Olympics 2008

I'd like to begin today's piece by requesting that you book the afternoon of Thursday, 21 August off.

The reason? To watch one of the most-eagerly anticipated, and potentially most-watched races in Olympic history.

Eight years ago, Australia's Cathy Freeman was under immense pressure as her entire nation expected her to win the 400m in front of her home crowd at the Sydney Games - she duly obliged.

But that pales into insignificance when you consider the weight of expectation resting on the shoulders of China's 110m hurdler Liu Xiang at this year's Olympics.

Freeman had around 20m Aussies believing she would win in 2000, Xiang will have a few more, 1.3bn more in fact, or one-fifth of the population of the planet.

Liu is well-placed to meet those demands, though, as he is the current Olympic and world champion and world record holder.

At the Athens Games in 2004, he equalled Briton Colin Jackson's world record of 12.91 seconds to set a new Olympic best and become China's first male track gold medallist.

And if that isn't enough to have a nation believing there is nothing that can stop you, Liu has since lowered the world record to 12.88 seconds, knocking 0.03 off the previous best.

That in itself marked a huge reduction as American Renaldo Nehemiah's world record of 12.93, set in 1981, was only lowered to 12.92 by compatriot Roger Kingdom in 1989 and then again to 12.91 in 1993 by Jackson.

The 110m hurdles final is scheduled for 1435 BST on 21 August. However, before you go and bet your house on a Liu win, remember the trials and tribulations of recent British Olympians.

Jackson was clear favourite to win gold in Barcelona, but could only manage seventh, while Paula Radcliffe's marathon woes in 2004 were well documented.

Then again, Britain had their own Freeman in Sydney in Sir Steve Redgrave, who overcame tremendous pressure and expectation to win his fifth rowing gold.

Today I want to know who you think has put in the most outstanding Olympic performance considering the pressure they were under, and who put in the worst.