2000
Although his coach Sun described Liu Xiang's technique as "terrible" in the beginning, Liu debuted internationally at the world junior championships in 2000, finishing fourth in the 110 metre hurdles event.
2001
In May, he won at East Asian Games in Osaka, Japan with 13.42 seconds. In August, he won at World University Games in Beijing, China with 13.33 seconds.
2004
In May 2004 at an IAAF race in Osaka, Japan, Liu managed to beat Johnson with an Asian and personal best record time of 13.06 seconds. Liu had become his hero's equal just before the Athens Olympic Games.
Liu won the gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens in the 110 metre hurdles event, equaling Colin Jackson's 1993 world record of 12.91 seconds. The wind assistance (tailwind) for Jackson's race was +0.5 m/s whereas Liu's wind assistance was +0.3 m/s. This was also the first time an athlete of non-African descent had gone under 13 seconds for the 110 metre hurdles. Liu also became just the sixth man to post a time under 13 seconds for this event. The ecstatic Liu at once fulfilled the great promise he had shown in setting a world junior record two years earlier and raised the hopes of his compatriots for a repeat victory at the 2008 Games in Beijing. Liu said that his performance, which brought China its first men's Olympic gold medal in track and field, "changes the opinion that Asian countries don't get good results in sprint races. I want to prove to all the world that Asians can run very fast." In his comments, Liu gave voice to his country's cultural stereotype, which judging from editorial comments in Chinese newspapers, he was not alone in believing. "I am a Chinese," he said, "and considering the physiology of the Chinese people, it is something unbelievable."
Liu, a 21-year-old student at East China Normal University at the time of his Athens victory, became the object of a bidding war between commercial sponsors. The Chinese Track and Field Association restricted him to four such deals.
Liu finished the season with four of the year's ten fastest clockings. Reaching 17 finals in the 60 m indoor hurdles and the 110 metre hurdles, he lost just two, both to American Allen Johnson. Liu, at 1.89 m (6 ft 2 in) and 85 kg (187 lb), was taller than most sprint hurdlers, and he has showed spectacular athleticism by constraining his naturally long stride to the three-step pattern necessary in order to avoid the alternation of lead legs in hurdling.
2005
In August, Liu won a silver medal at the IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Helsinki, Finland, finishing 13.08 seconds, 0.01 seconds after champion Ladji Doucouré from France. In November, he won at East Asian Games in Macau, China with 13.21 seconds. Off track, in May, he was awarded the Laureus World Sports Award for Newcomer of the Year for his breakthrough performance at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.
2006
Liu set a new world record in the 110 metre hurdles, at the Super Grand Prix in Lausanne on July 11, 2006, with a time of 12.88 seconds (+1.1 m/s tailwind). The record was ratified by the IAAF. In that same race, American Dominique Arnold had also beaten the previous record with a time of 12.90 seconds. In September, he won gold at IAAF World Athletics Final in Stuttgart, Germany with 12.93 seconds.
2007
On August 31, 2007 at the World Athletics Championships in Osaka, Japan, Liu won gold in the 110 metre hurdles with 12.95 seconds to become the World Champion for the first time.
2008
On May 23, Liu partcipated in a test event at the Beijing National Stadium. He pulled out of the Reebok Grand Prix in New York on May 31, citing hamstring problems. On June 8, he false-started at the Prefontaine Classic at Eugene, Oregon. Liu skipped the entire European circuit, preferring to train in China instead.
Leading up to the Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, Liu bore national expectations of a repeat victory on home soil. China deemed another gold medal from Liu essential for a successful Olympics.On August 18, Liu withdrew from the Olympic 110 metre hurdles. He walked off the track after a false start by another runner in his first-round heat, leaving the crowd at the Beijing National Stadium in stunned silence and tears.
According to China's track and field association, Liu suffered from a recurrence of chronic inflammation in his right Achilles’ tendon.Liu's coach, Sun Haiping addressed the media during a press conference and stated that the hurdler has been hampered by a tendon injury for six or seven years.He commented on the situation, saying "We worked hard every day, but the result was as you see and it is really hard to take"Sun, who was in tears for most of the press conference, stated that Liu would be unable to compete for the remainder of 2008.
Amiss public suspicion and scrutiny, Liu made a public apology to the Chinese media the following day, saying he could "do nothing but pull out of the race" because of his foot injury. He believes that the injury would not prevent him from future competitions and vows to "come back" for the next Olympics.
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