Bird no more.
“Xiang” means flight in Chinese. For hurdler Liu Xiang, who graces everything from Coke cans, Nike spots, Lenovo brochures, China Mobile phone cards, milk ads, and to, well, door handles, his fall from grace may be harder for his advertisers than the average Chinese. Never mind sob articles in the Times that has an entire nation in mourning. Nobody crumbled in tears on the bus I was on while watching him walk off the race, and when I asked my father about it an hour later, “Did you see it?” He replied rather indignantly, “What? On TV? Of course not! Who has time for TV?”
All in all, there are still 1.3 billion people ready and willing to trade heels with him if need be. Go China.