Public pressure on Olympic hurdler Liu Xiang highlights rise of Chinese nationalism

The 25-year-old Liu, who won the gold medal in the 2004 Athens Olympics, has been promoted as a national hero for years. Beijing has held him up as a symbol of Chinas rise as a sporting power, of its ability to shake off its reputation as the sick man of Asia. At the turn of the twentieth century, racist ideologues used the fact that impoverished China sent few athletes to the early Olympics to justify their reactionary claims that the Chinese were an inferior racethe sick men of Asia.

Lius win four years ago was the first by a Chineseor Asianathlete in a sprint event. He declared in Athens: My victory has proved that athletes with a yellow skin can run as fast as those with black and white skins. In 2008, with China already well ahead in the gold medal tally, his victory in Beijings Birds Nest stadium was set to be the climax of Chinas Olympic glory, proving that the Chinese race was just as fit as others.

While it invested heavily in ensuring that all its Olympic athletes succeeded, Beijing made a special effort to achieve a victory in the 110-metre hurdles. Liu reportedly accounted for 10 percent of the total sporting science budget for the Chinese Olympic team. Five kinematics experts worked full-time to monitor his training and technique, and to closely examine those of his rivals.

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