Does anyone UNDERSTAND the enormous amount of pain and suffering that olympic hero liu xiang suffers?

Question

the fact that people play down his injury, and even bear to think that he was faking is so discouraging to all athletes. No one should deface an athlete in that way. What has he done personally to offend so much that people can't even offer sympathy when his hurt!

Answer 1

I thought he was great in Mortal Kombat!

Answer 2

What is the point to overstrain himself and face a danger of worsening his state even though this golden opportunity comes only onces every 4 years? Do we want him to perform only in 2008 Olympic despite his injury or more exciting actions to come in the future when he is in better form? I would choose the latter.

Answer 3

Truthfully, some people were offended NOT because he couldn't compete, but because they paid thousands of dollars in the "back door" to see him run, and the price for one ticket went as high as $300,000, and not seeing him run is just a kick in the front.  I know this because my uncle went back to China and paid $50,000 to see him run.

Answer 4

I agree, it's so easy to just watch these people on television and judge as though they're all just acting out a character. People forget that these are real hardworking people that we're watching and discussing.

Edit: I just love how some people started blaming this on Chinese people... It's like the Chinese gets blamed for anything that happens these days. For your information, I was watching the Chinese news a few minutes ago and they were interviewing these people who all wish Liu Xiang to be well and they all still see him as their hero.

Answer 5

Yeah I understand the pain. Someone else mentioned an achilles injury being very painful for a hurdler. The fact is that with achilles, if you strain it really badly or snap it from the bone you will never walk again. (At least that's what they used to say, the medical world right now could probably reattach one) .

It's a pretty serious injury in sport, above muscle damage because it's a stand alone tendon. I probably would have tried to start as well, just because it's brave not to give up, but it was smart of him to pull up after trying.

Answer 6

Exactly! That injury ended his Olympic dreams and he was clearly distraught at it. Do you think an athlete would fake an injury after 4 years of hard preparation and training?!

People need to be less judgmental and greedy, thinking about me me me all the d**n time.

Answer 7

I agree competely.

Answer 8

Yes.  I feel the pain very much.  I was looking forward to this moment for the last four years, and was looking forward to him competing with the Cuban dude for gold in the finals.  This was absolutely unthinkable.

There's absolutely no way he was faking it, the injury itself or the severity of it.  He injured his right hamstring just a couple of months ago, and it was quite clear he was in pain.  After he warmed up in the practice room before he left, he kicked the wall in frustration three times because he knew there was a good chance he was going to let his entire country down.  His coach had a very emotional interview afterwards, bursting into tears.  Those are not the actions of an athlete who is faking an injury after being cheered on by thousands of his fans inside the stadium, and billions of them throughout the country.  He wanted to make the statement every since Athens four years ago that Asians had the ability to race with others as long as they put their hearts into it.

Liu Xiang has a great personality, and shows by example that education comes first by being enrolled in a university.  He also donated 2.5 million RMB to the victims of the Sichuan earthquake.  His fans in China respond by hailing him as the country's most important athlete, and were very supportive of him after disaster struck yesterday.  The seats to the 110m hurdles events will now be very empty.

As this is an American-based website, a lot of Americans will be posting ignorant posts, which is not their fault at all since their media obviously doesn't focus on Liu Xiang nearly as much as the Chinese media does.  Of course, that still gives them no excuse to treat him poorly if they do so.  But do understand the situation a lot of American fans are in.  They do not understand what Liu Xiang has been through nearly as much as Chinese fans such as you (if you are a Chinese fan) and I do.

But Chinese fans have loved him, and still do, and hope the best for his future.  Ã¥ÂˆÂ˜Ã§Â¿Â”, 加油!

EDIT:  I forgot to mention, his coach and trainers stated that this is a problem that has lasted for 5-6 years now.  It seems like it's a very long-lasting injury, and could seriously affect his career.  I don't blame his coach seeing how emotional he was during his interview, given how long-lasting this injury is, and given that Liu Xiang said himself he didn't feel this bad until the actual warm-up before the race.

Answer 9

I completely agree. Honestly, I think he should thank the other runner with the false start, it was a sign that he should have dropped out of the race.

You could tell the injury was really causing him pain and if I were one of his fans, I'd be proud that he was at least going to try the first time. I think he made the right decision.

Who knows what would have happened to him had he competed.

