Who is the number one person in the history of Asian sports? Yang Yi: Of course it is Liu Xiang! It has a great impact on the world, Europe and the United States

Ren Ran, a member of Yang Kan's team, raised a sharp question to the well-known sports commentator Yang Yi in a live broadcast: "Teacher Yang, who do you think is the number one person in Asian sports history?" His peer Xu Jingyu nominated Yao Ming or Son Heung-min, while Ren Ran himself favored boxing champion Pacquiao.

Facing this "Asian Sports GOAT battle", Yang Yi gave the answer without hesitation - Liu Xiang! This man shocked European and American foreigners back then.

Ren Ran took the initiative to raise the topic during live broadcast, trying to clarify the controversy from Yang Yi's professional perspective. Yang Yi's response was straightforward. He denied the use of football or individual achievements as the only criterion, and instead emphasized the "impact force" - Liu Xiang's breakthrough in the 110-meter hurdles directly subverted Europe and the United States' understanding of the short-distance track competition event of yellow races.

The focus of the debate is on the value of Liu Xiang's achievements. Yang Yi pointed out that the Olympic gold medal, World Championship champion, and the "Grand Slam" achievements that broke the world record made Liu Xiang the first Asian to top the track and field straight events. In comparison, although Yao Ming has gained a foothold in the NBA, he has not won the championship, Son Heung-min won the Premier League Golden Boot but failed to reach the Champions League, and Pacquiao is a legend in the boxing world, but his influence in Asia is limited. Although Pacquiao won the gold belt, the Asian players in the boxing field are generally weak, and Liu Xiang's 110-meter hurdles are more iconic due to the special nature of the project.

The foreigner was shocked when he saw Liu Xiang hurdles - can the yellow race run so fast? In my opinion, Yang Yi supports Liu Xiang as the number one person in Asian sports history, and his logic contains two layers of "subtext".

The first floor is the competition for the threshold of the project. The track and field straight event can be called "human extreme sports". The 110-meter hurdle combines speed, skills and explosive power. Liu Xiang's breakthrough is like planting an Asian flag in traditional European and American territories. In contrast, basketball and football are team sports, and personal achievements are easily diluted by the collective halo; although boxing is an individual event, Asian players have been on the edge for a long time, and Pacquiao's achievements are more like a "single miracle". The second layer is the dimension of cultural impact. Liu Xiang's emergence directly breaks the stereotype that "yellow people are not suitable for sprinting". After winning the 2004 Athens Olympics, his sentence "China has me, Asia has me" is still a classic picture in sports history. This breakthrough from 0 to 1 is more revolutionary than Yao Ming's "from 1 to N" in the NBA - after all, Wang Zhizhi and Bater have long explored the way in the NBA, and Liu Xiang is all black players in front of him.

Authentic, the controversy point is also clearly visible. Some people will argue that "Liu Xiang's later injury affects his status"; but competitive sports are already successful and defeated, and the peak height is far more important than the length of his career. What's more, Yang Yi's argument has never been "Liu Xiang is the greatest", but "he has caused the strongest shock to Europe and the United States." By this standard, Li Na won the French Open and let the European clay court play the Chinese national anthem, and she is also qualified to compete for the "No. 1 Asian Sports Person".

Ultimately, this debate exposed the embarrassment of Asian sports - we need more Liu Xiang and Li Na to fill the gap in "changing world cognition".