He said all he wants to do is hold a gold medal, kiss it, hang it around his neck, and have his picture taken.

The 25-year-old Liu Leilei, who stands at over 1.8 meters tall and weighs in well over 100 kilograms, has been a training partner for the Chinese women's judo team for 11 years.

Liu is one of several male judokas who gave up their dreams to become training partners for female judokas who are believed to have a chance of winning an Olympic gold.

While their female partners go off to the Olympics, they go home and watch the Games on television.

"But I feel we win together," he told the Global Times.

However, London was not a friendly place for the defending judo champions, who won three gold medals at the Beijing Games. This year, the Chinese women's judo team bagged a silver and a bronze in a seven-day judo competition that was full of disappointments. Despite this, Liu had nothing but praise.

"I am proud of them," he said. "We are going to work even harder in preparation for Rio."

"Human-flesh sandbag"

Born into a rural family in Shandong Province, Liu was a big, sport-loving kid. He often skipped school to go biking around the mountains. Liu says he grew up knowing nothing about the Olympics, but he disliked school so much that he was willing to do anything to skip class.

His dream of life without school came true by virtue of his athletic habits. By the age of 14, he was already a gigantic young man who stood at over 1.8 meters, ate over 100 dumplings a meal and wore size XXXL clothing.

One day a judo coach approached him and asked if he wanted to join the province's team. The idea of "having fun all day and no schooling" immediately hooked him. His parents agreed, thinking that it was better to have someone look after him than to have him running around the mountains on his own.

Liu joined the team in 2001 and has been a training partner ever since. His first partner was Tong Wen, who was then one of the most competitive female judokas in her class. She later went on to become a gold-medal winner in the 2008 Beijing Games and settled for a bronze in the London Games.

Inexperienced as he was, Liu had no idea what to do at first. He did as he was asked: to be a "human-flesh sandbag." So he stood still and his female partner grabbed him by the torso and threw him on the ground. This first experience was so shocking that he cried.

The same judo move was repeated over and over during the three-hour class. Afterwards, his clothes were covered in blood and his whole body was in pain.

As a training partner, Liu is there for whoever needs him. Sometimes he has three training partners at the same time, and sometimes he is thrown 300 to 500 times a day. Instead of complaining, he says, "Well done," whenever he lands badly.

"The most difficult thing is not to hurt your training partner," Liu said. He recounted a close call with one athlete, Liu Xia, who later claimed a silver medal in the 78-kilogram class at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.

One day when they were practicing, the 140-kilogram training partner realized he was about to land on the then Olympic hopeful with the full weight of his body. In a last-minute move, he landed full force on one of his hands and avoided hurting her. As a result, his shoulder was badly injured.

Judo is a tough sport. With many injuries over the years, Liu is no stranger to pain. He has had sprains, bruises, strains and much worse.

However, always devoted to his athletes, Liu said he is proud that he has never allowed himself to hurt any of his partners.

Liu's own Olympic ambitions were snuffed out through a combination of injuries and inexperience. While other male training partners left the team to seek other options, he chose to stay.

"The moment I decided to become a training partner for the women's judo team, I made a commitment to myself to train Olympic champions," he said.

Trainer, tailor, sitter, squire

Actually, Liu is more than just a training partner. He is also a driver, a babysitter, a masseur and sometimes even a tailor for the athletes.

Life on the Chinese national team is very strict and isolated. To make sure Olympic athletes eat properly, they are not allowed to eat food from outside their special training compound. One steak can ruin an entire career. Olympic judo champion Tong Wen was suspended for two years in 2010 after the banned substance clenbuterol, known in China as "lean meat powder" and commonly found in small amounts in foods throughout the country, was found in her system.

Athletes also need permission to go out, so they all turn to Liu for help with errands. In the daytime, when Liu is not training, he goes out and does the shopping for the "grounded" athletes. In the evening, he gives them massages, an ideal task for a man with strong, soft hands.

He also learned to sew and even designs clothes for the athletes as many have trouble finding clothing that fits. The only entertainment he has is the Internet, which is also the only way he connects with the real world.

All in all, the only thing that ever seemed to bother this agreeable man about his life as a training partner was the challenge of finding a wife in such an isolated place. The only time he ever spends with women is during the training sessions, not exactly the time for romance.

However, last year, Liu married Xiang Li, one of his judo partners from the team. Since Xian Dongmei, who won China's first judo gold medal at the Beijing Games, married her male training partner, perhaps even love can be found on the mat.