Sports firms bet their shirts on London

A Li Ning Co Ltd store in Beijing. For the 2012 London Olympic Games, the Chinese sportswear company is providing gear to the diving, gymnastics, badminton, table tennis and shooting teams. [Photo/China Daily]

Analysts skeptical that sponsorship will deliver value for investment

Li Ning, nicknamed the "Prince of Gymnastics", dramatically lit the gigantic cauldron that was the Olympic flame at the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

Four years later, he was also one of the two last torchbearers on the Greek leg of the torch relay for the 2012 London Olympics.

In collaboration with the Greek weight lifter Pyrros Dimas, the 49-year-old handed over the flame solemnly at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, just as heavy rain abated and a rainbow appeared.

The winner of six medals at the 1984 Los Angeles Games is now the chairman and executive director of Li Ning Co Ltd, one of China's leading sportswear brands.

But just as his duties in Greece ended with rays of sunshine after turbulent skies, Li Ning the sports star will be hoping that the involvement by Li Ning the business of sponsoring the 2012 London games will mark the beginning of better fortunes for the sportswear company.

But analysts are skeptical.

Despite successfully boosting its business by sports marketing at the 2008 Games, Li Ning, they say, is far from getting help out of its current troubles from its London sponsorship.