Sports life Unit 2 He was invited to competitions around the world. Reading and vocabulary Look at the picture and the title of the passage in Activity 2. Say what you know about Liu Xiang and how he became a sports hero. Read the passage and choose the sentence which best expresses the main idea. Liu Xiang was helped by his sports school to win a gold medal. Liu Xiang will be a star and not a sports hero. Liu Xiang has trained for many years and won many gold medals. Liu Xiang — trained to be the best in the world! For Liu Xiang, life as a sports hero began in 2004. First, he was invited to competitions around the world. Then, he was chosen for the Chinese team at the Athens Olympic Games and won a gold medal. Liu Xiang was not a successful sportsman at first. He was born in Shanghai on 13th July 1983, and started training when he was very young. In Grade 4, he went to the Sports School of Putuo District of Shanghai. Liu was encouraged at first to train for the high jump. In 1998, Liu Xiang's ability in hurdling was noticed by Sun Haiping, who later became his coach. In 2001, a special programme was set up to help young sportsmen and sportswomen. Liu Xiang was among them. His races were recorded, and he was compared with the world's best sports stars. Sun Haiping used the information to change his training methods for Liu Xiang. In May 2001, Liu Xiang won his first international 110m hurdles race in Japan. In 2004, he won the first Olympic gold medal for China in the 110m hurdles race, and at the same time broke the Olympic Games record. It was also the first time an Olympic gold medal for hurdling was hung round the neck of a sportsperson from an Asian country. Liu Xiang trained very hard. In fact, he trained so hard that he hurt his foot. From 2008 on, he suffered a lot from his foot problem, but he did not give up. Though he missed some competitions, he still returned to first place in the world 110m hurdles race in 2012. It is a pity that his foot problem stopped him from completing the 2012 London Olympic Games. But he is still a symbol of courage and success, and we continue to take great pride in him.