zhishu.ycool.com

In baggy jeans, sneakers and a Nike windbreaker, Liu Xiang stood on the observation deck of the Empire State Building on Wednesday morning. Perhaps surprisingly, he did not have a sports psychologist at his side.

Liu Xiang, the defending Olympic gold medalist in the 110-meter hurdles, at the Empire State Building on Wednesday. 

Just 71 days before the Beijing Games, Liu may be carrying a greater mental weight than any Olympic athlete. He is the biggest sports star in the world’s most populous nation — a nation that expects Liu to deliver a crowning moment in the Games by successfully defending his gold medal in the 110-meter hurdles.

But on Wednesday, Liu played down the pressure, insisting that his status as China’s face of the Games does not affect him.

“I don’t see it as defending my championship,” Liu said through an interpreter at a news media event in advance of the Reebok Grand Prix on Saturday on Randalls Island. “I don’t feel a lot of pressure. The Olympics is just another race in my life.”

Just another race, but this time with most of China’s 1.3 billion people and millions more around the world watching intently as he navigates a precarious 10-barrier journey that lasts less than 13 seconds.

At the Athens Games in 2004, Liu matched the world record in winning a surprise gold — the first-ever medal for a Chinese man in a track event. Since then, the 6-foot-2, 24-year-old native of Shanghai has lowered the world mark, running 12.88 seconds at a Grand Prix race in 2006, and added world titles outdoors (2007) and indoors (earlier this year, in the 60-meter hurdles).

Now, Liu turns his attention to the defense of his Olympic title. If successful, he would be the first man to repeat as Olympic champion in the 110 hurdles since Roger Kingdom of the United States in Seoul, South Korea, in 1988.

Liu’s season began auspiciously this month with a dominant victory at a Grand Prix event in Osaka, Japan. Two weeks ago, 60,000 fans turned out to watch him run a solid 13.18 at a test event at the new Olympic Stadium in Beijing.

On Saturday, he will run at Icahn Stadium on Randalls Island. A week later, he will race at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Ore. Then he plans to return to Shanghai, where he will spend two months training.

It is a relatively spare racing schedule, but Liu said he preferred to prepare with an uninterrupted block of training under the tutelage of his coach, Sun Haiping, than to spend his summer on the European circuit — or succumbing to the distractions of his celebrity.

Distraction is something that the Houston Rockets star Yao Ming, Liu’s friend and fellow Shanghai native, has warned against. Yao and Liu communicate via text message and telephone.

“He just told me to treat it like everyday life,” Liu said of Yao’s advice for the Olympic year, adding that he expected Yao, who is already training following foot surgery, to be healthy enough to play at the Olympics.

Liu accepted Yao’s guidance, and that may be all he needs. As the Games near, and the spotlight intensifies, Liu has no plans to use that popular accessory among New Yorkers — a therapist.

“I’m just learning from everyday life,” he said. “I feel like I’m my best therapist.”


from NYTimes.com