Liu Xiang is a Chinese 110 metre hurdler. Liu is an Olympic Gold medalist and World Champion. His 2004 Olympic gold medal was the first in a men's track and field event for China, in which the previous best were held by Olympic silver medallist C.K. Yang of the Republic of China and Olympic bronze medalist Zhu Jianhua. Contrary to popular belief however, Liu Xiang's Olympic track and field gold medal is not the first won by an Asian male athlete, as Olympic gold medalist Mikio Oda, Naoto Tajima, Son Kitei and others were the forerunners of Asian male track and field athletes achieving gold in the Olympic Games.
Liu is one of China's most commercially successful athletes and has emerged as a cultural icon. He is the first Chinese athlete to achieve the "triple crown" of athletics: World Record Holder, World Champion and Olympic Champion. That he would win another gold in the 110 metre hurdles at the Beijing Olympics was "China's great hope",[3] but he had to withdraw from competition at the last moment after a false start and aggravation to a previously unrevealed injury.
Yao Ming is a professional basketball player who plays for the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is currently the tallest player in the NBA, at 2.29 m (7 ft 6 in).
Yao, who was born in Shanghai, started playing for the Shanghai Sharks as a teenager, and played on their senior team for five years in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA), winning a championship in his final year. He entered the 2002 NBA Draft, and after negotiating with the CBA and the Sharks to secure his release, was selected by the Houston Rockets as the first overall pick of the draft. He has since been selected to start for the Western Conference in the NBA All-Star Game in each of his first seven seasons, and has been named to the All-NBA Team five times. However, the Rockets have advanced past the first round of the playoffs only once since he joined the team, and he has missed significant time due to injury in each of the past five seasons.
Yao is married to Ye Li, a former player for the China women's national basketball team. He is one of China's best-known athletes, with sponsorships with several major companies, and he has been the richest celebrity in China for six straight years. His rookie year in the NBA was the subject of a documentary film, The Year of the Yao, and he co-wrote, along with NBA analyst Ric Bucher, an autobiography titled Yao: A Life in Two Worlds.
