Chapter 539: A Great Day of Miracles (Part One)

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

It was another Sunday, the second-to-last day of the Olympics.

The final for the women’s high jump was starting on the field.

Two American players had advanced to the finals. One was an experienced 32-year-old athlete named Jennifer and the other was a young athlete named Ayman.

The older athlete was too old, while the younger was too young. This was thought of the entirety of the U.S. team in this Olympic Games. Influenced by the scandal of doping, the most of the American track and field team had not shown up. Therefore, it had to rely on its old athletes who were no longer in their prime and freshmen who were far from being mature.

However, the team had acquired 20 gold medals, a record for the American team.

Normally, athletes past their prime were not well regarded. However, today was different; everyone feared the older athlete because she was American

Those 20 gold medals really were scary! It showed the power of the American team. The U.S. team had brought many dark horses into compet.i.tions this year. There were veteran athletes returning to their primes and young sportsmen winning huge upsets. No one dared to doubt the team might make other miracles happen.

Dai Li was quite relaxed because all of the women were evenly matched, so the State Scale would play a big part in deciding the winner.

There were 17 athletes in that day’s final. Normally there would only be 12 players in the final, but six of the women tied in the qualifier.

The initial height was 1.88 meters, which was quite easy for the women in the final. All of them made it over.

The second height was 1.93 meters, which stopped six jumpers from continuing.

Then, the height reached 1.97 meters. Ayman was knocked out here and, in the end, only five athletes were promoted: Jennifer and athletes from Spain, Bulgaria, Russia, and Italy.

Unexpectedly, the five remaining all failed to jump over the next height, which was two meters.

It was quite disappointing that, in the Olympics, none of the women could jump over two meters. The world record for this event was 2.09 meters and the Olympic record was 2.06 meters. In recent Olympics, the gold medal would be gotten by someone who jumped 2.03 meters or higher.

This being the case, the height was lowered by one centimeter, making it 1.99 meters.

Jennifer was the first to try this jump. For her, 1.99m should not be too difficult, she could easily jump it when she was young. Even though she was 32 now, it was not that hard.

She took a deep breath, ran up, jumped into the sky before and crossed over the bar quite gracefully.

1.99 meters! Her first try had been a success!

The coaches of the American team roared with joy. This successful jump had meant Jennifer should win.

This event’s tiebreaker worked similarly to the way overtime does in some sports. Because Jennifer had cleared the bar on her first try, everyone else only got one try to make it as well.

For example, if Jennifer succeeded in her first attempt, other athletes would be out of the running if they failed on their first try. If someone else succeeded on their first attempt, the height would be increased for the successful players and it continued until the winner was decided.

Now, the other four players needed to succeed in their first jump if they wanted to jump for the next height as Jennifer had been successful on her first try.

As a result, the pressure on the athletes left to go increased. Their three tries had just turned into one.

Affected by the pressure, the Italian and Croatian athletes failed and were kicked out, putting more pressure on the other two players.

The Russian jumper followed also failed, meaning that she, together with the failed Italian and Croatian players, would earn bronze medals at least.

The high jump permits multiple people to win bronze and silver medals, but the gold medal is only given to one.

So, the eliminated hoped that the still-untested Spanish athlete also failed. If she failed, the four of them would be tied for second place and they would all get silver medals instead of bronze ones.

Their wishes came true. The Spanish athlete b.u.mped the bar down and then failed. The four of them all got the silver medals.

The gold medal was Jennifer’s.

…

“21 gold medals now!” Downey had a huge smile on his face. “With the last 4×400 meters relay races, we will get 23 gold medals!

“23 gold medals aren’t enough. As I said before, we are aiming 25 gold medals,” Dai Li told him.

“Haven’t you given up on that yet? 25 gold medals, that’s quite difficult. We are still two away from that goal. Getting 23 gold medals is excellent. There are 47 gold medals in total for track and field events and we got half of them. Isn’t that satisfying? No team in track and field history has ever been able to get 23 gold medals in just one year!” Downey said.

“Well, we may be witnessing a 24th winner soon enough.” As Dai Li said this, he pointed at the javelin compet.i.tion.

The final of the men’s javelin was about to begin.

“The javelin?” Downey shook his head and said, “That has never been our strength.”

“The men’s pole vault was not our strength, either,” Li answered with a smile.

“In the pole vault, Muller was quite competent, but we can’t expect every event to have a Muller. Marcus Allen is in the final of the javelin throw. I don’t believe he has the strength of Muller,” Downey said.

Dai Li shook his head and explained: “In the pole vault, Muller was strong, but his opponents were also not bad. That is different from this event. Marcus Allen is not as competent, but his rivals are of similar strength. The one earning the gold medal may not be the strongest athlete as long as he overcomes the others. That means either he has to be strong or his opponents must be weak. Now that we know he isn’t strong, why not pray for the weakness of his rivals?”

