother Wang Huiying to see her daughter Liu Xiang's talent in swimming, after all, as a professional athlete, she understood how important such a talent is for an athlete, in layman's terms - God appreciates food.
But the decision to let her daughter start the path of a professional athlete is difficult to make, because it is almost related to the direction of her daughter's life in the future.
In the end, Liu Xiang's parents decided to take one step at a time, not only to let their daughter learn to swim, but also not to let her waste her studies.
Two
Both parents and coaches think that Liu Xiang is very talented in swimming, but Liu Xiang herself has no feelings, and because she still has to go to the swimming pool to train after school, and other children are out to play, she hates swimming.
After practicing for a while, Liu Xiang proposed to his mother that he did not want to practice swimming anymore because when her mother first let her practice swimming, she said that she would be able to strengthen her body, and Liu Xiang believed that this goal had been achieved.
At the same time, she also expressed to her mother that she thought swimming took up too much of her time, other children had time to go out and play, watch TV, and she was training every day, too boring.
In fact, this is very normal for children, after all, everyone likes to swim when they are young, and her mother Wang Huiying also thinks about whether to let her daughter give up swimming.
As long as my daughter can live happily in the future, I don't want my daughter to be able to get ahead and achieve good results.
However, when discussing with Liu Xiang's enlightenment coach, the enlightenment coach did not agree to let Liu Xiang give up the path of swimming, because he felt that with Liu Xiang's talent, as long as he trained well, he would definitely be able to achieve good results in the future.
So Wang Huiying discussed with the enlightenment coach to stabilize Liu Xiang first, on the grounds that the tuition fee for this semester had already been paid and could not be refunded, so Liu Xiang must be allowed to finish this training course.
On the other side, the coach began to train Liu Xiang specially, and also began to report a lot of matches to Liu Xiang, so Liu Xiang's performance slowly improved, from the beginning of entering the final to getting the ranking step by step.
When Liu Xiang was in the second grade, she represented the school in the Guangzhou Tianhe District Games, in which Liu Xiang alone won two gold medals in the 50-meter backstroke and the 50-meter freestyle.
After winning the championship, Liu Xiang experienced the sense of achievement of swimming, and slowly fell in love with the charm of this competitive sport, and he did not mention the matter of giving up swimming with his mother.
After falling in love with swimming, Liu Xiang began to train hard, and soon she became the best student on the swimming team.
Three
Liu Xiang's enlightenment coach is He Guohong, who has always trained with Liu Xiang.
When Liu Xiang was training, she held a board in one hand and paddled with the other hand; or a splint with both feet and paddled with both hands, she did it completely according to the requirements of the coach.
He Guohong, on the other hand, pinched the stopwatch and let Liu Xiang swim back and forth in an orderly manner in the pool, unable to stop halfway through, to train strength and speed.
Liu Xiang has to train in the sports school every day after school, and the training time of each time is generally not more than one and a half hours, and the winter and summer vacations will not be an exception, before each competition, she will wear thick clothes for weight training.
As Liu Xiang became obsessed with swimming, liu xiang won almost all the championships in the various swimming competitions in Tianhe District, such as backstroke, butterfly swimming, and freestyle.
In addition to performing very well in swimming, Liu Xiang's height is also inherited from his parents' excellent genes, and he has always been higher than girls of the same age.
Liu Xiang also performed very well in learning, the homework was completed on time, the writing was also very neat, he listened carefully to the lectures in class, and his speech was also very positive, and he did not have to worry about the teacher at all.
And because Liu Xiang was almost always the tallest in the class when she was in elementary school, she often worked as a teacher's assistant, such as helping to rectify the team when school was out.
Liu Xiang's mother also attaches great importance to Liu Xiang's learning, often when school is out, Liu Xiang's mother will pull Liu Xiang's class teacher when she picks up the child, asking Liu Xiang's performance in school today, how the class is, how the homework is, and so on.
When he graduated from primary school, Liu Xiang entered Tianhe Middle School in Tianhe District, Guangzhou as a sports student.
