There cannot be many Olympic athletes who have faced as much pressure as Australia’s Cathy Freeman did in Sydney 2000. She lit the Olympic flame at the opening ceremony and then just 10 days later lined-up once more in front of millions of TV viewers and 110,000 spectators in the Olympic stadium for the 400m final, a race that the whole of Australia seemed to presume was already hers by right!

Advance eight years, and whilst we do not yet know who will be given the privilege to light the flame of Games of the XXIX Modern Olympiad, it is clear that Beijing’s Olympic National stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest for its architectural design, will provide a high pressure cauldron of national sporting optimism surrounding one man in particular, Liu Xiang.

While Freeman came to the Sydney Olympic Games as the reigning double World 400m champion and athletics' heroine of both Australia and its indigenous aboriginal population, next summer in Beijing 110m Hurdler Liu Xiang will bring with him an equal if not heavier baggage of expectations.

On the shoulders of the third richest sports and entertainment star in China rests the sporting fortunes of the nation in what is the Olympics’ number one sport, and given that it takes place in the main stadium, the most visible.

Liu Xiang’s gold medal in Athens 2004 was the country’s first ever for a male track and field athlete, and nothing less than gold again will suffice. Also, Liu Xiang is not just Olympic titleholder but reigning World champion and World record holder.

Though China came away from this year’s Osaka World Championships with three medals and was placed seventh on the placing table with 51 points, Liu Xiang is currently the only true international Chinese star in Athletics.

Last Friday (9 Nov), the General Secretary of the Athletic Association of the People's Republic of China, Mr. Chaoyi Luo was doing his best to lessen that personal pressure stating that "we will also strive for golds in women's marathon and walk in Beijing.”

The Xinhua news agency confirmed that the comment by the Luo was part of a general offensive being carried out by China's top sports officials in an effort on a more general level across all sports to reduce pre-Olympic expectations, especially the widely held belief that across all sports the country might be able top the overall medal table next year.

"We have never said that we wanted to take first position of the gold medal table," said Cui Dalin, Vice Minister of China's General Administration of Sport and Vice President of the Chinese Olympic Committee, at the press briefing last Friday about the preparations of Chinese athletes toward the Olympics next year.

"It is unrealistic for us to earn more gold medals than the United States, which had won more and more golds in major international competitions in the past three years, so I have to say that the gap between China and the United States has been even larger."

China had its first Olympic gold medal in Los Angles in 1984 and won 32 gold medals in Athens 2004, more than any other team except the United States.

"The United States got 31 gold medals from track and field and swimming this year (at World Champs), showing their dominative abilities in those two biggest storehouses, where China has little hope of gold medals except for Liu Xiang's 110m Hurdles," said Cui Dalin, comments which of course on a personal front only helps raise the needle on gauge of expectations surrounding the hurdler.

Should everything go to plan and the World record holder successfully negotiates the heats, quarter-final and then semi-final stages at next year’s Olympic Games, then Liu Xiang will line-up to attempt sporting immortality at 21:35hrs local time on Thursday 21 August for the final of the 110m Hurdles.

Will a ‘Thrilling Thursday’ to rival Freeman’s ‘Magic Monday’ (25 Sep 2000) await the then 25-year-old Shanghai born athlete?

Whatever the outcome it is set to be THE moment of the 2008 Olympic Games.

Chris Turner and Xinhua for the IAAF