在1998年11月6日晚上10点的美国广播公司20/20节目中,桑兰告诉主持人宗毓华她找到了自己的爱人,薛伟森对宗毓华表示要永远照顾桑兰
Injured Gymnast Reveals New Beau
By OWEN MORITZ
Saturday, November 07, 1998
Paralyzed Chinese gymnast Sang Lan has a new sweetheart in her life and he promises to look after her as she comes to grips with her condition.
"I hope that I can be next to her all the time from now on to the end," Winston Liu told TV broadcaster Connie Chung in an interview last night.
Liu met the 17-year-old gymnast after the July 21 accident at the Goodwill Games because Liu's mother, Gina Liu, looks after the Chinese gymnastics team in America.
"She asked me, 'Do you believe in fate?' I said I never believed in fate before," Liu told Chung on ABC's "20/20." "But after this time, I think I'm beginning to believe in fate."
Liu said he'd even go with her to China, if she was determined to return. "I just like to take care of her," he said. "I don't know why, but it's like it's my destiny."
Sang injured herself in a simple routine vault during warmups. She was left paralyzed from the neck down after landing on her head. The impact crushed her vertebrae.
"I knew I made a mistake when I was in the air," she said.
The mistake, she explained, was that she speeded up her approach to the vault. When she placed her hands on the vault, her shoulders were already too far forward.
Instead of one full rotation in the air, the gymnast went uncontrollably into a second flip, causing her to land with tremendous force on her head.
According to Dr. Kristjan Ragnarsson, her specialist at Mount Sinai Medical Center, Sang likely will not walk again.
She "will not walk again, unless we have a major breakthrough," Ragnarsson told the program. "I have to prepare her for life in a wheelchair."
Now undergoing therapy in part of an East Side duplex that was donated to her and her mother, Sang is realistic about her fate.
"I realize I may not be able to walk again," she said. "I've already accepted it. I understand my medical status, but I have faith in myself and hope that I, myself, will be able to recover."