The majority of people here see Liu Xiang, the injured poster-boy of the Games, as a classic hard-luck story. Those same people did not know about Daniel Cormier.

Cormier is a 29-year-old wrestler from Louisiana who has had a battle with life far tougher than any bout. When Cormier was 7, his father was shot and killed during an argument with his father-in-law. At school, he lost a friend and a cousin in separate car crashes and when he was at Oklahoma State University, his best friend was one of ten in the basketball team who died when a plane went down.

Five years ago, though, there was more. An 18-wheel truck slammed into the back of the car in which sat his three-year-old daughter, Kaedyn. She was killed instantly.

As an athlete, Cormier dealt with his daughter's death in a way that does not surprise. He started doing it all for her and pledging his victories to her. He put himself under more pressure because he felt he wanted to present his career as a gift to her memory.

Back to reality for golden generation

Olympic heroes will discover if the last 17 days has been a life-changing experience or a glorious but brief interlude

• Team GB to be rewarded with gold for gold

• Hard work starts now as British sailors look towards London 2012

• Public support gained from success in Beijing needs to last four years

BACKGROUND

• How the Brits became world beaters

• London double-decker arrives in Beijing

• Olympics proves capacity for greatness

• New dawn for British sport as Olympic sun sets

Multimedia

• Simon Barnes in Beijing

• Bring back the tug-of-war

• Top 100 Olympic athletes of all time

Related Links

• Wiggins fails to deliver final flourish

• I am so sorry, hurdler Xiang tells Chinese

• Reade recovers from unexpected crash

At the Athens Games in 2004, he was a minute away from winning bronze when the bout turned and he lost. He did not handle the disappointment well, indeed that was the start of a regression where he was not only failing to fulfil himself, but he was losing control emotionally, too. At one championships, he started picking fights with his team-mates.

The turnaround came after hard words from the United States head coach, Kevin Jackson. Cormier started seeing a psychologist and began to learn he could mourn his daughter without having to fight for her.

He started looking forward to Beijing and saw his sport as a light in his life. He thus arrived here as world No3, widely regarded as a gold-medal contender and captain of the US team.

He was due to wrestle yesterday and had to weigh in for the 96kg class on Wednesday afternoon at 3.15pm. It is no secret in the sport that Cormier has had problems in making the weight, but his coaches believed he was on target.

He made the weight, but he had to lie down afterwards and two hours later he still had not got up - he had not even been able to drink. He was taken to a clinic where his kidneys were tested and the tests indicated that he needed to go to hospital. The doctor said he could no longer compete. “We didn't have to restrain him, but we did have to control him emotionally,” Jackson said.

Yesterday morning, Cormier spoke to Jackson from his hospital bed and insisted that he would compete. His wife, Robin, had to insist otherwise.

But, as Jackson said, having set so much against what the Games could do for him, Cormier “could be affected for a very long time.

"When you put those things together, you must think you are jinxed,” Jackson said. “It's something he's going to have to live with. He will regret it for ever.”