CHINA: OLYMPICS - China's Olympic hopefuls are under pressure from the Games' host nation

Record ID: 332515

  • Title: CHINA: OLYMPICS - China's Olympic hopefuls are under pressure from the Games' host nation
  • Date: 3rd July 2008
  • Summary: YOUTHS PLAYING BASKETBALL UNDER POSTERS OF YAO MING AND LIU XIANG BALLS HITTING AND MISSING THE BASKET
  • Embargoed: 18th July 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: China
  • Country: China
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA65MUTWEPWX4UAIGLK6A1DLYZ0
  • Story Text: With the hopes of the host nation pinned upon them, China's Liu Xiang and Yao Ming are feeling the pressure.
    For many China's 110-metre world and Olympic hurdle champion Liu Xiang is the face of the Olympics. If you are carrying the hopes of the Olympic Games host nation, it is always going to be a lot of pressure, but if that host nation has 1.3 billion hearts for you to make or break, then you are carrying a lot on your shoulders.
    Fortunately, Liu will not be carrying the hopes of the world's most populous nation and the expectations of a government that initially set its team a target of 119 medals all alone, there will also be the Chinese NBA basketball star Yao Ming to share the burden. Their faces adorn posters all over China and sports retailers' adverts all over the world.
    But with Yao Ming injured and Liu Xiang pulling out of one race due to injury and being disqualified from another due to a false start, many are wondering whether the pressure is too great.

    "I like them very much because they are representatives of China in sport. Liu Xiang in particular, has added glories to China in hurdle races," said one fan, Liu Yuan, while he played basketball under a poster of his hero in Beijing. "I sincerely hope that he can defend his world championship and win gold in the 110-metre hurdles at the 2008 Olympic Games.
    If he fails, I think it's normal, no one can always be the winner."
    Another Beijing resident, Zhu Qiuhong, said she thought the setbacks would not affect Liu Xiang's performance in August, and that he would bring in one of China's golds.

    "Liu Xiang's coach is quite smart, he's not an ordinary coach, he has his own schedule," she said. "He trained Liu Xiang at a relaxed pace before big events. There really is a lot of pressure on him, but I think Liu Xiang will make another big breakthrough at the 2008 Olympic Games. I firmly believe that."
    If anybody knows how the Olympic and world high hurdles champion Liu feels as the Games approach, it is Australia's hope of a gold medal in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the 35-year-old Australian Aborigine, Cathy Freeman.

    "I think he'll be using this opportunity as a means to bring to the world the very best of who he is, so it's a very exciting time for him, and I'm sure he'll be giving it his all, which is the only thing we can expect. But hey, the reality is that these people do expect him to win,"
    she said.
    Freeman lit the cauldron at the opening ceremony in Sydney before winning the 400-metre gold for the host nation, and says it still stirs up emotions to look back at that time.

    "I think the sense of the occasion will absolutely put everything in order for him, and I think his love of who he is and his determination to be another Olympic champion in his own home country will come to the front, the words he utters to himself will absolutely transfrom itself into his performance as a high hurdler," said Freeman.
    The Australian star is in the Chinese capital to promote the Catherine Freeman Foundation, which aims to help children from minorities through education and sport.
    Liu has admitted that he feels added pressure to win at the Beijing Games and acknowledges that a lot more attention has been paid to him since his 2004 Olympic gold medal triumph in Athens.

    "I feel like there's a lot more pressure than four years ago because people know me right now," Liu said recently at a photoshoot on the 86th floor of the Empire State Building.
    But as he looked out from his lofty position above the New York skyline, Liu said Yao, who ranks with him as China's most popular sportsman, would share some of the home-country focus.
    Yao, recovering from a foot injury that cut short his NBA season with the Houston Rockets, is now back on track to join China's team on the basketball court.

    "As far as I'm concerned, the Olympics is the most magnificent oppourtunity in my life. But great competition always bring pressure. I have to face two challenges, pressure and possible glory. You can't have one without the other," Yao told reporters in China last week.
    China's Olympic fans will probably agree, the hearts of the world's most populous nation will be beating with Liu and Yao's in August, all sharing the pressure and hoping to share in the glory.
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