The Chinese Athletics Association has found in their midst 'a national treasure' in Olympic champion Liu Xiang. And right up there with the pandas, this is a treasure the country intends to protect and squeeze the maximum worth out of.
There are currently 500 national team athletes and coaches in five specialist track and field camps around the country, all making intense preparations for 2008. This is the biggest athletics training camp China has ever put together, according to Feng Shuyong, vice-director of the association.
Foreign specialist coaches are being flown in by the dozen to lend international expertise, and the programme is intertwining study trips abroad for the Chinese athletes and coaches.
This concerted effort is paid for by the central government, which is desperate for track success in particular in 2008. Previously, Chinese athletes spent most of their time training at a local level with their provinces. But this time round the Olympic hosts have more resources to spend so the elites were picked out straight after the National Games in October and thrown headlong into a three-year turbo programme. 'It gives us a great advantage over previous years,' Feng said.
However privileged these athletes might feel, one in particular has been given exalted status. The association has formed a 'Liu Xiang Work Team', a committee made up of all the bigwigs in Chinese athletics, to 'make him feel comfortable in life and in training', Feng said.
The committee's project is to examine all aspects of the young man's life to ensure he pulls off a repeat performance of his stunning victory in the 110-metre hurdles.
One of the first conclusions the committee agreed was: no more endorsement deals. The Shanghai native has already signed five commercial contracts - placing him in the top-three in the national earnings list for entertainers and sports celebrities - and the work team said enough is enough. 'Companies can pay to use his image, but there will be no more appearances,' Mr Feng said.