Special report: 2008 Olympic Games

    By Cai Yongjun and Chen Mengyang

    SHENYANG, Northeast China, July 17 (Xinhua) -- Liu Hongtu, whose father Liu Changchun was China's first Olympian, opened a Beijing Olympic torch relay in Shenyang as the first runner on Thursday.

    "I am passing my father's dream of Olympics today," said Liu.

    Liu Changchun took part in the Los Angeles Olympic games in 1932 as the only Chinese athlete. He entered the 100 and 200 meters but failed to qualify for the finals. Four years later, he competed again with some other Chinese athletes, but scored no medals either and even didn't have enough money to return to China.

    "Over 76 years from the Los Angeles Olympic Games at which my father represented China alone, to the Beijing Olympic Games, great changes have happened to China," said junior Liu. "The evolution of Chinese Olympic history proved that only with the prosperity of the motherland can the athletes achieve good performance."

    "I think one of the most important reasons that the IOC chose Beijing as the Olympic host is that China has grown stronger. But in 1932, the government gave no support to my father at all. Only by the private sponsoring could my father afford the ship fare and other cost of the trip," he added.

    Liu Changchun could hardly find a job and had to live a poor life after he came back to China.

    Liu was able to become a coach and sports teacher after the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949. When the IOC reinstated the legal status of the Chinese Olympic Committee (COC) in 1979, Liu was appointed vice chairman of COC. But he didn't live long enough to see Chinese athletes win the first Olympic gold medal at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984.

    Liu Changchun's regret can be somewhat made up by his two sons. Besides Liu Hongtu, his brother Liu Hongliang also took part in the torch relay in Athens.

    "It's my father's regret that he didn't see the Chinese national flag flying at the Olympics and didn't see an Olympics Games held on his motherland, but my brother and I have passed his dream with the Olympic torches, and all Chinese are now passing his dream too, by going all out to hold a successful Olympic Games," said Liu Hongtu.