THERE is no doubt who drew first blood in the battle of sporting brands at this Olympics.

 

And, just for once, it was neither Nike nor Adidas.

 

As Li Ning moonwalked his way around the roof of the Bird’s Nest stadium to provide a stunning finale to Friday night’s astounding Olympic opening ceremony, it was easy to imagine eyes boggling and teeth being ground in Beaverton and Herzogenaurach.

 

Yes, the 45-year-old igniter of the Beijing cauldron is a bona fide Chinese sporting hero, having won three gold medals at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, where his country swept back onto the Olympic stage and diluted the impact of the Soviet-led boycott.

 

Yes, gymnastic skills must have come in very handy for the stunt which, as explained afterwards, was too difficult, and required too much practice, to have asked an active athlete to undertake it. .

 

But Li Ning also happens to be founder of the company that is the main domestic competitor for the two global sports apparel giants in the vast and much-coveted Chinese market.
 
According to figures provided to me by Adidas, they themselves now have 22 per cent of the Chinese footwear and sports apparel market measured by value, compared with 21 per cent for Nike and 16 per cent for Li Ning.

 

No doubt figures measured by unit sales [or provided by Nike] would tell a rather different story.

 

No matter - as the Big Two will know better than anyone, Friday’s spectacular has handed Li Ning, the man and the company, with a priceless, once-in-a-lifetime publicity coup.

 

Both, as it happens, reacted calmly to their business rival’s tour de force - extremely calmly in the case of Nike, which would make no comment.

 

Big idol in China

 

Adidas - which as the Games’s official sportswear partner had particular reason to feel aggrieved, or so you might have thought - said it had “no problem” with the choice of Li Ning.

 

“You have to understand a little bit what Li Ning means in China,” it said.

 

“He was the first Chinese athlete who became a millionaire.

 

“He is a big idol.”  

 

The European company, which has invested perhaps Euros 70 million(£54.66 million) in cash and value-in-kind in the Olympics over the past four years - and is set again to be the official sportswear partner in four years’ time in London, also emphasised the depth of its Olympic involvement.

 

For example, it says, “more than 3,000 athletes” - equivalent to 25-30 per cent of those present in Beijing – will be wearing Adidas gear.

 

So will more than 100,000 volunteers and officials.

 

The company also outfits 16 national Olympic teams, including China, Australia, Great Britain, Germany, France, Cuba, Ethiopia and St Kitts and Nevis.

 

It will be represented all told in 27 of the 28 official summer Olympic sports.

 

The odd one out?

 

The Hong Kong-based equestrian competitions.

 

Oh and, by the way, its goal is to make more than Euros1 billion (£780 million) of sales in China by 2010.

 

Before then, at the end of this year, China should become its second-biggest national market, after the US.

 

(In light of all this, it seems scarcely credible that I should be sitting here as I write this in a pair of Nike shoes.)

 

Honouring Olympic great and successful entrepreneur

 

Back to Li Ning, though, and if you were looking for confirmation of how deeply big business has penetrated the fabric of elite sport since the process got under way in earnest as the then gymnast was winning his gold medals in Los Angeles in 1984, the culmination of Friday’s ceremony surely provides it.

 

Communist China, no less, chooses to climax the most extravagant coming-out party that the world has ever seen by honouring one of its most successful entrepreneurs.

 

I only hope this isn’t the start of a trend, or we may see Richard Branson wafting into the Olympic stadium in London in his hot-air balloon, or Phil Knight performing a slam dunk in 2016 in Chicago.

 

David Owen is a specialist sports journalist who worked for 20 years for the Financial Times in the United States, Canada, France and the UK. He ended his FT career as sports editor after the 2006 World Cup and is now freelancing.