The second training camp of the U.S. National Track and Field Team.
"Jimmy, have you heard? Our new coach is Rivers." Alexander said with a smile.
"Which Rivers?" Jimmy Irvin looked a little confused.
"Don't you remember? He was also a 400-meter athlete back then. You must have competed against each other! I didn't expect that he would become a coach now and would temporarily act as the head coach of the US team." Alexander said.
"You're talking about him! In the last Olympics, he seemed to be the assistant coach of the national team, the lowest-ranked assistant coach." Alvin replied.
"I'm not sure about this. I was suspended from the last Olympics." Alexander made a helpless expression, and then asked: "So what is Rivers' coaching level like?"
"Not very good. When he was an athlete, he didn't even make it to the national team. And after he became a coach, he didn't train a top athlete. You can find a lot of such coaches in the United States. This Such qualifications are not worthy of being the head coach of the national team. I think I am better than him as the head coach." Irwin said with a look of disdain.
…
Rivers was once a 400-meter sprinter, but he did not achieve good results in his career. So after he passed his peak age, he did not persist. Instead, he chose to retire and became a track and field coach.
Rivers' career as a coach is far smoother than that of being an athlete. Although he has not trained top track and field athletes, he has brought out several relatively outstanding children in the past few years, and in the Olympics four years ago, Rivers Si was fortunate enough to join the then-U.S. national track and field team and became an assistant coach of the national team. Although he was only the last assistant coach, he fulfilled his dream of the national team.
This year, Rivers is no longer satisfied with the position of an assistant coach. He hopes to become the deputy head coach of the national team. For this, he also specially participated in the interview of the national team head coach, hoping to use this to build momentum for himself. It's just that Rivers' luck was not good. He was eliminated at the first level and did not even enter the head coach interview.
After Sebastian was elected as the head coach of the U.S. team, he did not consider letting Rivers join his team. This year, Rivers missed the U.S. national track and field team and did not even get an assistant coach.
The outbreak of the doping scandal turned Rivers around. He was invited to temporarily take over as the head coach of the U.S. National Track and Field Team. For Rivers, this was another bright spot. He originally only hoped to become the associate head coach. If it didn't work out, he continued to be an assistant coach, but he didn't expect to become the head coach in one fell swoop, so Rivers agreed without hesitation and came to the national team's training camp.
After arriving at the training camp, Rivers immediately discovered the first problem, which was that the number of national team athletes this time was somewhat small.
…
Officials from the Athletics Association handed Rivers the list of participating athletes. After Rivers took it, he roughly counted and found that there were only about 70 names on the list.
Rivers had participated in the Olympics with the U.S. track and field team as an assistant coach, so he knew that the U.S. team should not have so few athletes under normal circumstances.
There are more than 20 track and field events in the Olympic Games. If divided into men and women, there are nearly 50 events. As the world's largest track and field country, the United States team has countless athletes who can reach the Olympic A standard, so each event is basically Three athletes can be sent to compete. In addition, the relay race requires four people, and the race walking and marathon can also have substitutes, so the number of athletes in each American team is about 150.
There are only 70 people on the list, half of which is missing. Rivers will naturally have questions about this list.
"Is this list of participating athletes missing a few pages?" Rivers said, pointing to the list in his hand, hoping that officials from the Athletics Association could take a look in person.
"No less." The athletic association official hit him without even looking.
"But there are only more than 70 people up here." Rivers said.
"Yes, there are 70 people." The official of the Athletics Association said with certainty.
"Under normal circumstances, even if the number of people is relatively small, there should be more than 140 people, right?" Rivers asked.
"That's all this year. Everyone else has withdrawn." The track and field association official replied calmly.
"More than 70 people have withdrawn? How is this possible? Why?" Rivers asked subconsciously.
"To be precise, more than ninety people have withdrawn from the competition, and we have recruited more than twenty people according to the results of the qualifying round." The tone of the track and field association official was full of dissatisfaction, and he continued: "Don't you still Understand? It's all because of the doping scandal. Our current situation is very bad, I don't even know how to express it. Hey... you will know it when you get to the training ground."
…
Rivers soon learned what the federation official's last words meant.
The situation of this U.S. team is indeed very bad. Rivers can feel that the morale of the athletes is very low and they have no fighting spirit at all. It feels like a soldier will surrender without a fight on the battlefield.
The impact of the doping scandal is really too great. Nearly two-thirds of the original 150 or so people have withdrawn from the competition because of the doping scandal. Of course, the other remaining athletes are panic-stricken. It's like two-thirds of an army's deserters appeared before the battle began. The remaining people were defeated without waiting for the enemy to appear.
As for the more than 20 athletes who have recently joined the national team, the situation is not much better. They were not the strongest athletes to begin with, and many of them even ranked seventh or eighth or even lower in the qualifying rounds. It's normal for them to feel nervous or timid about participating in the Olympics.
