http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7936798.stm

But his image took a battering when he pulled out of the Olympics because of injury. And now some say he is failing to carry out his political duties.

Seldom can such a popular figure have fallen from favour so quickly.

"Thirteen seconds was more than enough for Liu Xiang to cross 10 hurdles and grab an Olympic gold medal," ran a story by the state-run news agency Xinhua.

"But it took the Chinese hurdler two years to arrive at the political arena," it added, referring to Liu's seeming reluctance to do his political job.
However, this is what I've got from Tengxun Sports (another pretty buff state run media system):
The initial rumor was probably started by another independent commentator Song Zude, not the state ran media Xinhua.
http://sports.qq.com/a/20090211/000209.htm
Song Zude claims that Liu Xiang went overboard for his marketing contracts and forgot about training and feigned injury. Rumors spread around the independent Chinese blogosphere. Xinhua, having a penchant

http://sports.qq.com/a/20090227/000521.htm
The actual state run athlete agency denounces all this as malicious rumor and that Liu Xiang was indeed injured.

Irregardless, the "fall from grace" by the "state media" was misinterpreted. Xinhua has a tendency to also post blogs to show that it caters to independent media and viewpoints. BBC should at least learn how to read Chinese before going off with erroneous conclusions and misinforming the general public.