Answer 10

I absolutely hate how people are taking this incident. Liu Xiang is an amazing athlete who broke stereotypes about Asians running and you cannot blame him for being injured. An injury is an injury, and why would someone with ANY sense want to drop out of the Olympics? Liu Xiang is a humble, crazy(good) athlete and this was devastating to him. I am not disappointed in any way that he did not run. I am only sad at how people are reacting to this, thinking he is faking it. That is what really disappoints me. How can someone think that?

Liu Xiang is someone I respect so much, for having the guts to drop out, knowing he would disappoint fans. He's been under so much pressure for the past 4 years, ever since he set such high bars for himself by winning in Athens.

All I want to see now is for Liu Xiang to heal. I wanna see him win a few races and prove that even though he missed the Beijing Olympics that he's still one of the best hurdlers out there. GO 刘翔!

and everybody else who doesn't feel this way, please sympathize. It's so hard on him right now.

Answer 11

i'm half chinese, and i was crying when i saw that he left the race. i then watched all of his news on tv. he has an achilles injury and it could seriously mess up his career. theres even a possible he wont be able to run in the future. i was so sad, because he practiced and trained for that moment for almost a decade. when he left the Bird's Nest, he said that the only thing that had defeated him was himself. he also said that he really tried everything he could to get himself up there, and that if a false start hadn't been called, he would have finished the race, even if he came in last place.

i saw a brief interview that he did last night. he wasn't his old self, laughing and making silly faces for the camera. he looked like a ghost, and he had a serious limp. i felt really really bad for him. he was going through a lot of pain. i don't think that its fair for him, because just a week before his race he was able to break his own world record. and now, all of his advertisements that had been on tv (pepsi, visa, cadillac, olympics, etc) being replaced with others. and since i'm in shanghai right now, i've noticed that the life-sized figure of him in Nike has been removed. thats unfair because he was INJURED. its not like he was on steriods or anything. he was carrying the weight of a nation on his shoulders this whole time. china EXPECTED him to win.

and seeing him now, i want to cry because i really miss that goofy face of his smiling at the cameras.  

Answer 12

The physical? yeah maybe...the psychological?...no way man. There's a world of hurt inside there? Unlucky. Was he in lane 4? Hang on this is an answer.

Answer 13

Yes and Liu Xiang is not just revered as a hero in China but revered in Asian countries that broke the barriers of "Asians can run" stereotypes. Hope he recover soon as be ready in 2012 London.

I blame his coach. Despicable.

{Chigon} What the h**l are you talking about? He has no doping history. @ss-hole

Answer 14

People are offended? If the man is injured, he shouldn't have to strain himself.

Answer 15

Say Whats comment cracks me up. "He shouldn't have to strain himself" WTF?? It's obvious you've never competed in track.

Neat, I can assure you that he would not have snapped his achiles tendon and subsequently spent the rest of his life being unable to walk.

I'm really surprised by all of the "Oh, he was hurt...he couldn't compete" responses. Xiang is hardly the only athlete competing at the Olympics with an injury; even a severe one. Challenges such as the one that Xiang faced are what truly define greatness. Strong athletes will rise to the challenge, weak athletes will crumble and sadly that's just what Xiang did. Yes, he was injured, but under these circumstances - the Olympic Games in China - he needed to rise to the challenge before him and at least put out his best effort. All Xiang had to do to make his country proud, was to do his best and if he did that he would have been a winner - even if he finished dead last. But again, he was weak, he crumbled and not only did he not finish the race, he didn't even start. Check out this link to see athletes who "rose to the challenge."

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/si_blog...

Answer 16

yes. i once has an akiles (sry i have no idea how to spell that) and it was so painful to run. i cant even imaghine ahving to go off the starting blocks!

Answer 17

This is all because of the Chinese, they don't understand sport and injuries. Liu Xiang had a hamstring injury before the games so he was unfit anyway, then he injured his achilles which is one of the worst injuries a hurdler can have as they need this for power at the start and when they jump. I felt sorry for him, but that's life, everybody gets injuries.

Answer 18

I'm chinese, and I felt really sad when i saw Liu xiang walk off the track. It's not his fault, you could see how he even had troubles walking to the track AND how would you expect him to compete with the others.WHY would he fake when he praticted 4 years for just the 2008 BEJING olympics? I was hoping for him to win this race" but what only matters is that he tried. His coach even stated that he has been hampered by a tendon injury for six or seven years. I understand how emotional his coach was. But it is not the end of the day, there's more olympics for him to achieve his goal. So 劉翔,加油! 加油!

Answer 19

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