It is worth mentioning that Liu Xiang lived with his mother in Qingdao for about a year or so when he was about 10 years old.
At that time, Liu Xiang in Qingdao studied at the Qingdao Military Sports School at No. 126 Tailiu Road in Qingdao to receive professional and systematic swimming training.
In the Qingdao Municipal Military Sports School, Liu Xiang's coach is the famous coach Ji Qing, in Ji Qing's view, Liu Xiang's sense of water is very good, the explosive power is not bad, is a promising talent with unlimited prospects, but Liu Xiang only stayed in Qingdao for a short year, and then returned to Guangzhou.
In 2010, 14-year-old Liu Xiang won the Guangdong Provincial Selection Competition and entered the Guangdong Provincial Swimming Team, where he trained under He Xinzhong.
After two years of professional training, Liu Xiang won the women's 50m backstroke final of the 2012 National Swimming Championships and National Games Selection Competition of the Guangdong Provincial Swimming Team with a time of 28.19 seconds.
In 2013, in the women's 50m freestyle final of the National Junior Swimming Championships, Liu Xiang won the championship with a time of 25.47 seconds.
The name Liu Xiang began to be truly well known in the Chinese sports world.
Four
Just when Liu Xiang was preparing to impact the faster record and achieve better results, Liu Xiang suffered the first blow of his career.
At the Shenyang National Games in September 2013, the confident Liu Xiang finally won only a fourth place, which made the arrogant Liu Xiang simply unable to accept it.
Relatives and friends around her, including coaches, comforted her and said that her talent is very good and she will have opportunities in the future.
But the young and vigorous Liu Xiang did not think so, she knew that she had swam very hard, but in the end she only got a fourth, and she began to doubt her level.
She felt that she had worked so hard to train, but in the end she only got such a result, and she did not even get on the podium, and she wondered if she had gone the wrong way in the first place.
Therefore, after the end of the National Games, the frustrated Liu Xiang proposed to his coach He Xinzhong to retire, and He Xinzhong, who was familiar with Liu Xiang, did not say anything, because he knew that Liu Xiang was gambling.
And, as an experienced coach, he understands that this is a process that any good athlete must go through, as long as he can get out of it.
Liu Xiang usually gives people the feeling that he is so strong, he will not easily accept defeat and will not give up, so Coach He Xinzhong believes that Liu Xiang will not give up so easily.
During that time, Liu Xiang did not go to training or school, so he locked himself in his room and would only come out when eating.
This can make her mother Wang Huiying anxious, she has advised Liu Xiang more than once, she really can't give up, she supports all of Liu Xiang's decisions, as long as she can change back to the original cheerful and lovely daughter.
After three months at home, Liu Xiang finally figured it out, and she told her mother that she was going back to the swimming team to continue training, which made Wang Huiying both happy and worried.
Happy that the daughter finally figured it out, worried that the daughter can withstand if she loses the game again, after all, there is no always winning general in competitive sports, and it is often more to lose and win less.
After Liu Xiang returned to the swimming world again, the first competition he participated in was the Qingdao National Championship and Incheon Asian Games Selection Competition, this time Liu Xiang won a fourth place and missed the Asian Games.
But this time Liu Xiang did not give up lightly, but trained harder, then the coach was not around, she was not lazy at all, and every time she was the last player to end training.
Five
This process is experienced by almost every athlete, because no athlete can win a championship in every competition.
Liu Xiang can quickly get out and continue to insist on training, and his efforts will not be in vain, and at the 2014 National Swimming Championships, Liu Xiang won the 50-meter backstroke championship.
In 2015, at the age of 19, Liu Xiang was awarded the title of "International Athlete" by the State General Administration of Sport.
At the National Swimming Championships and World Swimming Championships Trials held in Baoji, Shaanxi On April 6 of the same year, Liu Xiang won the women's 50-meter freestyle championship in the final with a time of 25.00 seconds, and successfully won the place to participate in the World Championships.
In the women's 50m backstroke final of the 16th Kazan World Aquatics Championships in 2015, Liu Xiang won the bronze medal with a time of 27.58 seconds.
