Superstars: Liu Xiang

Like Australian Cathy Freeman eight years ago in Sydney, Liu is the focus of China's Olympic athletics challenge and his August 21 showdown with the man who took his world record this year will be among the most-watched event of the Games.

When he triumphed in Athens, Liu became China's first Olympic track gold medallist -- and was immediately set up for four years of speculation of whether he could successfully defend the title on home soil in 2008.

Catapulted into multi-millionaire super-stardom he now "enjoys" the trappings of an international movie star, with his features on a million billboards and his every move accompanied by 24-hour security -- though he continues to live in a modest flat.

It was a situation that Freeman would recognise, though the adulation of 20 million Australians is dwarfed by the billion Chinese willing Liu on.

Freeman, Australia's most prominent Aboriginal sportsperson, was chosen to light the Olympic flame in Sydney but spent most of the two years leading up to the Games in the United States and Europe, partly to avoid the spotlight.

After delivering the expected gold medal she collapsed to the track in a mixture of relief and emotional and physical exhaustion in one of the enduring Olympic images.

It was little surprise when a few months later she announced she was taking a year off to get over it all and though she returned to action in 2002, she retired for good in 2003 despite earlier promises she would race in the Athens Games.

Victory for Liu would also take some topping and the 28-year-old world champion would no doubt be forgiven if he decided that there was little more he could achieve.

For a long time it seemed he needed only to avoid injury and stay on his feet in the final to retain his title, then along came Robles, who improved the world record by a hundredth of a second to 12.87 in June.

Robles showed it was not a one-off when he followed up with a 12.88 run in July, the joint second-fastest time ever alongside Liu's best, set in 2006.

The presence of such a formidable challenger might well help Liu focus on his race and less on the furore surrounding it but Colin Jackson, whose 1993 world record of 12.91 Liu matched in the 2004 Olympic final, thinks the pressure might be too much.

"Liu Xiang must wake up every morning and see a picture of Robles in his head," the Briton said last month.

"One has a really huge amount of pressure on him and the other one has so much to gain.

"The majority of Chinese probably won't understand who Robles is and what he has done and they just expect Liu to turn up and win. But this guy can deliver the goods as well."