In the end, it was an Olympic tragedy foretold.
For weeks, even months, there was no news, good or bad. From giddy excitement, the untold fans of Liu Xiang grew wary, awaiting the day when the Chinese hurdler would run his first heat at the Olympics.
When he came to the Bird’s Nest yesterday, all saw it even exceeded their worst expectations.
Liu pulled out of the Olympics before clearing his first hurdle, suffering “intolerable” pain in his right leg.
He barely got out of the blocks and immediately started hobbling in the first heat of the 110m hurdles. It didn’t matter it was a false start. Something snapped in his physical resistance after months of uncertainty about an inflamed hamstring.
“Liu Xiang would never have pulled out unless the pain was intolerable,” said Feng Shuyong, the head coach of the athletics team.
The Chinese had expected more from this opening heat than most Olympic finals. After all, Liu carried their best hopes to celebrate gold in the Games’ iconic stadium.
The 25-year-old Liu had been training in seclusion for weeks amid questions whether the defending Olympic champion would be fit.
Yesterday, however, it was a foot injury which compounded the problems and forced him out. A chronic condition suddenly flared up and only got worse.
“For the final, you need to go all out and if the pain can’t effectively be eased, it will definitely have an effect,” his coach, Sun Haiping, had warned on Sunday.
Liu didn’t even make it to the final, not even to the first hurdle in the first of four races to get to gold.
After the false start, Liu ripped off his starting number from his leg, took off for the tunnel and walked into the bowels of the stadium, out of the Olympics he was supposed to dominate.
Inside, he leaned his back against a blue-and-white board bearing a Beijing 2008 logo.
Feng said he was “very depressed.”
Chinese fans in the stadium looked up at the big screen in confusion. One man, with a flag painted on his cheek and a small plastic flag in his hand, stared, mouth agape.
It was the last thing the nation of 1.3 billion had expected.
Already hurting coming into the stadium, it took an Olympics in his home nation to get into the starting blocks anyway, knowing he had no hope to go through four races in four days to take gold.
“That is the thing. When you see the crowd, you realize why he had to come out,” said Allan Scott, who was amazed when he looked across the lanes and didn’t see Liu ahead of him in the final heat.
Raising unease throughout the season, Liu had competed rarely and in June saw his world record fall to Dayron Robles of Cuba.
Trouble immediately showed when he warmed up. Stopping after two hurdles in the warm-up, he crouched down and walked gingerly back to the starting area.
He took off his red shirt when others were lining up behind the blocks. For a man known for his composure and meticulous pre-race routine, this was exceptional, a sign of major trouble ahead.
The crowd of 91,000 still let out a huge roar when the name “Liu Xiang” was announced, but it was not the same athlete that won gold in Athens four years ago. Some fans were waving the red Chinese flag, one in each hand, but nothing could help now.
When the announcement of his withdrawal was made to the fans, the collective groan of disappointment sucked all the enthusiasm out of the stadium.
Ahead of Liu, Robles won his heat in 13.39 seconds to go through, well off his world record time of 12.87 seconds, but loose and confident.
Now he is the overwhelming favorite and the Cuban has one rival less to think about.
“I don’t care who’s on the track,” Robles said. “I just came here to compete and take the gold.”
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