* He became the first Chinese to win an athletics gold medal when he won the 110 metres hurdles at Athens on 2004, equalling Colin Jackson’s world record of 12.91sec.

* Liu earned a reported 160 million yuan (about £12.5 million) last year. China’s first Olympic gold medal-winner, Xu Haifeng, he recived a bonus of 9,000 yuan and had his monthly salary increased from 50.5 yuan to 98 yuan after winning shooting gold in Los Angeles in 1984.

* Liu has taken part in three Olympic torch relays. He was a torch bearer during the Beijing leg of the 2004 Athens Games relay, ran in the 2006 Winter Olympics relay in Florence, Italy and brought the torch to Tiananmen in March this year.

* He won the world title in Osaka, Japan, last year, having been edged out by Ladji Doucore, of France, by 0.01sec in the world championship final in Helsinki in 2005.

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Olympic heroes will discover if the last 17 days has been a life-changing experience or a glorious but brief interlude

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BACKGROUND

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Multimedia

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* He donated 2.5 million yuan to the Sichuan earthquake relief fund this year.

* Liu once sang live in a concert after an athletics meeting in Shanghai and filmed a music video with South Korean pop star Se7en in Shanghai Stadium.

* Sun Haiping, his coach, described his technique as “terrible” when he first coached him.

* Liu counts Coca-Cola, Nutralite, Cadillac and Nike among his personal sponsors.

* In one television commercial, Liu chases a kangaroo across the Australian outback.

* China Insurance volunteered to donate a policy worth $13,300,000 to protect Liu’s legs in the lead up to the 2008 Games. Liu replied that they were priceless.