The 30 Greatest Sports Conspiracy Theories of All-Time - Elliott Kalb [124]
In the press conference following the race, Feng explained that Liu’s Achilles tendon, which has plagued the superstar throughout his career, had suddenly flared up again two days before the race. “The injury on his Achilles tendon deteriorated last Saturday in training,” Feng said. “He was still confident of sprinting. We didn’t realize it was so serious and [that it] would cause the problem of today. That’s why we didn’t want to tell our people that he could not compete. It was with the greatest and strongest will that he wanted to compete and he tried a few times to run. And then obviously we saw the pain in his face. Liu Xiang would not withdraw unless the pain was unbearable and he had no other way out.”
Sun wept uncontrollably when he took to the microphone, apologizing for Liu through his tears. “He has been keeping fighting and fighting until the last moment,” said an emotional Sun, who had been a father figure for Liu since the hurdler left home at age fifteen to train with him.
The next day, China Central Television (CCTV) aired an interview with a somber Liu in which he said, according to a translation, “I feel sorry. I could do nothing but pull out of the race. I didn’t feel right when I was warming up. I knew my foot would fail me. It felt painful when I was just jogging. I wanted to hang on, but I couldn’t. It was unbearable. If I had finished the race, I would have risked my tendon. I could not describe my feeling at that moment.”
Perhaps not, but that didn’t stop a whole lot of people from speculating wildly on the real reason behind Liu’s withdrawal.
EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT A CONSPIRACY
Within minutes of Liu’s hobbling off the track, an estimated 8,000 Chinese citizens flooded the Internet with their opinions on his dramatic withdrawal. A great many of the posts expressed heartfelt sympathy and disappointment, but many others expressed outrage. Some blamed government officials, who had placed unreasonable pressure on Liu to win repeat gold in Beijing. Others pointed fingers at Liu’s corporate sponsors, who distracted him from his purpose in preparing to compete. Some questioned Liu’s mental state, suggesting he had withdrawn because he had been psyched out by Robles. And some conspiracy theorists took things a step farther, suggesting that Liu had accepted bribes from the Chinese mafia not to compete so that they could collect on large bets spread around the sportsbooks of Las Vegas and Macau.
One post to the Chinese language forum sina.com.hk, however, attracted the most attention. Under the alias “NikeInsider,” the poster made the shocking claim of first-hand knowledge that Liu had been forced to withdraw from the race by his sponsors at Nike.
Alleging to be a Nike employee, “NikeInsider” wrote that once corporate executives in the United States and China realized Liu could not win gold in Beijing, they agreed to orchestrate his withdrawal under the pretext of injury so that Liu could “save face” and Nike could minimize the financial losses that would surely result from his defeat on the track.
“If Liu Xiang cannot defend his title (or even win any medal),” the poster wrote, “then his value would definitely shrink and we would receive no return on the vast sum that we invested in him as spokesperson.”
A remarkable example of the far-reaching influence and impact of the Internet on the shaping of public opinion, news of the post spread rapidly and become a major, international news story within hours. Online chatter regarding possible conspiracy reached such a level in the immediate wake of Liu’s withdrawal that Chinese censors removed all postings on the subject from Internet forums. China’s Central Propaganda Department also issued a bulletin to Chinese media in which they forbade reporters from criticizing Liu or speculating as to the reasons behind his withdrawal. It also instructed them to follow the party line