On July 13, 21 years ago, a little life was born in the northwest corner of Shanghai. In order to give this little guy a name, his uncle and aunt came over. "His father's surname is Liu, and your surname is Ji, let's call him Liu Ji." My aunt said to Ji Fenhua. "Liu Ji, Liu Ji..." Ji Fenhua read it twice, feeling that if she added "生", she would be a "repealer". "No, no, let's use the word auspicious in 'auspicious'." My uncle, who was born as a university professor, decided on the "yin" for the child, but in the end it was Liu Xuegen who decided on the "shape" - Liu Xiang, originally named "Xiang" The words just hope that the children can spread their wings and fly high one day.

On August 27, 21 years later, Liu Xiang really flew. On the blue Aegean Sea in Athens, under the gaze of the Chinese people, he stood on the starting line of the 110-meter hurdles final...

In an alley in Shanghai...

Putuo District, in Shanghai is called "Xia Zhijiao". Because it is an industrial area, the residents are usually dual-career. Liu Xiang comes from such an ordinary "Shanghai family."

In the night, a group of shirtless men were enjoying the cool air. In Beijing, it's called "Bang Ye", while in Shanghai, it's called "Shitless". Liu Xuegen, a 52-year-old Shanghai waterworks driver, "mingled" among such a group of men.

The glasses on the bridge of his nose tell you that he has been "beaten" at a glance. He only got married and had children in his 30s. Liu Xuegen has experienced hard times. He is not willing to spend money, even when Liu Xiang went to Athens to "fly" , he also sent the broken mobile phone for repair, causing his son to be unable to find his father for several days.

Ji Fenhua, an ordinary woman with a name like the old Shanghai protagonist in Wang Anyi's novel, is a middle-aged woman who is "laid off" at home and lives around "son, table and vegetable basket". "We Xiangxiang..." Every time Ji Fenhua talks about her son, she will start with these four words. Liu Xiang is a piece of flesh that fell from her body.

The alleys in Shanghai always have a special flavor. At the intersection of Wuning Road and Zhenbei Road, there is a community called "Haitangyuan". Construction is still going on at the entrance of the community. In the middle of the night, you can't even get a car...

Liu Xiang's family I live in "Haitang Court". The house number is No. 46, Lane 1902, Zhenbei Road. The house was allocated by Liu Xuegen's work unit. The old public houses are next to each other, and the gray walls are mottled.

It is impossible to hide secrets in such an alley. The parents in the east are the parents and the families in the west are the parents. It is spread by word of mouth among the people. "It's hard to meet Liu Xiang now. We watched him grow up, and we thought he was a sensible and promising child. Old Liu is really lucky." In Shanghai, close neighbors can be better than distant relatives. "Old Liu, your wife is looking at your son's photo on the road." Ten minutes later, Ji Fenhua and a group of sisters appeared in front of Liu Xuegen, "I saw Xiangxiang in our house, just over the overpass. On the billboard."

In 2002, after Liu Xiang won the gold medal at the Busan Asian Games, his old neighbors organized two tables of drinks in the neighborhood committee to celebrate his victory. Each house serves a dish, and those who know how to be an electrician turn on two small lights at the door. Twenty or thirty people drink old wine, eat side dishes, and talk about Liu Xiang. That scene is still unforgettable for Liu Xuegen and Ji Fenhua.

In a room with two bedrooms and one living room, the living room is small and can only accommodate a few people. The color TV, refrigerator, sofa... everything is furnished by ordinary people.

Liu Xiang's room is on the left hand side of the living room. The pink sheets, at a glance, are the three "World Athletics Golden League" trophies on the table. Beside the bed, there was a dressing mirror. It was a very quaint one, which was somewhat out of tune with the tone of the entire room. The mirror can only reflect half of the person's figure, because it has Liu Xiang's photo on it and the medals he won in various competitions.

Ji Fenhua dug out several photo albums from the bottom of the box. The bright red photo album is covered with a light layer of gray, and the photos inside are already a little yellowed. A chubby boy wearing a small melon skin hat is grinning...

Actually, Ji Fenhua is I don’t agree with my son practicing sports because I feel sorry for him. "Xiangxiang's grades have always been among the top three in the class. I think there will be no problem in getting admitted to a prestigious university in the future." As a traditional Shanghainese woman, her greatest happiness is to live a peaceful life with her family.

When he was 12 years old, Liu Xiang was still a thin "kid" and was "discovered" by the enlightenment coach Gu Baogang purely by chance. "He is only half a head taller than other kids of the same age, and his physique is too thin. For a while, I couldn't tell whether he was a track and field material. After two years of observation, I found that although he is thin, he is very flexible. , He was fast on his feet," Gu Baogang recalled.

At first, Liu Xiang practiced high jump. However, a turning point of fate soon appeared. In the 1996 Shanghai Youth Track and Field Competition, Liu Xiang easily won the 100-meter championship with "fast speed and good rhythm". This made a person in the stands shine. He was Sun Haiping.

Family love and famous teachers

Whether Sun Haiping made Liu Xiang a success, or Liu Xiang made Sun Haiping a success, all of this is no longer important now. What's important is that it was with Sun Haiping's persistence that Liu Xiang became what he is today.

Hurdle, whether at that time or now, was a very cold project, and it was also a very technical project.

The difficult and high-intensity training often made Liu Xiang vomit. When he lay in bed at night, the wound on the inside of his knee that was broken by the railing would always hurt. An accidental sprain during a game made Ji Fenhua determined to let her son become a "normal person". Liu Xiang left the training base with his schoolbag on his back.

