China's Liu Xiang withdraws from high hurdles
BEIJING -- A case of national anxiety turned into a case of national disappointment when Liu Xiang, the most popular Chinese Olympic athlete, withdrew from the Olympic high hurdles Monday morning.
Liu appeared to be laboring as he warmed up for his qualifying race. He settled into the blocks and when the gun went off he took a few steps; when the second gun went off, signaling a false start, he pulled up lame.
He limped back to the blocks and took off his numbered bib indicating he was retiring from the race. It was not a complete shock, as his official website has been talking about a new injury. He has missed most of this season with a hamstring injury.
It led Monday's edition of the China Daily to headline, "Injured Liu vs Terrifying Opponent," referring to Cuban Dayron Robles, who broke Liu's world record with a time of 12.87 seconds on June 12.
On the runner's English site, the runner's coach, Sun Haiping, said Liu has an inflamed Achilles tendon.
Liu’s image is plastered on advertising billboards all over the country. His renown grew in part because he was the first Chinese athlete to win in an event that had been utterly dominated by Westerners.
Liu has not raced since May 23, when he won the hurdles in the test event competition at the Olympic Stadium in 13.18.
Coach Sun said Liu felt sore during his training session on Saturday.
"What I am really worrying about is the [Thursday] final," Sun said.
"In the final Liu has to strive with all effort and when he uses the force from the foot, the pain gets worse,'' Sun said. "It will definitely affect his performance.''
On Liu's Chinese website, there is the additional information that the runner skipped a planned Sunday training session to avoid aggravating the injury.
U.S. hurdler Terrence Trammell, a silver medalist the last two Olympics, was asked last week if he worried about sending the country into a depression by beating Liu.
"That's what I hope to do,'' Trammell said. "I hope they can cope.''
All the other leading contenders advanced Monday morning to the second round of the 200 meters, scheduled Monday night. Jamaica's Usain Bolt, the 100-meter champion, cruised home with a second place in his heat.
-- Philip Hersh
Photo: China's Liu Xiang, bib number in hand, leaves the track after being injured in a men's 110-meter hurdles first round heat. Credit: Kevin Frayer/Associated Press
From the awkward facial expressions of Chinese audience in Bird's Nest, people can know how regretful and disappointed all national wide Chinese are.
Because I can understand Chinese, I can get more information from Chinese Media like newspapers and websites. In effect, Liu has been bearing the pressure and pain-suffering for nearly a year. He didn't completely recover from the injury yet, and it suddenly became worse and worse in recent weeks. However, he kept on his recovering exercise every day. His group didn't disclose any information regarding Liu's condition to media, since they were not sure how Liu's condition would be today; also, they didn't want to be interfered by paparazzi. If they did so, some Chinese would talk negatively towards Liu, a commercially popular athlete, who advertised many products this year. Some would criticise that how come a badly hurt athlete can still advertise products with a good mood, not worrying about his competition day and night. After his withdraw, some people are saying how cowardly Liu is since he just withdrawed without "enough" attempts. They think he should've ran to the ending no matter how bad he's condition was.
It's maybe difficult for some Americans and Westerners to understand the reason why a badly injured athlete had to strive so hard to participate in an Olympic game in his homeland. This is the athletic spirit of Chinese, which is similar to the spirit of Japanese samurai. Chinse admire the people who can accomplish the impossible with ton's of weights on shoulders.
I wish people, especially Chinese, can understand Liu and treat him with respects. He had tried his best. He said that HE would NEVER ever withdraw the game unless unbearable incident happens.
Posted by: Xing | August 18, 2008 at 12:03 AM
Coincidence or Fate?
Look at the number on Liu's Back.
1356 can be interpreted as 1.3 billion of Chinese and 56 ethnic groups in China.
How many pressure and expectations on his back?
Posted by: xing | August 18, 2008 at 12:21 AM