Chapter 538: 538
Chapter 538: 20 Gold Medals
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The U . S . team was celebrating their gold medal when a steward came from afar towards Dai Li .
“Mr . Li, we have just received complaints from the Jamaican head coach, Fraser . He believes that what your athlete did interrupted the Jamaican athletes’ performances and led to their fault in the changeover,” the steward said .
“Nonsense! We nearly lost our relay baton,” Dai Li replied, the smile on his face disappeared .
“Mr . Li, according to regulations, if someone files a complaint, we have to follow up . Please cooperate and come with us, we need to ask you several questions . ” The steward had a cold expression on his face .
“All right, I will cooperate . Let’s go . ” Dai Li said . He glared at the Jamaican team .
Dai Li didn’t see Fraser in their group, so he must have gone to file his complaint .
“Fraser is such a sore loser . ” Dai Li curled his lip .
Following the steward, Dai Li went into an office . Fraser was there too . Other than them, a referee, his two assistants, and three other stewards were in the office .
“Everybody is set,” the chief steward said . “Both of you please present your arguments . Mr . Fraser, you filed the complaint, so you go first . ”
Fraser nodded and said, “I believe the U . S . team broke regulations when they purposely interrupted our athletes, which led to a mistake in our changeover . It is very unfair to leave the situation like this, I request a rematch!”
The steward turned around to face Dai Li and said, “Mr . Li, is there anything you wish to say?”
“Mr . Frazer’s complaint is unreasonable . Our athlete didn’t mean to interrupt anyone . ” Dai Li continued, “I bet all of you have watched the replay that showed our athlete make a mistake and nearly lose the relay baton . Thanks to her quick response, she grabbed it again . We still lost time . Is there a coach who would formulate a strategy that involved wasting time?”
Then Dai Li turned around to face Fraser and asked, “Mr . Fraser, if you were me, would you arrange such idiot tactics to interrupt your rival?”
Fraser snorted and Dai Li continued . “What’s more, if our athlete lost control of the relay baton, we would have lost the race . In addition, if you had succeeded in the changeover, then we would have wasted our time for nothing . Is that reasonable?”
The stewards nodded, discussed it together, then said, “We have listened to both of your statements . We discussed it and we believe that, in this case, the U . S . team did not mean to interrupt the Jamaican team . It was an accident . Mr . Fraser, if you refuse to accept our judgement, you can continue to initiate an arbitration with the IOC after the Olympics . ”
Fraser knew that there were no grounds for his complaint . Dai Li was right, no coach would formulate such a foolish tactic .
Fraser was not willing to admit defeat, so he replied immediately . “Even though the U . S . team didn’t mean to interrupt our athlete, they did . This is unfair to us and violates the principle of fair competition in the Olympic Games . We should get reparations . Even if we can’t get a rematch we should get a chance to run again . If our time is better than theirs, you should make the U . S . team give us back the gold medal . ”
“Give back?” Dai Li sneered and said, “Mr . Fraser, do you mean that the gold medal belongs to your team? I believe there isn’t a regulation that stipulates that the gold medal in the women’s 4×100m belongs to Jamaica?”
Fraser didn’t care about his mockery . He wanted to get the chance to get back the gold medal .
Those stewards discussed again, going over what Frazer presented .
Dai Li knew that he had to do something right now to prevent those stewards from making a foolish decision .
Dai Li said, “Stewards, referee, if my memory serves me right, the IAAF states “an athlete has to run through the whole course with the relay baton in their hand . If one drops his baton, he can leave the track to pick it up, and if he doesn’t affect other athletes, he doesn’t break regulation . ” Am I right?”
“It is true . ” The referee nodded .
“According to the replay and this rule, it can be easily estimated that our athletes didn’t break regulations, right?” Dai Li asked .
“Yes, all the technique movements are finished in her own track . ” The referee confirmed that .
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“The regulation makes it plain that leaving one’s own track to pick relay baton up without interrupting other athletes doesn’t break regulation . If all movements are finished in one’s own track, how can he interrupt others?” Dai Li said .
“Why can’t it be regarded as a foul if all movements are finished in one’s own track?” he retorted .
“If that is counted as illegal, then I can also file a complaint that the Jamaicans broke regulations . In the previous women’s 100m, the Jamaican stared at our athlete so intensely it affected our athletes’ ability . ” Dai Li replied .
Fraser snorted again . He didn’t retort, even though he wanted to, because there was no ground for him to stand on .
Dai Li continued . “I don’t deny that the Jamaican athlete made their mistake after our mistake and that there might be a causal relationship between them . That doesn’t mean that we’re responsible . In a relay race, it is very common to make mistakes . It is an integral part of the whole competition, we cannot replay whenever a fault happens, right?
“In conclusion, they should bear the responsibility for their own mistake . So I ask that the Competition Committee reject Mr . Fraser’s unreasonable request . ”
In the end, the committee didn’t approve Fraser’s request because they knew it was unreasonable .
