The record was indeed broken in Barcelona, not by Luo but by Australia's 2000 Olympic silver medallist Leisel Jones in the semi-finals (1:06.37).

In the event final, as all eyes (and pressure) were on Jones, Luo took the race out really hard, splitting a mind-boggling 30.87 at the 50m mark.

Luo also defended her 50 breaststroke world title in 30.67 (30.64 in semi-finals, just 0.07 sec off the WR), and swam the fastest breaststroke relay split (1:05.79) to help China win the 4x100 medley relay in 3:59.89 (Asian record and 2nd fastest time in history; 2nd team after the USA to crack 4 mins).

Luo's career highlight was the 2004 Summer Olympics, where she earned a gold medal in the 100 breaststroke in a new Olympic record of 1:06.64, the 3rd fastest time in history and just off the WR by 0.27 seconds (after qualifying 7th fastest in a mediocre 1:08.57), a remarkable feat considering that she was one of the slowest qualifiers for the final and swam in the outermost lane.

Luo swam the race with a heartache problem and had to be helped to get out of the pool by her teammates after finishing her breaststroke leg (1:08.82).

Luo failed to defend her 50 & 100 breaststroke titles in the XI FINA World Swimming Championships in Montreal in 2005.

Luo was surprisingly upset by young teammate Wang Qun (1:08.56 to 1:09.14) at the 2005 East Asian Games in Macau, though she captured gold in the 50 breast (31.67).

Luo was said to have been "exiled" back for training at her home province of Zhejiang, although the swimming authorities insisted that she was still a national team member.

On 24 January 2007 Luo announced in a press conference that she was retiring from competitive swimming due to a heart surgery failure.

According to Luo, doctors advised that her life might be in jeopardy if she continued to train at the intensity required for Olympic-level athletes.