Liu Xiang
(pronounced Lee-oh She-ang)

His first name means "to fly," but China's top hurdler was too injured to compete this week, breaking the heart of his nation.

The Chinese created a phonetic system to help non-Chinese speakers pronounce words. The system, however, is not an exact match with the English system. For example, in the Chinese way, the letter Q produces the sound for "ch" and the letter X produces the sound of "sh."