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Have you ever heard of Henrik Stenson? He's a very good golfer, but not exactly a household name (unless, of course, you are from Sweden). He is, however, the highest ranked golfer participating in this week's BMW Asian Open in Shanghai. Ernie Els, Luke Donald and David Howell all pulled out of the tournament, citing one ailment or another. It's leading some to wonder: Are the world's top athletes allergic to Shanghai? You may remember the mass exodus of top names at the ATP Tennis Masters Cup last fall. And more recently, many of the big guns did not make the trip to the World Short Course Swimming Championships. The South China Morning Post has taken to calling this the "Shanghai Sickness" -- we always thought that was food poisoning. Anyway, here's a list of athletes that don't seem to be current on their Shanghai shots:
Ernie Els
Luke Donald
David Howell
Andy Roddick
Lleyton Hewitt
Marat Safin
Rafael Nadal
Andre Agassi
Ian Thorpe
Grant Hackett
Michael Phelps
Roland Schoeman
Pussies. All of them.
Photo of Henrik Stenson -- who is immune to the "Shanghai Sickness" -- from golf.se.
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Who knows (or cares) about golf but with the swimming it was easy. The designated hotel was 1 hour minibus ride from the venue, swimmers were expected to attend all manner of banquets which qwuite naturally is boring and the finals were all too late in the evening. As one involved with sponsorship of the event - the rates were too high and few will return if they persist with those rates and that venue.
Shanghai is hardly a premium location so sponsors can't be bothered to chip in anything to team expenses as they don't sell much of the back of the event. As ever - economics