It's Show Time

Liu Xiang ended his last show in men 110m hurdle in London in pain. As the first Asian gold medalist in sprint in Olympics, Liu Xiang burst on to the scene in Athens Olympics and shot to fame after creating a new Olympic record in men 110m hurdle. He was hymned as a hero on his return to China, and soon got advertising contracts worth billions. Four years later in Beijing Olympics, people anxiously waited in the packed "Nest", cheering at Liu Xiang's appearance in the 110m Hurdle Heat. However before the starting gun went off, Liu Xiang suddenly signaled the referee and quit the game. Audiences burst into uproar, reprimanding Liu of "deceiving." Later Liu's coach cried in the news release and explained that Liu was succumbed to previous tendon injury.

Controversy has lasted four years ever since. Denunciation on Liu's withdrawal never stopped. Some netizens said, as I quoted, "I would feel much better even if he crawled to the finishing line - that's Olympics spirit. Now I just feel cheated." Liu lost some ad contracts too, but big sponsors like Nike and Tsingtao Beer didn't abandon him. During London Olympics, Liu's ads still account for a quarter of all the ads shown in CCTV live.

When the day came for 110m hurdles in London, Chinese audiences again showed their keen for Liu. A picture showed hundreds of people stopping boarding in a subway station in Beijing to watch Liu's competition on the screen. Although there was rumor about injury after his arrival in London, people still had great hopes for him. Liu didn't withdraw this time, but he stumbled at the first hurdle and fell to the track. He sat on the floor, painfully holding his tendon and looking at his rivals rushing for the end. After everyone else finished his competition, Liu hopped all the way to the last hurdle and kissed it. He left London Bowl in a wheelchair. Chinese commentators cried over the recurrence of his old wound, and journalists retrospected all his achievement as a hurdler later. Liu prompted even more speculations in London than the last time.

It seems rather obvious that Liu is aware of his injury and the risk he is taking to sprint again. But why he is running again?
- Maybe he just wanted to try his best. London could be his last Olympics, thus he wanted to say goodbye in a decent way but failed to do so;
- Maybe he didn't want to go but the blames after his last withdrawal scared him, so he forced himself to run  to avoid the same reprimands despite the problem with his tendon;
- Maybe it was an awkward show under pressure from government and advertising sponsors, as he had to bear a loss of millions if he stayed away from the court;
- It is also rumored that Liu was a victims of conspiracy. The distance between the starting line and the first hurdle was increased by 0.13 meters. However the likelihood of this adjustment should be below 1%.

Almost every athlete aspires victory, therefore it shouldn't be surprising if Liu wanted to bet his luck in spite of potential disastrous results. But it still looks weird after his mysterious withdrawal in Beijing: how likely is an athlete to win a champions four years later when he starts to reach the age limit of a sprint with even worse injuries on tendon.

If the disgrace four years ago has been so painful to him that he'd exhaust every resort to save his reputation, he knew the best way was to finish the 110m regardless of how he reached the end. Since audiences only wanted him to show respects for the game and have some "Olympics Spirit", it is better to show them a strong-minded and sports-loving Liu Xiang instead of a can't-get-the-champion one. And more importantly, external pressures left him no choice. Chinese government needed Liu to disguise its weaknesses in field events, whose appearance is a demonstration of its old glories. Liu's advertising sponsors had to bear huge losses if he ended with infamy. Thus whether he could run or not, he had to do something to save his reputation.

After his transient victory in Athens, Liu reaped huge profits from his gold medal, but enormous pressures as well. As an unprecedented flier, Liu epitomizes China's achievement in the field, and he simply can't retire until a successor is found. In a country where athletes are paid by tax payers to win medals, athletes are committed to not only winning games, but also fitting a cost-benefit analysis by the government. It is sad to see an athlete distracted by concerns other than sports, but it's the price to pay for every athlete's own choice.