Part Four – Liu Xiang
 
Process of injures

Process of injures
 
In February 2006, Liu Xiang suffered a serious injury for the first time when he accidentally took a bad step on the stairs after training, and sprained his left ankle.  Even though the bones had no problems, there was acute contusion of the soft tissues. 
 
In June 2006, before the New York Grand Prix Track and Field, Liu Xiang suddenly announced his withdrawal because of a recessive strain of his thigh muscle group.
 
In the next month or so, due to the impact of the injury, he was unable to restore his pre-injury level of training intensity, which greatly affected his preparation for the Olympic Games. 
 
In August 2008, after arriving at the Olympic Village, Liu Xiang had an NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance), and found there was inflammation in the heel of his right foot tendons.  On August 18, he was in group 6 of the 110m hurdles preliminaries.  After the gun sounded, Liu Xiang dashed forward for a few steps, and stopped limply.  He tore the number off his leg, and went back to the resting area amidst the uproar of the spectators. 
 
In October 2008, Liu Xiang went to Houston, Duke University, and Charlotte, North Carolina, in the United States to seek help.  When he returned from the U.S., he decided to undergo surgery. 
 
On December 6, 2009, Liu Xiang underwent surgery in Houston, and the surgeon was the famous American doctor Thomas Clanton.  Dr. Clanton removed three calcified substances and a spur from his heel. 
 
In August 2011, Liu Xiang suffered from back muscle cramps.
 
In 2012, a rejuvenated Liu Xiang achieved his personal best in the World Indoor Championships.  In June, at the Eugene IAAF Diamond League, Liu Xiang won the 110m hurdles with an exceptional speed of 12.87 seconds, matching the world record.  However, at the London IAAF Diamond League, Liu Xiang ran 13.27 seconds in the preliminaries, and pulled out before the final due to minor soreness of intercostal muscles. 
 
In August 2012, Liu Xiang suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon during preliminaries, and he hopped off the track, leaving the Olympics amidst a clamor of praise and questions.  

Injury Analysis
 

When the men’s 110 m hurdles final finished at the London Olympics, Liu Xiang, who fell on the ground in the preliminaries, was still lying on the bed, and was waiting to go into the operating room on August 9, local time. 
 
The head coach of Chinese Track and Field Team Feng Shuyong revealed that Liu Xiang received a preliminary examination at the Medical Center in the arena area, and had been diagnosed with the Achilles tendon rupture.  Liu was later taken to the hospital for an MRI, where the Achilles tendon rupture was indeed confirmed.  The medical specialists of the Chinese delegation immediately contacted local medical institutions in England, hoping they could find the best doctor to operate on him. 
 
Liu Xiang’s injury this time, again, attracted the attention of the Chinese people.  I cannot say whether there is a direct relationship between his London injury and previous injuries, but the problems with his Achilles tendon had existed since 2008. 
 
After the games, public opinion was mixed; some even suggested that Liu Xiang’s Achilles tendon had already ruptured before he ran.  But we should know that if a person’s Achilles tendon has ruptured, he is not able to walk properly.  Liu Xiang’s warm-ups were normal, which indicated that his right Achilles tendon was not broken before the run.  The injury occurred at the seventh step before he ran over the hurdle due to excessive force from a low center of gravity to a high center of gravity. 
 
Athletes want to get gold medals, but they also have to fight against their injuries, which is indeed a contradiction that is very hard to overcome.  If one wants to get the gold medal, he has to reach the best level in training, which means he must increase training intensity before the competition.  There is no way to tell when injuries occur, and the reason for their occurrence is the increased training intensity.  This is exactly what coach Sun Haiping admitted to the outside world.  Every time he and Liu Xiang went through high intensity training and competition, it was as if they were “walking on a tightrope,” which could break anytime.  The injury at the London Olympics was very serious, and many athletes would have chosen retirement if they had been in Liu’s shoes, because the Achilles tendon is a very difficult spot to rehabilitate. 
 
Many people have this question: Why didn’t Liu Xiang recover from his injury between the Beijing Olympics and the London Olympics?  Recently, American psychologist Gerald talked about Liu Xiang’s problems.  He believed that it was the enormous psychological pressure that had led Liu’s body to become extremely fragile; therefore, it was susceptible to injury. 
 
It has been reported that since Freud’s era, psychologists have been studying individual cases that are susceptible to injuries.  Athletes, who are more susceptible to injuries, most likely have fierce psychological struggles.  One survey even found an inner link between anxiety over competitions and the number of injuries in a single season for athletes who are susceptible to injury. 
 
This psychologist said that Liu Xiang’s pressure might come from two sources.  The first one is the contradiction that he had had since childhood.  His parents did not support him doing sports, but his coach believed that he would go places.  This ambivalence might have been long buried within his heart.  The second one is the pressure from the whole country.  Liu Xiang was already one of the most outstanding Chinese young athletes, yet unlike other people in his age, who might be busy dating girls, he devoted everything he had to his training, so that he could better himself in competitions.
 
“I love hurdles!  I will be back because as long as the hurdles are there, I will jump over them.” These are the words Liu Xiang left for those people who love him.  We also look forward to seeing that healthy, bright, and vibrant face appear in our vision at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics in near future. 
 
Thank you for reading the four parts of “Revealing the Secret of Injuries.”  There will be more exciting and real stories coming in the future.