For the second Olympics in a row, Chinese Olympian Liu Xiang withdrew due to injury before he could compete in the 110 hurdles. He crashed over the first hurdle and started limping toward the stadium tunnel. Suddenly, he turned around, hopped to the 10th hurdle to give it a kiss, then made his way on one foot to the finish line.
The other hurdlers grabbed him there and the crowd gave him a rousing ovation--the kind of ovation given for a hero.
Liu, who won the gold medal in the 2004 Olympics at Athens, also suffered from injuries at the previous Olympics in China. Four years ago in Beijing, Liu injured his right foot and hamstring before the Olympics. He tried to make a go of it, knowing that 1 billion people were counting on him, but after two strides during his preliminary heat, he left the field.
As a psychoanalyst, I would speculate at this point that Liu may be injury prone. This sometimes happens to athletes--indeed it can happen to anybody--when they are under a lot of pressure and are unable to handle it. Pressure affects different people in different ways. Some rise to the occasion, others fall in different ways. One of the ways an athlete can fall under pressure is to develop an injury. It is not that he does this on purpose. It is an unconscious defense mechanism. The injury gives him an alibi and he can back off from the pressure with grace. In Liu's case, he even backed off looking like a hero.
Psychoanalysts have studied injury-prone individuals since the days of Freud. The injury-prone athlete is a person who has inner conflicts with regard to competing and these conflicts arouse high levels of stress. One study of injury-prone athletes found a link between the amount of apprehensiveness about competing and the number of joint injuries per season.
Liu shot to fame at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. Not much was expected of him at this event, and therefore he probably didn't feel much pressure. He ended up taking the Olympic final by several meters and equaling a world record of 12.91 seconds. He became the sixth man to run under 13 seconds in the Olympics and was China's first male Olympic gold medalist in track and field. Afterward, he said that his gold medal "changes the opinion that Asian countries don't get good results in sprint races. I want to prove to all the world that Asians can run very fast."
As a result of his quick success, he became a national icon and soon signed commercial-endorsement deals with Nike, Coca-Cola and Cadillac. He was one of the most popular athletes in China, and the world seemed to be his for the taking. But along with adulation came expectations.
Liu suffered from injuries from the beginning of his career. He reportedly had tendon problems for several years before his 2004 Olympic victory. Then in May 2008, he injured his hamstring, throwing doubt on whether he would be able to compete in the Beijing Summer Olympics that August. A whole nation shuddered with fear, and he was inundated with mail from well-wishers. When he expressed the opinion that he would be able to compete in the Olympics, the nation seemed to sigh with relief. Everyone wanted him to triumph on his home soil.
On the day of his first heat, a crowd of 90,000 came to cheer for its hero, anticipating this triumph. But it was not to be. He took a few strides, then withdrew from the race, walking forlornly into the stadium tunnel. He then went through 13 months of rehabilitation.
Shortly before the 2012 Olympics, at 29, Liu began having physical problems again. His coach, Sun Haiping, said Liu was complaining of a side stitch, which forced him out of the London Diamond League. He also complained of chest pains when breathing. Still, later he began to worry about the foot he had injured earlier in his career.
His coach said, "The side stitch has gone. But in Germany, Liu felt pain in the foot where his old injury was. The doctor there said it was not serious. But I don't think so. I want to examine it further in London because I still worry about it."
It appears that the doctors were saying his foot injury had no organic basis, and difficulty breathing is often linked with stress.
Family stress might be another contributor to his inner conflicts. Liu was born in 1983 in Shanghai. His father was a truck driver and his mother worked in a factory. When Liu was 12, he was sent away to a school that specialized in sports. He first tried high jump, then changed to hurdles. His parents were against an athletic career and wanted him to return home, but his high school coach convinced them to let him stay. The conflict with his family about pursuing sports may have lodged somewhere in his body.
Not only did he have the family conflict, but also the pressure of a nation yearning for him to be its Asian track and field hero. The pressure came from both outside and from within. Although he has become one of China's most eligible bachelors, he never dates, but drives himself every day to excel in his sport. "There is no girlfriend. No time," he has said.
"Thanks for everyone who always supports me. I will come back as soon as possible and show you a fantastic Air Liu. That is the greeting on his website. He wants badly to deliver to his fans. But can he deliver?
Gerald Schoenewolf, Ph.D., is a licensed psychoanalyst, professor of psychology and author of 20 books. He is also an avid sports fan.
