The painful tears of Liu Xiang's coach Monday gave a bewildered nation permission to cry. For more than an hour after Liu's shock withdrawal from the 110m hurdles, the star's billion fans were still coming to grips with the news. "What went wrong?"
At a hastily organized press conference after the race, answers were given. Liu had damaged his right Achilles tendon, and combined with a bone spur on his right ankle, was suffering unbearable pain.
His beloved coach, Sun Haiping, tried to explain the tragedy but was unable to fully finish. He burst into tears on national television and China wept with him.
"We have had three doctors working on Liu's injury but no matter what they did nothing could help," he said.
The head coach of China's athletic team, Feng Shuyong, was quick to describe the level of pain Liu had to endure.
"Liu would never withdraw from a race unless the pain was intolerable, unless he had no other way out," he said. "I have just spoken to Liu outside and he is very depressed. I watched as he was being given a massage on the damaged area last weekend, and he was shivering due to the great pain."
The Liu tragedy happened around lunchtime in Beijing but most Chinese had lost their famous appetite.
Beijing mother-of-one Xiao Chengyan was fighting back the tears. "I want to cry," she said in Beijing. "Liu Xiang was our hero, we believed in him, but the pressure was too much.
"He had injuries, but the pressure from everyone made him feel the pain. It made things worse," she said. "This is very, very sad."
For many young Chinese, Liu Xiang represented the rising success of new China and sparkle like his home city of Shanghai. He was the nation's new-look individual, who rose above the traditional Chinese collective. A generation of young people born into one-child families have a special connection to Liu's steely focus on the self.
But only one day after young Americans were rejoicing over Michael Phelps medal count, young Chinese were (in a sense) mourning over one of their own.
When reality sank in, emotions started popping and bubbling like oil in a wok. One young man in his late 20s said he was angry.
"I think Liu Xiang was not brave enough. He knew he couldn't beat the Cuban runner so he pulled out."
Another camp believe the Liu Xiang team should have given the public more notice when they discovered the seriousness of the injuries.
Unconfirmed reports in the Chinese press claimed that Liu had run his fastest time ever in the past week. But then one young man piped up.
"It is a great shame, but Team China is going better than expected. We will win more gold medals than anybody," he said. "In China, it is always a team effort."
The good news is that Liu, at age 25, is hardly on his last legs.
With enough rest and recuperation the Shanghai Bullet can make a speedy recovery. And when he does, another remarkable chapter of his dramatic story will open.