"It was raining heavily that day, so I took Xiangxiang to the Huashan Hospital contacted by Sun Haiping to see his knee injury. As soon as I got off the bus, I saw Coach Sun picking us up at the station with an umbrella. He was also busy helping us go through the re-examination procedures..." Looking back now, Liu Xuegen still looked grateful. In this way, Sun Haiping used his sincerity to bring back a rising star.

Liu Xiang calls Sun Haiping "master". In his heart, the master is half of his father, because Sun Haiping not only uses the "high-efficiency comprehensive training" method and the "multi-factor comprehensive training" model to cultivate a World champion, and more importantly, he taught Liu Xiang how to be a human being.

Liu Xiang has grown up and is tall. Ji Fenhua especially loves going to the streets with her son. She likes to hear people praising Liu Xiang for being tall and handsome, and then saying, "She looks like your mother." In the past, people said that this was Ji Fenhua's son Liu Xiang. ; Now, people say that this is Liu Xiang’s mother Jifenhua.

In Shanghai, children of both working parents are usually raised by the older generation, and Liu Xiang is no exception. "He was raised by his grandparents. The situation in our family was not very good at that time. I had to work late every day. His mother also worked in a store and often left early and came home late." He grew up in his grandparents' home. Liu Xiang has a particularly deep affection for the elderly. In 2001, her grandmother, who was suffering from pancreatic cancer, passed away. Liu Xiang was participating in the 110-meter hurdles competition in the Ninth National Games, and her grandmother was not able to see her grandson for the last time. Liu Xiang cried, and Liu Xuegen said that this was the first time he had seen his son cry so sadly.

The unique fur vest was bought for my father at the Brussels Grand Prix; the Louis Vuitton leather bag was brought back to my mother from the World Championships in Paris; and the big bag of cosmetics, It was a gift given to my mother after the Japan Tour... "They are usually very frugal and reluctant to spend money." Liu Xiang is very filial. "I hope my mother can be younger and more beautiful."

In China , the income of track and field athletes is not high, even if they are as "smart" as Liu Xiang, "money is not the only thing." This is Liu Xiang's favorite saying. The success of Athens made Liu Xiang rich overnight. "I don't know what the specific number is. For me, as long as the money is enough, it will be fine." "Flying" is to prove that for money, Liu Xiang My only wish is to buy a more spacious house for my parents.

On the training ground, among a bunch of people wearing the same sportswear, Liu Xiang can be recognized at a glance because he walks the most "drag". Liu Xiang is often lazy in training. In Liu Xuegen's words, "If he trains hard, something is wrong." Even during the preparation period, Liu Xiang's training volume was reduced from 4 or 5 hours a day to 2 or 3 hours. He would still secretly lose one lap when running five laps.

In the event of hurdles, you need a little talent, and talent includes two types, one is physical condition, and the other is understanding. Liu Xiang relies on understanding and Sun Haiping's special guidance. method. Every week, Sun Haiping only arranges 18 hours of training for Liu Xiang, an average of three hours a day, and it will be reduced during the preparation period. It is this "lazy" training method that makes Liu Xiang full of energy every time he takes the field. "I am very relaxed during training. After training, I just play for a while or chat with my teammates." Because Liu Xiang is not a "one-bone" athlete, and "one-bone" is too easy to break, especially under such great pressure. Down. Liu Xiang didn't break, he withstood.

Besides running, Liu Xiang loves singing and playing with his beloved MP3 players. With the song "Why Do You Love Others Behind My Back", Liu Xiang also won the first prize in the Shanghai Track and Field Team's Karaoke Competition. Like young people of this age, he also suffers from acne. He would go to the hospital, get a lot of medicine, and apply it in front of the mirror every day, hoping to become more handsome and more popular with girls.

He would point to his golden boots and say: "I don't have to buy them myself, they will customize them for me." Then, he touched his "toilet" head and said with a smile: "I don't think so. What's wrong with this hairstyle? I like student hair."

He "jumped" onto the podium

When Liu Xiang stood on the 110-meter hurdles championship podium at the Athens Olympics. , the action he used was "jump" - a big character, a bit arrogant, jumped up, and "trampled" all the black-skinned and white-skinned people under his feet.

Being close to two positions in the lead is a kind of conquest, a complete conquest that makes all opponents convinced of their defeat. 12 seconds 91, which tied the world record and made Johnson, who had stumbled in the preliminaries, feel ashamed - even if he made it to the final, he might not be able to outrun Liu Xiang.

Liu Xiang, a yellow-skinned Asian from Shanghai, China, broke the century-old pattern of world sprinting.

"Yes, today I am the world champion. I want everyone to see that I, a Chinese with yellow skin, can also fly."

"The only one My biggest regret is that I couldn't defeat Johnson in the final. Next time, I will defeat him personally.

”

“By the 2008 Olympics, I will break the world record again. ”

“The cooperation between me and the coach is already super perfect, a super partnership. "

Few athletes would say such words. Even if they win the Olympic championship and break the world record, they will only say something like "Thank you coach, thank you parents" and then follow up with "Thank you, coach, thank you parents." "I'm so excited that I don't know what to say." Yes, many people say that Liu Xiang is crazy.

But since he is young, why not be crazy?

110 The most important thing in the Milan duel is to believe in yourself. Don't follow other people's pace, which will disrupt your own rhythm. Liu Xiang, a confident 21-year-old Shanghai boy, uses his own legs. Prove to the world that anything is possible.

Reference material: Buy his book and read "I am Liu Xiang"