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Champion Hummed Her Way to Olympic Gold

From her first movement to the last -- a smooth and virtually perfect performance climaxed by a somersault and firm, steady landing from the balance beam -- China's 21-year-old Liu Xuan showed Sydney 2000 and TV viewers around the world just what an Olympic gymnastics gold medallist is made of. Her other "prize" was the satisfaction of being the first Chinese woman gymnast to compete in two Games.

"I was extremely nervous before the final," she admitted to Beijing This Month on the chilly morning the city received its first heavy snowfall of the 21st century. "I even hummed a tune and practiced repeatedly until a kind of numbness came over me, calming me down. I had never been that nervous before, but when I landed firmly on the floor, I knew that I had the gold. I had it at last!"

Born in Changsha in central China's Hunan Province, Liu began attending regular gymnastic courses at the age of five, though it had not been her dream to do so. "My biggest wish was to be an actress," she grinned. But her destiny was to be different, an early start in gymnastic training that proved the perfect grounding for her later appearance on the Olympic medals' podium. Since her childhood, her parents had laid out the journey that would carry her to the top.

"Mom once had her elbow broken when taking me to the training center on a bike," recalled Liu. "Only then did my dad tell me that she had also once been a gymnast. She had not told me because, I guess, she was reluctant to send me there in the fist place. But she did so. It seems a paradox, but I understand her. Being a champion had been part of her dream too."

Along with other Chinese athletes who achieved stardom, tiny (1.53 meters) Liu devoted her childhood and most of her adolescence to sports. She said: "I was brought up by my grandmother, and indulged only in gymnastics training exercises, so I didn't have the experience of being with other children. What I regret most in my life is that I never attended kindergarten. I was a good girl, and always followed my parents' advice -- indeed, a girl with strong self-discipline."

Liu joined her province's team when eight, and the national team at 13. "I felt so proud of the national selection, which is a great honor. A sense of obligation and commitment fell upon me at that moment."

The road of an Olympic champion is by definition tough because of the self-sacrifice it demands. It also brings many hardships, including prolonged training and competitions. Despite painstaking effort, Liu did not perform well at the 1996 Atlanta Games. Then aged just 17, she found it hard to face up to competition so fierce that, in an abstract sense, it bordered on the cruel. The only yardstick, however, is the judges' marks for all the world to see -- the final evaluation, and sum total, of years of sacrifice and unwavering dedication.

Said Liu, recalling those 1996 Games: "I was downhearted. I remember that I wore a black and dark-blue jacket most of the time. I went home that year [from the US]. Mom was annoyed to see me wearing such dark, depressing colors, and she ordered me to change them. I will never forget that time, when I suffered as much as I learned. But it helped me to grow as a person.

"I asked my parents for advice, and they gave me comfort as well as getting me to see all my years of training as an ongoing project nearing completion. They said that if I thought quitting was what I had to do, they would not object but respect my decision. They always had their own ways of helping me out of a dilemma, allowing me to reach decisions when I had felt at a loss."

The end result for Liu was the rebirth of her passion for, and devotion to, gymnastics -- the feeling that she simply had to go on. Her new emotional impetus fitted well with the temperament of a young lady ever ready to learn, endure, struggle and to immediately stand up after a fall.

"There were people who asked me why I insisted on continuing training after the setback in Atlanta. I sometimes experienced painful struggles on whether to give up, especially when I found it hard to put up with illness and pressure. I often wanted to escape, to stop everything. These things haunted me all the time, but whenever I returned to the gymnasium I had the familiar feeling of being 'home', a place that gave me serenity. Memories of that feeling will never leave me because I cherish it so much."

Came 2000 in Sydney, when Liu Xuan was the oldest member of China's teenager-dominated national gymnastic squad. People worldwide were as much delighted by her constant smile as skilful performances.

"I formed the habit of smiling during my years of training," she disclosed, "because gymnastics, as a kind of art, needs passion as well as commitment. My sweetest and happiest smiles were saved for when I landed firmly after my performance. That moment told me I had performed the best in the finals ...that I had not let my family down, my coaches down, or even myself down."

Her family's joy and excitement were indescribable, far outdoing the delight of China as a whole. "My parents had planned to fly to Sydney to watch my performance, but the trip was postponed because of delayed visas," said Liu. "So were glued to the TV screen in a small hotel in Beijing, with Mom busy recording the other competitors' marks and dad clicking his camera in front of the TV. When I came off the balance beam with my last somersault, they were ecstatic and shed tears of happiness. Dad even threw his camera aside, hardly knowing what he was doing!"

Aah ... the sweet smell of success, doubly so in Liu's case because she is a discerning collector of perfumes, witness her large collection in the dormitory she shares, by choice, with team-mates. "Every single one represents a memory, good or bad," she said. Team members call her 'Half Coach" because, as the eldest member, she assists with training and passes on advice based on experience.

Half Coach she may be dubbed, the difference being that this champion never does anything by halves. Among other things, she is Chinese athletes' representative on BOBICO, Beijing's bid committee for the 2008 Olympic Games. "I long for the Games to be held in Beijing," said Liu, who hopes to become an international gymnastics judge after university.