The face of the champion Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang looks out from billboards advertising Coca-Cola, Nike, Visa and many more names. But the Chinese sports ministry announced yesterday that Liu’s lucrative sponsorship days are over, at least until after the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The ministry said that it wanted Chinese athletes to focus on gold medals, not on more material rewards, to ensure that the nation achieves its best result at the Games in August 2008.

Liu Peng, the Sports Minister, said: “All the athletes, including those big stars, are forbidden from taking part in all kinds of social activities to avoid distractions from training. We face a very stern test at the 2008 Olympics. Everybody should stay focused.”

Commercial endorsements risked distracting athletes and were forbidden. Only those who sought permission from the ministry might be considered for an exception.

China is determined that the Beijing Olympics will be the moment when it eclipses the United States as the world’s top sporting power. China finished second in the medal table at the Athens Olympics in 2004, but since then the rest of the world had narrowed the gap in some of China’s strongest disciplines, the Sports Minister said, and the country had also slipped in some team sports.

It was in Athens that Liu won gold over 110 metres and found himself a national star overnight. At Chinese airports, posters for Visa credit cards bear his image. His face is on advertisements for the domestic courier service EMS, as well as those promoting Yili milk and selling Kia cars. Liu’s lucrative commercial endorsements earned him more than $3 million last year.

Half the money goes to the athlete and the rest to the State, which covers all costs of training China’s athletes. However, those sums are being seen as irrelevant when compared with the chance for gold.

Wei Hanfeng, the editor of Sports Pictorial magazine, said: “When compared with a gold medal, sports authorities see the money from sponsorship as just too small to bother with.”

Some athletes have already paid a price. The double Olympic champion diver Tian Liang, 27, was expelled from the national team after the Athens Olympics in 2004, accused of skipping training to attend to his commercial obligations.

His sponsorships ranged from soft drinks and electric bicycles to seafood snacks and running. He remains in exile from the national squad.

The Olympic champion swimmer Luo Xuejuan, 22, has been overlooked by national selectors for the Asian Games next month. She had become the face of a shampoo brand.

Even Liu Xiang has come in for official criticism. Wei Jizhong, the former secretary-general of China’s Olympic Committee, said: “Liu’s commercial endorsements create a negative influence.”

THE MONEY GAME

David Beckham was the highest-earning footballer last year. He has a sponsorship deal with Gillette worth £9 million over three years

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