Xiang LIU

New direction

Liu Xiang started out as child high jumper. But when a bone test showed he  would never be tall enough to dominate the event, his sports school asked him to give up. In 1998, Liu began training as a hurdler.

Just three years later, Liu broke Renaldo Nehemiah’s 24-year-old world junior record for the 100 m hurdles. In 2003 he followed up with a bronze medal at the World Championships of Athletics. By now he was a contender for a medal at the 2004 Olympics, although no one expected him to win the gold.