Liu Xiang, China’s 110m hurdles Olympic champion and former world record holder, announced his retirement from the sport on Tuesday in a post on on Sina Weibo, China's version of Twitter

In 2004, Liu became his country’s first Olympic champion in track and field, charging over the barriers to gold in Athens in 12.91 seconds, equaling the world record at the time.

Two years later, he lowered that world record to 12.88 at the Athletissima meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland. The following summer, he won gold at the 2007 World Championships in Osaka, Japan.

With the white-hot spotlight on the Shanghai native as the 2008 Olympics in Beijing approached, Liu was crippled by a foot injury.

He was scheduled to race at the Reebok Grand Prix in New York on the same stormy night when Usain Bolt broke the 100m world record, but hopped a fence and fled Icahn Stadium away from the cameras. The following weekend, he got in the starting blocks at the Prefontaine Classic and twice false started, getting DQ’d from a race many speculated he was not fit to run.

During the prelims of the 110m hurdles at the Beijing Games, Liu warmed up before more than 77,000 screaming fans inside the Bird’s Nest, but it quickly became apparent that something was wrong with his injured leg. Moments later he walked off the track and through the tunnel of the stadium, leaving many of the home faithful devastated and visibly in tears.

"I'm retiring. I want to start a new journey," Liu wrote in his blog. “I am truly unwell and old and can no longer run and jump with you. Although it's sad, although it's painful, I really have no other choice."

Liu mounted a comeback after Beijing. In 2011, he won silver behind American Jason Richardson at the World Championships in Daegu, South Korea. He competed at the 2012 Olympics in London but failed to make it out of his preliminary heat.

With the World Championships returning to Beijing this summer, it was believed that Liu would attempt a final triumphant return but once again his body failed him.

"My foot told me no again and again, and there was no way it was going to be able to handle intense training and competition," Liu wrote. 'I hate my foot, I love my track and my hurdles so much, and if I hadn't injured my foot ... but then there are no ifs in this world. I injured myself, and can only accept it silently.''