After that episode, the competition went on . The last event of the day was the final of the men’s 4x100m .
In this event, the U . S . team was undoubtedly favored . They had, Alexander and Ford, two new Olympic champions, so they were most likely win gold .
What’s more, the women’s team had won with average athletes . With two champions is men’s team, why shouldn’t they win the gold medal in the 4×100m?
Faced with the U . S . team, the Jamaican team, the two-time defending champion, lost their spirit . In the men’s 100m and the men’s 200m, they were beaten by the U . S . team, which made people question their ability to defend their championship .
What’s worse was that the women’s relay race team was beaten by U . S . team as well . They didn’t even win a medal, which was a big shock to them .
In team sports, the athletes’ morale is one of the most important factors . Racing when you’re confident and racing when you think you’re going to lose are two very different experiences .
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The way in which women’s team was beaten put extra pressure on men’s team because now the men were worried about making the same mistake .
People always worry that unlucky accidents will recur, but athletes worry more than most people . If an athlete is injured due to a certain movement, when he recovers he is afraid to do that movement again .
Now, the Jamaican men’s team was worried . The women’s team had planted a dark seed in their hearts, which germinated and grew gradually . Afterwards, they would hesitate to do the right movements in their changeover, worrying about bad fortune could come again in men’s team .
How could the Jamaican team compete with the powerful and confident U . S . team?
When Shawn Ford handed the relay baton over to Alexander, the U . S had such a lead it was clear they had won .
“20 gold medals! We got the 20th gold medal!” Donny was very excited .
This was not the first time for him he had participated in the Olympics with U . S . team and it was the second time he was in charge of the track team . He had never been a part of such a big win . It set him up for a chance of promotion at the U . S . Track and Field Association, a bright career waiting for him when he got home .
The best of all was that he was there to witness the moment when the U . S . was at its most powerful, which was quite an honor .
American journalists were also excited, they had thought of the title in tomorrow’s news: “The U . S . Team Back on Top after Waiting 10 Years!”
On the bus back to the hotel, all the athletes on the U . S . team were excited . Dai Li was lost in thought, a file in his hand .
The file contained information about the race .
Tomorrow would be the second-to-last day of the Olympics .
On the last day of the Olympic Games, the closing ceremony would be held at Maracana Stadium . That meant that there wouldn’t be any competition on the last day, so tomorrow would be the last day to win events .
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There were still another eight events left . The men’s marathon was actually held on the last day because it was held outside and they did not need Maracana Stadium . All of the other seven programs would be held on tomorrow .
They were all finals: the women’s high jump, the men’s javelin throw, the men’s 1500m, the women’s 800m, the men’s 5000m, the women’s 4×400m, and the men’s 4×400m . According to the schedule, all seven programs were going to be held at night .
For the U . S . team, the good news was that there were talented U . S . athletes in all of the finals .
There were two 4×400m relay races that the U . S . team was favored to win . The U . S . team’s domination of the 400m race was suspected to cross over into the 4x400m relay . It might be said that those two gold medals had already been won by the U . S . team .
The women’s high jump was a European sport and all but two of the finalists were European . However, the European players were from Spain, Germany, Italy, Great Britain, Croatia, Bulgaria, Sweden, Poland, Ukraine, and Russia; one player from each country made it into the final . This meant that the competition was very intense and no country dared to say that they were definitely going to win the women’s high jump project .
The men’s javelin was similar to the women’s long jump . There were a large number of European athletes entering the final . Generally speaking, there wasn’t a big difference between the strengths of the athletes . Everyone was likely to stumble, so it was hard to say who was going to win .
In both the women’s high jump and the men’s javelin, the state scale could play a role . Every athlete had the opportunity to try many times and one good attempt could make them the champion .
In these two sports, where there was not too much difference in the athletes’ talents, it was easier to use the state scale to fish in troubled waters . A good mental state could win an athlete the competition . If there was a big gap in talent, it would be hard for the U . S . to win a gold medal even they had good mental states every time .
Two relay races, the women’s high jump, and the men’s javelin throw, that’s four gold medals in total . That is one gold medal away from my goal of 25 . Dai Li frowned and looked at the three other programs .
The men’s 5,000-meter race had traditionally been won by a pair of athletes from Africa, one from Ethiopia and one from Kenya . Although all three of the American team’s competitors had qualified, it would still be difficult to win the gold medal .
There was good news about the men’s 5,000m . The first round went badly wrong and no one from Kenya team made it to the final . So, the U . S . team would only have to face one of Africa’s top teams .
The competition was very fierce in the women’s 800m and the men’s 1500m middle-distance races . In addition to Russia, Africa, South Africa, Kenya, and Uganda, Algeria also had a world-class middle-distance runner who was in the final . All of the athletes were basically at the same level, so it was hard to say who would win .
I’ve observed all of the athletes in these two events and I haven’t found any S level or even athletes . That is very rare in high-level sports . There will be fierce competition tomorrow!
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