MONTE CARLO, Monaco -- Liu Xiang can’t remember the last time he competed pain-free.
Well before his dramatic withdrawal from last summer’s Olympic Games in Beijing, the 25-year-old reigning Olympic champion was dogged by severe pain in his right heel, he said, a serious ache he kept only to himself and those closest to him. But it all finally caught up to him moments after the gun sounded in the opening round of the 110 meter hurdles.
“I really can’t remember clearly the last time I didn’t feel any pain,” said Xiang, who prior to the Beijing Games was the host nation’s most famous hope for gold. “I always felt pain when wearing spikes.” It was even with him, he said, when he set the former world record of 12.88 seconds in Lausanne in 2006.
The problem stemmed from a series of three calcifications in his right Achilles tendon, the largest one which grew from two millimeters in diameter in 2005 to 12 earlier this year.
Following consultation with numerous Chinese and international specialists, Xiang will finally undergo surgery to remove the deposits next month at the Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston.
Although the problem lingered for years, Xiang said he had no regrets about not repairing the problem earlier.
“I competed early in the season, at the Olympic test event and felt quite good,” Xiang said. “I never thought I couldn’t compete in the Olympic Games. When I entered the stadium, I didn’t think that I couldn’t compete. I just tried to do my best. I wasn’t pretending anything. I was doing something I wanted to do.”
Xiang said it’s unclear whether he’ll be able to compete in 2009 to defend his title at the 2009 world championships in Berlin, where he would face Dayron Robles, the Cuban who succeeded Xiang as both Olympic champion and world record holder. Robles lowered the mark by a scant 0.01 seconds to 12.87 at the Golden Spike Grand Prix in Ostrava, Czech Republic, in June.
Xiang said he’ll need at least six months of recovery and rehab before he can even consider putting on a pair of spikes. For now, he simply wants to be patient.
“I don’t care so much about next season, whether I compete or not. I’m more concerned about my recovery.”
Despite his Olympic poster boy status in the Beijing Games build-up, Xiang insisted that the pressure on his shoulders was no different from that that other Chinese athletes faced.
“Every Chinese athlete had pressure. I could feel the pressure four years ago. All the people expected more than I could do. People wanted me to win. But for athletes, anything could happen. It’s normal and fair to accept winning and losing.”
Letting the injury force him out of the Games never crossed his mind. “For several months I felt the severe pain. But I thought that I could hurdle and compete. There’s nothing greater for an athlete to compete at home at an Olympic Games.”
Soon after his withdrawal, the uncontrollable tears of Xiang’s coach Sun Haiping were broadcast to the world. Sun said that no other moment in his life had ever matched the disappointment of that afternoon.
“There was no other moment when I shed so many tears. We worked so hard for this moment. It was terribly difficult to accept this at the Olympic Games. And there was nothing we could do about it.”
But unlike his coach, Xiang shed no tears. It was just a moment, he said, that all athletes must accept and face.
“I didn’t have to cry. It was destiny perhaps, and something that could actually help me in life. Sometimes you have to face that unhappiness. It gave me an opportunity to deeply consider my future.”
“You have to be ready for everything. In life you have to face everything you have to face.”
Xiang said he’s confident that he’ll be ready to bounce back from that Beijing disappointment as soon as his heel mends.
“I’m confident. I have to be.”
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