China’s Hero Liu Xiang pulls out because of injury

Chinese hurdling star and national hero, Liu Xiang, pulled out of the 110m hurdles and the Olympics with an injury to his achilles tendon. This shock destroyed the hopes and dreams of China for track and field glory and broke the hearts of millions of Chinese fans. After a runner in another lane had a false-start, Liu clutched his ankle in pain and tearfully withdrew from the Olympics. Fans were heartbroken, volunteers were weeping, but overall, the chinese at the stadium were sympathetic to Liu Xiang. Many said there was simply too much pressure and he caved under it.

Liu’s coach tearfully said that Liu would not have pulled out if the injury had not been serious and commented that he had been having trouble with the ankle since May. While this does indeed make a good explanation, many fans and myself included have to conclude that the immense amount of pressure was just too much to bear and the false start just made things snap.

While I was back in China, there were posters of Liu everywhere and commercials with him all over TV. There was even a half-hour documentary dedicated to his brand of shoe. He was truly larger than life and was treated like a God after winning Gold in Athens. Coming into the Beijing Olympics, there was no Athlete with as much pressure on them as Liu Xiang. The pressure and the complications with his ankle probably built on each other and the stress of the two probably caused his tendon to pop after the false start.

Besides fans, corporate sponsors are also devastated by this. However, major sponsors such as Coke and Lenovo did not put all their bets on Liu Xiang. Even though this is a huge setback, Coke commercials featuring the Chinese hero have already been extravagantly successful and probably has already gotten them returns on investment. Coke is sitting pretty well since they are also sponsors of international basketball star and chinese national hero Yao Ming and many-times over gold medalist diver Guo Jing Jing. However, for those that only sponsored Liu Xiang, this is a tremendous disaster.

Hopefully he can redeem himself in 2012.