CHINA should never have called upon woman shooter Du Li to try and win its first gold last Saturday.
Sorry if this sounds sexist, but women athletes have rarely been able to take on such a heavy burden and still triumph under demanding circumstances.
Furthermore, Du was the defending 10m air rifle champion - more pressure for her. I confess, I was not surprised when she crumbled in the final. She finished only fifth, and was reduced to a sobbing wreck in front of Chinese reporters.
Had the organisers chosen to hold the men's air pistol event as the first medal competition, China's eventual winner Pang Wei might have spared Du from the ordeal.
In no way am I underestimating the physical and mental excellence of women athletes.
But they can never achieve that "ice-in-the-veins", assassin- like mentality that top male athletes wield to win in the most pressurising situations.
Women are, after all, the more emotional of the two sexes. They need to "feel". When they dominate the competition, like weightlifter Chen Xiexia did when she won China's first gold in imperious fashion, there are few problems.
But when the score is tight, the stakes are high, and the difference between triumph and loss is minute, they think too much.
"What if I lose? What if I don't score enough? What if my trailing rival suddenly goes past me? How will the crowd react? How would I feel?"
Male athletes, especially those who are frequently put into such pressure situations, don't think at all. "Absolutely nothing," said swimmer Michael Phelps last week, when asked what he was thinking whenever he plunges into one of his record-breaking races.
The best male athletes instinctively believe they can win, simply by shutting out all negative thoughts and focusing on their strategies. It is in this seemingly emotionless state that NBA basketballers like Kobe Bryant and Le- Bron James make their frequent last-gasp winning shots - they believe they will score, no matter who their opponents are. Indeed, the more arrogant and "unfeeling" they are, the more likely they will succeed.
So, apologies to the fairer sex, but you are just not cut out for extreme pressure at the highest sporting levels.
Du is just one of many top women athletes who choked under high pressure. Jana Novotna lost the 1993 Wimbledon women's singles final to Steffi Graf, choking her final five games to the German. And Singapore's Li Jiawei also crumbled under the pressure of delivering an Olympic medal for the nation at the Athens Games, losing the semi-finals in seven sets after taking a threesets- to-one lead.
