nycdaug Chapter 213 Track and Field Competition Begins
Chapter 213 Track and Field Competition Begins
From day one, the Olympics became a gold medal battle between the Chinese and American teams. From the very first day, the competition between the two nations for the gold medal tally was a hot topic in the media.
The Chinese team performed admirably in shooting, diving, gymnastics, weightlifting and other events in the first seven days, winning a total of 22 gold medals and leading the medal standings by a wide margin.
The Chinese team won gold medals widely, with success in many events. This competition was a perfect storm of favorable conditions for the Chinese team; their only weakness lay in track and field and swimming.
This Olympics featured 28 sports with a total of 302 gold medals. Among them, athletics had 46 gold medals and swimming had 32 gold medals, totaling 78 gold medals, which accounted for more than a quarter of the total number of gold medals in the Olympics.
There's a saying at the Olympics: whoever wins in track and field and swimming wins the world.
In swimming, the Chinese delegation, thanks to the performance of its diving dream team, can still compete with the United States and Russia. However, in track and field events, the Chinese team has been thoroughly defeated by its main rivals. The large gap between them and their opponents in this major event has always been a major concern for the Chinese delegation.
This is the place in the world where China, a major sporting nation, receives the most criticism.
In contrast to the Chinese delegation, the American team has a very reasonable distribution of strength, leading the world in track and field and swimming, which are sports that represent the overall strength of the country.
Although the US team only won 9 gold medals in the first week of competition, they still appeared very confident. In an interview, a spokesperson for the US delegation stated that with the start of several swimming finals and the arrival of track and field events, they would sweep the Chinese track and field team away with a gold medal haul.
The Chinese delegation was not to be outdone, and subsequently stated that it would use a multi-pronged approach to make the United States lose its way in the sea of gold medals won by the Chinese team.
The American team then expressed their dissatisfaction, while the Chinese delegation pointed out that they had countless opportunities to win in various events such as table tennis, badminton, gymnastics, diving, and shooting. The American team could only silently acknowledge that the national sports system had its own advantages.
On August 15, after a week of intense competition in other Olympic events, track and field finally began its first day of competition.
Because it is the height of summer, the weather in Beijing is quite hot from noon to evening, which is not conducive to athletes performing well. Therefore, the Olympic track and field events are only held in the morning and evening.
The Olympic track and field events last for nine days, so the schedule is not as tight as the Grand Prix, and the competitions do not start until 9 a.m.
Before 8:30, the track and field team leaders and coaches had already appeared in the stands.
"Coach Cui, why don't you call the players over to meet with you?"
On the podium, Feng Yong chatted with Cui Dayong, the deputy director of the State General Administration of Sport.
“This is too disruptive to the athletes’ preparations. I’ll just watch the game from the perspective of a spectator. Before I came here, Director Liu specifically instructed me that the Olympics only come once every four years, and once we’re at the venue, we must not give any bad advice that could affect the athletes’ performance.”
When Feng Yong saw that Cui Dayong had not agreed to meet with each team member individually, he did not insist and chatted with Cui Dayong about all sorts of things.
"That young man over there must be Lu Wei. He looks much more imposing in person than in the video! He seems to be in good shape lately, right?"
Cui Dayong pointed at Lu Wei with great interest and asked.
"There shouldn't be any problem with the shot put preliminaries. There's also the 100-meter preliminaries this morning, but advancing shouldn't be a problem either."
Feng Yong spoke with an air of confidence.
Cui Dayong nodded in satisfaction, looked around the field, and then seemed to remember something.
"How is Liu Yangyu doing? Is he still the same as before these past two days?"
Upon hearing this question, Feng Yong tensed up slightly. He didn't speak immediately but mentally prepared his answer before slowly saying, "After feeling the Achilles tendon injury worsen during training a couple of days ago, he hasn't practiced on the training field; he's been training mostly in the weight room..."
At this point, neither of them spoke. Time seemed to stand still. After a while, Cui Dayong sighed.
Before this Olympics, everyone had high hopes for Liu Xiang. Many people felt that winning gold in the men's 110-meter hurdles was a more certain option than winning gold in Lu Wei's shot put and javelin.
It has been exactly four years since Liu Xiang first won a world championship to participate in the Olympics this year. In these four years, Liu Xiang has brought everyone too many surprises.
He first won the gold medal at the Athens Olympics, and then after breaking the world record, he performed a miracle in lane nine at the Osaka World Championships, firmly establishing himself as the world's number one hurdler in the men's 110 hurdles.
At the beginning of this year's indoor track and field championships, he even won first place in the 60 hurdles, an event he is not particularly good at.
Cui Dayong chatted briefly with a few coaches about Liu Feiren's situation before turning his attention back to the track and field.
"I came here today specifically to check on Lu Wei's condition. As of today, although we are still leading the United States in the gold medal standings, with the diving competition entering its final, intensive gold medal season, the track and field competitions have also begun."
If we don't have enough strength, our 12 gold medal advantage will only last two or three days, especially since Lu Wei's main competitors today are the American teams of Cantwell and Hoffa. If we can win the gold medal match against the US team, it would be worth two gold medals in total. Hopefully, we can see Lu Wei achieve excellent results!
Cui Dayong is the deputy director and secretary-general of the State General Administration of Sport. His appearance on behalf of the leadership is no different from the director's personal presence.
Today is the first day of the Olympic track and field competitions, but for the Chinese track and field team, they are under unimaginable pressure.
The men's shot put event, which currently seems to have the best chance of winning, directly competes with the United States. Winning would naturally motivate the entire team and even boost the morale of the whole delegation. However, if they lose, it's hard to imagine whether Chinese athletics can contribute a gold medal to the delegation in subsequent events.
As the head coach of the track and field team, Feng Yong felt unprecedented pressure. Track and field teams often struggle to compete with many of China's traditionally strong sports in major competitions, frequently even lagging behind in gold medal counts compared to table tennis and badminton.
Feng Yong's thinking seemed to have gotten stuck in a dead end, always going around in circles on these issues. Now he was worried that the Chinese track and field team would fail to win any medals at the Olympics, and then he would be held responsible.
"Old Feng, Lu Wei is on the track. The weather's a bit stuffy at the track and field. I wonder how he's adjusting!"
The morning shot put qualifying rounds had already begun, and as Feng Yong watched Lu Wei's figure, a sudden surge of hope arose within him. Judging from the current state of the Chinese track and field team, the hopes for a gold medal likely rested more heavily on him.