Just want to hear some views on how this might pan out. If China hauls up the biggest number of gold records, or say Liu Xiang wins the 110 hurdle race, do you think companies like Nike would use his face as an endorsement of their products in the Western world and plaster it everywhere?

I do think he will be famous (even more so than he is), esp b/c China isn't known for track & field. It would be great to see him represent.

"Live Free or Die"

They were using Liu Xiang over here in the build up to the Olympics on random billboards and mags

A vegetarian who eats fish is like a pacifist who occasionally punches a small child in the face!

It would be interesting to see what happens around the world, since the Chinese are dominating the gold medals. But I think at least in the US it's unlikely. Here, the press is focused on just two things: Michael Phelps, and the young age of the Chinese women's (girl's?) gymnastics team. They are not trying to turn any Chinese athlete into a popular figure over here.

"The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away."

Seriously doubt it. They don't use star athletes from other Western countries to market products to the US, so why would they start with China? Especially since, presumably, Liu Xiang beat out a bunch of Westerners to win that medal.

The Chinese will have lucrative endorsement deals in China, and to a lesser extent around China's sphere of influence in SE Asia....and that's it.

This is true. The U.S. has a very parochial view of asians and sports. In some sports forums people are still trying to dismiss China's gold medals as just "skill" event medals. If you look at the events China has excelled in it's a pretty broad range with very athletic events like weightlifting, diving, and gymnastics.

People are just full of shit. It's a combination of xenophobia and racism but the U.S. will probably never have a foreign star grace their cover. Even a guy like David Beckham gets only 15 minutes of fame before he's shuffled away.

There are some foreign athletes do get many endorsement deals in the USA, Anna Kournikova and Maria Sharapova come to mind and both play for Russia.

Track & field stars in general do not get endorsement deals at all, I hardly see any famous 100M dash stars get any long term deals. You'll have to go way back 20 years ago to see a star like Carl Lewis getting a lot of deals. Tim Montgomery and Marian Jones' dope scandals probably put a negative toll on track athlete stars.

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Yes, but there's a very specific reason why those two athletes get lots of endorsement deals...and it doesn't have anything to do with their winning ways.

Nope. Won't happen. They'll plaster it over Chinese faces all over asia tho.

It has absolutely nothing to do racism and more with nationalism and smart marketing. Why would they use a Non-american athlete, in sports that most Americans don't even care about?

Like it or not, chinese athletes have no market value over here unless he/she is unsually attractive or so good that they transcend his/her sport.

Yao Ming is a perfect example, he was EVERYWHERE when he first came to the states. He had a good story, he was really tall chinese guy coming to a country where no one respects him and he doesnt know the language. Typical underdog story to sell to the masses.