Dancer Paralyzed During Rehearsal for Beijing Opening Ceremony

Organizers of the Beijing Olympics acknowledged on Thursday that a dancer was paralyzed after a platform collapsed during rehearsals for the Opening Ceremony, the Chicago Tribune reports.

Liu Yan fell as she was rehearsing a sequence called "Silk Road" on July 27. The 26-year-old dancer was supposed to dance on a painting with scarves swirling around her. Liu is expected to be permanently paralyzed from the waist down.

After initially downplaying the incident, the news media in China have spun the story into a tale of national heroism.

Originally, Chinese news services reported that Liu missed a step and was slightly injured. There were no follow-up reports by Chinese news services for two weeks after the incident.

Reports of the accident leaked onto the Internet, which in China is the only avenue for news that has been censored, and the Chinese government was forced to admit what happened.

China Daily, a state-controlled media outlet, reported on its online edition Thursday that the accident occurred when Liu jumped onto a movable platform which ended up collapsing. Liu fell into a 10-foot deep shaft, her back landing on a steel track.

Liu was taken to a Beijing military hospital and underwent six hours of surgery. Her condition has been described by China Daily as "high position paraplegia." The newspaper stated that Liu might remain paralyzed from the waist down.

Chinese news services are attempting to make for lost time and have photographed Liu at the hospital making a victory sign with her fingers.

Liu said to China Daily, "I'm not going to feel sorry for myself. I fell at the Olympics, but I will be back to create beauty for the world in one way or another."

Another dancer performed Liu's sequence in the August 8 Opening Ceremony before the international community, while Liu watched from her hospital bed.