Liu Xiang , born on July 13, 1983 in Shanghai, China, is a Chinese hurdling athlete.
In 2002, Liu launched his career in fine style by winning the first IAAF (国际业余田径联合会) Grand Prix in Lausanne with a world youth and Asian record time of 13.12 seconds in the 110 metres hurdles.
He has since made the finals at the IAAF World Championships in Athletics and IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics. Two of the three cases has seen American hurdling great Allen Johnson take the major prize, but in the last in May at Osaka, Liu managed to beat Johnson with an Asian-record time of 13.06 seconds.
Still young, Liu has improved steadily, and won a gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in the 110 meters hurdles event. In the final, he equaled the world record of 12.91 seconds held since 1993 by Colin Jackson of Wales. This is the first time an athlete of non-African descent (后裔) has dipped under 13 seconds for the 110 meter hurdles.