Many people in this World Championship are famous for this, such as Ning Zetao, Fu Yuanhui, Liu Xiang and so on.
The reason why Liu Xiang is famous, on the one hand, is because of her achievements, on the other hand, because of her excellent appearance, netizens call her "swimming goddess", "the first beauty in the swimming world" and so on.
If many girls like Ning Zetao because of the Kazan World Championships, then many boys like Liu Xiang because of the Kazan World Championships.
Although Liu Xiang became famous at the Kazan World Championships, she still cared about the results at that time.
At the National Swimming Championships after the end of the World Championships, Liu Xiang first finished second in the 50m backstroke with a time of 28.12 seconds, and then finished second in the 50m freestyle with a time of 25.30 seconds.
This year, Liu Xiang experienced more things, first the Kazan World Championships became popular, but in order to prepare for the Olympic Games, she changed her main event from backstroke to freestyle (because the Olympic Games did not have backstroke events).
After a series of matches, Liu Xiang went to the hospital for examination and found that scoliosis reached 38 degrees 9.
Doctors advised Liu Xiang to stop training immediately, but Liu Xiang did not heed the doctor's advice because she was still preparing for the Rio Olympics.
Six
At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Liu Xiang ranked 18th in the women's 50m freestyle competition and missed the semifinals.
This result is indeed unacceptable, but Liu Xiang, who is already 20 years old, did not "make trouble" this time, but also comforted the coach and family that she did not train hard enough, and she should redouble her efforts to train.
Therefore, after the Rio Olympics, Liu Xiang trained harder, and in the women's 50m freestyle preliminary round of the 13th Tianjin National Games in 2017, Liu Xiang ranked first with a time of 24.32 seconds, breaking the national record of 23 years.
Later, in the semi-finals, the record was set again, with a time of 24.04 seconds, which can be won gold at the Rio Olympic Games, and finally Liu Xiang won the championship in 24.07 seconds in the final.
In 2018, Liu Xiang first won the 50m freestyle at the National Swimming Championships, and then won the women's 50m backstroke at the Jakarta Asian Games, breaking the world record in 26.98 seconds.
At the same time, at the Jakarta Asian Games, Liu Xiang also won the runner-up in the 50m freestyle, which proved her strength in the women's 50m freestyle and backstroke, which is definitely one of the best in the Chinese swimming world.
At the 2019 Gwangju World Championships, Liu Xiang did not receive any results, but during this World Championships, Liu Xiang went to wang shun, the big handsome brother of the Chinese swimming team, and there was a scandal.
Although the two have repeatedly denied it, the male handsome and female beauty, and both are CPs such as athletes, are the perfect match in the eyes of many netizens, so for a long time the two have been rumored to be in love, making the two dare not have any intimate action in front of the camera.
In the 50m freestyle final of the National Swimming Championships and Tokyo Olympic Trials in May 2021, Liu Xiang won the third place, behind Zhang Yufei and Wu Qingfeng, and according to the Olympic regulations, only two people could participate, and finally missed the Tokyo Olympic Games.
However, at the 14th Shaanxi National Games in September 2021, Liu Xiang narrowly defeated Zhang Yufei in the 50-meter freestyle to win the championship and break his Own Asian record.
But in an interview after winning the championship, Liu Xiang said such a sentence: "Guangdong athletics has TianGe, and Guangdong swimming has Xiang Sister."
Let many netizens think that Liu Xiang is somewhat "arrogant", which is like the sentence that Chen Meng won the table tennis women's singles championship at the Tokyo Olympic Games and said in an interview, "The time that belongs to me has arrived."
It is just an expression of the athlete's inner excitement after winning the championship, but it is over-understood by many people with hearts, so to become an excellent athlete, not only must have strength, talent, and hard work, but also have a heart that is not afraid of external speech.
Now Liu Xiang is only 25 years old, not too young as an athlete, but looking forward to Paris there are still opportunities, I wish Liu Xiang can realize his dream at the Paris Olympic Games!