Guoliang Liu was born in the town of Xinxiang. From a tender age of six, young Guoliang made out his first forehand drive. He adopted the Chinese playing style known as “penhold” very quickly and speedily mastered the basic principle of table tennis. In 1991 the 15 years old, Guoliang Liu was selected for the Chinese national team.
After performing well in the World Championships in 1993 and 1995, Guoliang Liu participated in his first Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996. In the singles semi-final, He defeated Germany’s Jörg Rosskopf (3 sets to 1) in the singles semi-finals and reached the final to play against compatriot Tao Wang. It was a very tight game and they both labored to get two sets each. Guoliang Liu took the lead in the critical round and finally won with a score of 21 to 6 to claim the gold. In the doubles, Guoliang once again faced Tao Wang in the final while playing with Lin Lu. But this time the match was shorter. Liu and his companion in the game Linghui Kong led the match from the word go and grabbed victory (3 sets to 1). At the age of 20, Guoliang Liu became a doubles’ champion in Olympic.
Some of the important details in the life of Guoliang Liu are:
Birthplace: Xinxiang (People’s Republic of China)
Born: 10 January 1976
Sport: Table Tennis
Nationality: People’s Republic of China
Participated in Atlanta Olympics in 1996
Participated in Sydney Olympics in 2000
Medals won in Olympics: Gold: 2, Silver: 1, Bronze: 1
World championship medals won: Gold: 7 (95, 97, 99, 2001), Silver: 4 (93, 95, 2000, 2001), Bronze: 3 (93, 95, 2001)
Guoliang Liu retired from competition in 2002 and became the youngest head coach of the men’s team of China. The athletes’ along with the good advice of Guoliang, China won three medals at the Athens Olympic Games in 2004. Today, the table tennis team of China is among the best in the world, and deserves to prove it at the next Games in 2008 in Beijing, China.
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