It was quoted in the earlier papers: Liu Xiang needs to win the Gold in the 110m hurdles. If he fail to win in his homegound, what he achieve in the past (Gold in Athens) will be back to square one.
Based on form, he is nowhere near his personal best & the Cuba guy just broke the world record in 12.87 sec.
Now Liu Xiang is very famous cos he achieved Gold medal in 2004, hence this led to INSTANT FAME & became the national hero/famous icon in China with his face on billboards everywhere, appearance in ads, commercial etc & he is making tons of money.
Remember if he lost in Beijing, all the fames will be GONE! Liu Xiang knows where he stand based on his recent form & timing.
Furthermore, he is the defending champion & on homeground, the pressure is even greater on cos he CANNOT lose...even he run his personal best, he still can't beat the Cuba guy who is the world record holder!
SO if I am him, IN MY PERSONAL VIEW...I will definely say I have sore tendon & pull out of the race. WHY? ...so people can still remember who I am, ...I do not want to embrasses myself in front of my home crowd cos the whole people in China is looking forward to this race!
The pressure to win gold is so big & I am nowhere near my best to win...not sure even the top 3 based on recent timing So if I pull out...I still have a chance to appear in ads, commercial & be very famous... cos I am after all still an Olympic Champion!
BUT if I compete & I lost, then people will forget about me...I will lost everything....HMM....so I rather opt for the first option...
Anyway...the world can judge by how he appears fine one moment, another moment in uncomfortable looks before the race...trying to imply he is not feeling good...an injury or not, one look, anyone can tell whether it is real or not.