So there I was walking through the hall of the main press center when I was walking no more. I was stopped. It was wall-to-wall Chinese. Or should I say Great-Wall-to- Great-Wall?

They were all watching the great Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang in his 110-meter heat. Xiang is the biggest inidividual Chinese star of these games. Bigger than Li Dan, the rock-n-roll badminton player who threw his shoes into the crowd after winning the gold. Bigger than Yao Ming, the basketball star, or the national table tennis stars.

Xiang is so big he hasn't gone in public in three months. Hasn't been seen.

And now here he is, starting the 110 hurdles.

And then stopping.

The entire hall gasps. People cover their mouths in shocked." No one says anything, though when one is asked she says, "I'm too surprised to say anything."

One of the most anticipated sights of the Games - the Chinese star running in the finals on Thursday - didn't make it to the first hurdle.

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