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In American sports, we call that a “game-time decision.” An athlete arrives at the stadium on game day and gives it a go in pre-game warm-ups. If his body holds up, and he shows that he can withstand the pain, the athlete will go ahead and play. If he can’t, he won’t. In this case, Liu gave it a go but could not bear the pain in his Achilles.

If the government is to blame for anything here, it is the suppression of information regarding the injury. With reports of “spotty attendance” in the Games’ early-round competitions, Chinese officials were certainly aware that a race without Liu would negatively affect the gate at the Bird’s Nest for the qualifying heats. Tickets for the 110-meter finals were already selling for ten to twenty times their face value in anticipation of Liu’s historic triumph, according to reports. Therefore, it is my opinion that they did everything they could to ensure the capacity crowd that Liu’s appearance guaranteed.

The Nike conspiracy, however, seems the most unlikely. After the sweatshop scandals of the 1990s, Nike already had a less-than-stellar reputation in the Far East, and the last thing they needed, if they wanted to continue extending their brand throughout Asia, was for it to come out that they forced China’s Olympic hero to lay down so they could protect their investment in him. That would be a public relations disaster from which they could never recover.

Add to that the lesson Nike undoubtedly learned from Reebok’s failed campaign leading up to the 1992 Barcelona Games. The promotion, which included a costly Super Bowl ad, asked, “Who will be the world’s greatest athlete? Dan or Dave? To be settled in Barcelona.” The ad featured two American decathletes, Dan O′Brien and Dave Johnson, both of whom were favored to medal in Spain. The only problem was that O′Brien failed to qualify for the Olympics. After having already committed millions of dollars to the campaign, Reebok was left scrambling for a new angle.

Following Reebok’s disastrous campaign, sponsors have been careful not to put all their eggs in one basket. And as much as Nike may have wanted Liu to recapture gold, they used his great disappointment as an opportunity to honor him anyway. In a fullpage color ad on the back of China Daily in the days following his withdrawal, they ran a color headshot of Liu with the following words printed alongside it:

Love Competition

Love Risking Your Pride

Love Winning It Back

Love Giving It Everything You’ve Got

Love the Glory

Love the Pain

Love Sport Even When It Breaks Your Heart

CONCLUSION:

SUMMARY

5 Oswalds:

1) Chapter 3 Major League Baseball owners collude (poorly) in the mid-1980s against free agents

2) Chapter 9 Alan Eagleson conspires with hockey owners to keep salaries down in the NHL

3) Chapter 1 Unwritten gentleman’s agreement prevents base-ball from integrating until 1947

4) Chapter 2 NBA has quota system for black players in its early years

5) Chapter 15 Everyone closes their eyes to the growing steroid problem in baseball in mid-1990s

6) Chapter 12 Ty Cobb and Tris Speaker bet on (and possibly fix) games, yet stay in baseball

7) Chapter 25 Olympic gold medalist in the Women’s 100 meters hides a secret for decades

4 Oswalds:

1) Chapter 4 At least one of the Liston-Ali fights are fixed

2) Chapter 14 Cheaters in baseball steal signs, throw illegal pitches, and steal pennants

3) Chapter 7 Someone keeps Isiah Thomas off the 1992 Olympic Dream Team in Barcelona

4) Chapter 24 Conspiracy snatches the gold medal from the 1972 U.S. Olympic basketball team

5) Chapter 18 Unwritten agreement not to sign Japanese ball-players after 1965 (until Hideo Nomo)

6) Chapter 21 Manager John McGraw conspires to fix baseball games in the early 1900s

7) Chapter 29 Bill Belichick and the Patriots illegally tape oppo nents’ defensive signals

3 Oswalds:

1) Chapter 11 Pete Rose has a secret agreement with Bart Giamatti

2) Chapter 10 The 1946 NFL Championship Game between Bears and Giants is fixed

3) Chapter