Liu admitted that after 2016 Rio Olympic victory, she began to consider retirement but eventually changed her mind.

"At last I decided to come back. The reason is because I still have passion for the sport. In addition, I really think I should do something to promote race walk in China," she said.

"I won the Olympic title but race walk is still such a small event in China that many people don't know much about it. Everytime I think about it, I feel at lost," she added.

"So I want to stay on to promote it, to let more people know about race walk," Liu said.

Liu's promotion plan includes a title defence in next year's Tokyo Olympic Games but she is aware of the difficulty.

"China will face strong challenges from other race walk powers in Tokyo. I hope my return can help my country keep the title at home," Liu said.

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