…

20 minutes later, Downey had forgotten how he had questioned Li. He celebrated more than anyone else.

The American Marcus Allen had acquired the gold medal with a throw of 85.38 meters. The German player who came in second, threw for 85.32 meters, so the American team won by just six centimeters.

In the javelin event, six centimeters is a very small difference. When looked at as part of the bigger picture, six centimeter was equal to 7/10000 of the total distance. It was quite a pity for the German team to lose because of 7/10000 of the total distance. However, it was thrilling for the American team.

This win was also the worst one in the recent Olympic Games. The world record for the men’s javelin was 98.48 meters and the record at the Olympics was 90.57 meters. The winners’ results at the last several Olympic Games were all over 88 meters.

This echoed what Dai Li said before the event, the partic.i.p.ants had not been very strong. As an athlete, if one wants to win, there are only two possibilities: be strong enough to overcome the others or don’t be as weak as the others.

If you want to be strong, you have to work at it. If you want others to be weaker than you, it is tough to make your compet.i.tion weaker. In sports, the compet.i.tion is rather fair. As an athlete, it is basically impossible to weaken the compet.i.tor. The only real thing an athlete can do is become stronger and defeat his opponents on the field.

…

On the track, the men’s 1500m was about to start.

The American athlete, Lamon, was in the final of this event. Lamon was 25 years old this year. He had partic.i.p.ated in many international compet.i.tions and won the IAAF Super Grand Prix. Being experienced and compet.i.tive, he was one of the few athletes who did not fall prey to the performance-enhancing drug scandal.

Lamon was likely to win the champions.h.i.+p, but he was going to be challenged. Algeria, Uganda, Kenya and other African countries all had strong runners.

This was another event in which compet.i.tors were similar in terms of strength. Unlike the high jump or the javelin throw, the athlete couldn’t try multiple times, so the State Scale didn’t work.

It all depends on Lamon now. Dai Li took a deep breath, hoping that Lamon would pleasantly surprise him.

At the moment, Lamon was standing on the track. His mind was not on the race, however, but the awards ceremony for the men’s javelin.

Lamon had arrived in Rio de Janeiro with the U.S. team 10 days ago. In the eight days of compet.i.tion, he had witnessed American athletes win champions.h.i.+ps and gold medals one by one.

Among them, there was Jimmy Elvin, who had dominated an era; Justin Alexander, an athlete who had made remarkable comeback after his suspension; Shawn Ford, who many had thought had pa.s.sed his prime; Elis Meter, who hadn’t been supposed to make it past the first round; and Franz Muller, who hadn’t even qualified. They had all won gold medals.

Just that day, he had seen the experienced Jennifer and the mediocre Marcus Allen win champions.h.i.+ps. He was in turmoil.

Lamon could win this event. He had come in first at the domestic qualifier. The doping scandal didn’t affect him at all.

In comparison to Elvin, Alexander and Ford, he was young. 25 was the prime of an athlete’s career.

He was more experienced than Meter and Muller. He had won the IAAF Super Grand Prix.

Compared with Jennifer and Marcus Allen, who had just won their champions.h.i.+ps, he was more talented. He wasn’t a common athlete, he was the best in his event.

They can get the gold medal, so can I! When Lamon thought of winning a gold medal, he got excited and felt more confident.

In the eight days of track and field race, he had envied so many times. Every day he could see several teammates showing off their gold medals. And today, he would fight for his own gold medal.

…

Dai Li looked at his timer.

“The runners are going a bit slow. If it continues at this speed, the final time will be more than 3 minutes and 50 seconds.” He said, talking to himself.

The men’s 1500m was not a split run, so the speed of the runners depended on the speed of the athletes in the front. Now, the front-runner was not very fast, so others were going more slowly.

The world record for this event was 3 minutes and 26 seconds, and the Olympic record reached 3 minutes 32 seconds. A final time of 3 minutes and 50 seconds would not be satisfying.

“The runners are slower and more energetic. The final lap will be fierce, ” Downey said, standing next to Li.

“That is where Lamon’s strength lies. He is not great at allocating his energy and retaining his stamina, but he is great in the final sprint,” Dai Li said.

As the head coach, he was well-acquainted with the strengths and weaknesses of his athletes.

Sure enough, after entering the final lap, Lamon’s pace picked up and, in the final 100 meters, he was in the lead.

“This race will be ours.” Dai Li pa.s.sed his own judgment.

“Will we really get 25 gold medals?” Downey suddenly realized that it was possible.

Lamon began his final sprint, crossing the finish line in first and getting exactly 3 minutes and 50 seconds, as Dai Li had expected.

Unexpectedly, the American track and field team had won 3 gold medals.

With the 4×400 meters relays, the team would get 5 medals of gold.

Adding to the previous 20 gold medals, the American track and field team had actually won 25 gold medals at this Olympics.

Dai Li had been correct at his interview yesterday!