Liu Xiang

It was a lazy Monday morning and I was sitting in my living room watching the Olympics on TV. The swimming events had dominated morning TV for the past week, but yesterday I saw Michael Phelps and friends grab the final swimming gold medal of the games leaving the morning viewing options rather scant. With nothing to do but be lazy, watching the track and field qualifier races seemed like a fine way to pass the time. Although all the announcers speak Chinese the visual feeds and graphics are the same as NBC uses making it easier to follow the events.

The mens 110m hurdle qualifier, which for Chinese people is the biggest event of the entire games, was the best choice among our slim pickings. Their fastest racer, Liu Xiang, came out of nowhere to win the gold in Athens and become a national hero. I mean his face is everywhere - billboards, taxis, TV, magazines. He sells everything from watches to iced tea, Sports Illustrated to health insurance. I don't even know the president of China's name, but I know his... everyone knows his name.

In the qualifying race before this ledgend was supposed to race, an American sprinter went down with a pulled hamstring. We wondered aloud what would happen if Liu Xiang went down with a similar injury as he warmed up. Still in his tracksuit despite the heat, he stretched himself by jumping a few hurdles when he suddenly seemed to stiffen up before our eyes. Limping into the blocks, we shouted at the TV 'He's hurt! He's Hurt!' Which indeed he was, leaving us to regret having wondering what would happen.

I never expected him to win the gold in Beijing; it's difficult to beat a rival who recently broke a world record you set four years ago. Liu Xiang set the world hurdle record four years ago in Athens, but athletes age quickly and this year a Cuban runner broke the records in his national qualifier race. Besides, Liu Xiang came in third last year at the world championships - his best days seem behind him. Yet he, the country and his countrymen didn't want that, so they pretended he was the favorite.

After the race I saw part of the press conference, it was on every channel the way the 'State of the Union' is on every channel. Though most of the press conference was in Chinese, there were a few statements in English. The one that stood out to me was when they asked the coach if he felt the Chinese people would be understanding that Liu Xiang didn't win. His response was, "There was an internet poll a year ago and over half, about sixty percent of the people said they would understand." If only 60% understand that means that 40% don't understand; and in a country of 1.3 billion people - well, that's a lot of people who don't seem to understand that sometimes you loose at sports.

Most of my students seem good natured enough about it, but none of them want to talk about it. They'll look away and admit that it's a disappointment, but not have much else to say. They were eager to talk about him before, even if they put on a modest face and said he might not win, now that that is certain, nobody wants to talk about it at all.

As a country famous for building up its heroes to legendary proportions using scripts and controls, China might not be emotionally ready for fair and open competition with other country's heroes on the world stage.