Chapter 512: The Olympics
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The Olympic Games were steadily approaching and the athletes began their final training.
The training venue of the U.S. track and field team was in Los Angeles. As the second largest city in the United States, and the home of Hollywood, the entertainment industry in Los Angeles was quite developed. This attracted young people. Many young athletes on the U.S. track and field team agreed to come to Los Angeles to train because of the vibrancy of the city.
However, they soon discovered that they simply did not have the time or energy to entertain themselves. Their training schedule was full from morning to evening and there was no rest on weekends. The training was very intense. After a day of training, everyone wanted to go to bed and sleep. It was impossible to go out to the nightclubs.
This kind of training was very dull, and remaining committed was a kind of suffering. As an athlete, one should adapt to the pain of training. Moreover, Dai Li said that the ones who couldn’t adapt to this kind of training should just scram and go home.
People had self-esteem, especially athletes who were selected to be on the U.S. national team. Each was a top-notch track and field talent. Their egos were huge. Such people would not give up easily. No one would willingly withdraw. No one was willing to be regarded as a weakling by the other athletes.
…
On the training ground, Ellis Mett crossed the last hurdle and rushed past the finish line.
He looked back to see that he finished in 12.98 seconds.
Mett was shocked.
“My G.o.d, I ran under 13 seconds. Is this a dream?” Mett couldn’t help but exclaim.
You could win any compet.i.tion if you can the 110 meter hurdles in under 13 seconds.
…
Franz Muller held a pole in his hands and looked up at the bar in front of him.
He had never tried this height before. Six meters!
He took a deep breath and accelerated.
He gained support, had a great take-off, and, with the flexibility of the pole, he completed the extension, pendulum, upswing, the turn, and various other actions.
He then fell on a thick cotton pad.
Muller quickly got up and looked up at the bar as soon as possible, confirming that it did not fall.
“6 meters! I did it!” Muller couldn’t help but shout in excitement.
Muller knew what vaulting over six meters in men’s pole vaulting meant. The record for this event in the Olympics was only 5.97 meters!
Everywhere on the training ground the same thing was happening, athletes tested their limits and kept getting better and better.
…
The Olympic Games this year was going to take place in Brazil. For the American audience, this Olympic Games was very suitable for them to watch. It was in the Americas, so the time difference was negligible and the American audience wouldn’t miss any match.
However, a few days after the start of the games, the results of the U.S. Olympic delegation were somewhat unsatisfactory.
In this Olympic Games, the first major events were shooting, weightlifting, swimming, diving, judo, and road cycling. Among them, shooting, swimming, and road cycling were all events the United States was strong in. They were also on America’s gold medal list.
However, the compet.i.tion was fierce in these events, and the United States could not win everything. Shooting, for example. Although the United States had the most shooting athletes in the world, China, South Korea, Russia, Italy, and Germany also had top athletes. American athletes did not have any advantage. In road cycling, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy and other European countries were not inferior to the United States.
In these two events, the U.S. team’s performance was relatively normal, and the results were similar to previous years. However, swimming dragged down the entire American delegation.
In swimming, the United States was the best. The U.S. could always expect to win gold. The U.S. team had even more gold medals in swimming events than track and field. There were 34 gold medals in the Olympic swimming events. If the U.S. team performed well, they could get 15 or 16 gold medals, almost half of the total gold medals in the swimming events. In comparison, in the track and field events, the American team could only get around ten gold medals.
However, the recent doping scandal also affected many swimmers. It caused a decline in the strength of the U.S. swimming team. With their strength lessened, the number of gold medals the United States would win would also naturally decline.
Because the swimming was a bit disappointing, track and field became the last straw to clutch at for many Americans.
…
It was the first day of track and field events. At nine thirty in the morning, the Olympic track and field compet.i.tion officially began, starting with the men’s discus qualifier.
The discus required a combination of strength and technique. Athletes didn’t necessarily need a lot of weight, but they had to possess good skills and excellent balance.
European countries have always conquered this event. Germany, was especially good at this event. Other countries such as Austria, Hungary, Belgium, Poland, Estonia, which all had a connection to Germany, were also very strong in the discus event.
As for the United States, they were not as strong as Germany, but they were also at a world-cla.s.s level.
However, the impact of the doping scandal caused the top discus throwers in the United States to withdraw from the Olympics. The newly recruited athletes were not very strong. Even Dai Li could not find talented players for this event. Therefore, although the U.S. team sent three athletes to partic.i.p.ate, they were all eliminated in the qualifying round.
This was a very bad result for the U.S. team. In the previous Olympic Games and World Champions.h.i.+ps, the United States may not have gotten medals, but they at least had one athlete make it into the finals.
…
The Russian team had an athlete who entered the finals in the men’s discus event. The Russian coach Melklov was satisfied with this result.
“Some athletes have entered the finals. Our target in the men’s discus event has been met.” Melklov looked subconsciously in the direction of the U.S. team and said, “No one on the U.S. team made it into the finals, right?”
“That’s correct,” deputy head coach Ignagave confirmed. “The Americans sent three athletes to partic.i.p.ate, but they ended up in the bottom half of the rankings. They were nowhere close to making the final!”
“As expected, this year’s U.S. team still has a large number of athletes, but there aren’t many top-quality ones among them,” Melklov smiled casually.
…
At the headquarters of the American Track and Field a.s.sociation, CEO Williams watched the performance of the U.S. track and field team.
“No one entered the finals. They really aren’t strong enough! It seems like we shouldn’t hope for too much from this Coach Li. If it can’t be done, it can’t be done.” Williams shook his head.