Rivers has never encountered such a situation. He led a U.S. team that was short of major generals and completely demoralized to compete in the Olympics. The results can be imagined.
At this time, Rivers felt regret for the first time, and he realized that he really shouldn't have been in this muddy water.
However, when the real training began, Rivers encountered a new problem. He couldn't control those athletes at all, and some even ignored him directly, such as Jimmy Irvin.
…
As a legendary athlete, Irvine is undoubtedly the ace of this American team.
But Irvin's attitude towards Rivers was not good. He was very cold towards Rivers, and even looked down upon Rivers.
After all, the identity gap between the two sides is too big. One is a legendary athlete who has been famous for many years, the "big brother" of American track and field, and the absolute king of the 400 meters; the other is an unknown coach who has not yet proven his ability.
For a coach like Sebastian who has been famous for many years, Irvin might still give him some face, but how could Irvin take an unknown person like Rivers seriously
What's more important is that Rivers was also a 400-meter athlete back then, and he was the kind of 400-meter athlete who had no results. He had played against Irvine, and there was no doubt that he had never won. On the court, Rivers is a scumbag. Now that this "five scumbag" wants to coach him, Alvin must be extremely reluctant.
The 400-meter king has dignity, how can he let a former subordinate coach him in the future? So Alvin simply ignored Rivers. Rivers couldn't do anything to Alvin anyway.
Irvin's performance obviously led to a bad start, and Alexander gradually began to ignore Rivers.
Although Alexander was not as good as Alvin, he was still the "second best athlete in the world" back then and had won many world championships. He really didn't look down on average athletes. A coach with Rivers' qualifications will naturally not be taken seriously by Alexander.
The coaching profession is like this. When it comes to high-level training, if you want to get the respect of athletes, you must have corresponding strength. Without strength, you will not get the respect of athletes even if you are sitting in the position of head coach. Granted, athletes naturally do not obey the coach's discipline. .
If it is placed in China, there are institutional constraints, and if the athletes disobey discipline, the coach will always have some ways to punish the athletes. But in the United States, the methods that coaches can use are very limited, especially when the athletes are relatively big-name, the coach becomes the disadvantaged party. In the four major professional leagues in the United States, it is quite common for the team's star athletes to force the head coach to leave.
Faced with this unfavorable situation, Coach Rivers had nothing to do.
Irvin, the 400-meter king, was something out of Rivers' eyes during the athlete era. Even though he has retired and become a coach, Irvin is still the kind of person he needs to look up to. So for Alvin, Rivers can only let it go.
As for Alexander, Rivers also had no means and could only let it go. Who makes Alexander also a world champion!
As a coach, I have no ability and deserve to be bullied by the athletes, and I can only swallow my anger when I am bullied. The so-called poor man with short ambitions is probably what Rivers is like now. If it were a capable and qualified coach, he wouldn't be so angry. Of course, a capable and qualified coach would not encounter Rivers' situation.
But that's not the worst. As the training camp progressed, worse conditions began to visit Rivers. More and more athletes in the training camp began to show an uncooperative and disobedient attitude towards Rivers. Rivers found that as the head coach, he had gradually lost control of the entire US track and field team.
In other words, Rivers never had this kind of control.
And the root of all this is because Rivers can't handle Irvin.
The power of role models is powerful. Alvin is the "big brother" in the U.S. track and field team and the idol of many young athletes. His every move will definitely attract the attention of other athletes, and his behavior will also attract attention. Many people followed suit.
European and American culture does not highly value collectivism, so the theme of superheroes saving the world will be popular from World War II to the present, and it will last for a long time. In this culture, obedience to the collective is far less important than worship of individual heroes.
It is also for this reason that Alvin's influence becomes even greater. In this U.S. track and field team, if you want to deal with other athletes, you must first deal with Alvin. And if you can get Alvin's approval, then it will be a lot of honor to get the obedience of other athletes. After all, the "big brother" in the team listens to the coach, so there is no reason for the other athletes to disobey.
But Rivers was completely unable to get Irvine's recognition, which was doomed to lose the trust of other athletes.
…
In the small bar, Rivers sat alone in the corner, drinking wine with a depressed look.
"Coach Rivers, I didn't expect to meet you here." A voice sounded, and Rivers looked up and saw a familiar face.
This man's name is Carter, and he is the team doctor for the U.S. National Track and Field Team. He and Rivers are also old acquaintances. The two have known each other four years ago when Rivers was the assistant coach of the US team.
Carter sat next to Rivers and asked, "You look very depressed. Did something bad happen to you?"
Rivers was already a little drunk at this time. He nodded and muttered to himself: "I am such a failed coach."
"Why do you say that?" Carter asked.
"Of the athletes on the team, no one listened to me, no one cared about my existence, and I was almost ignored by them! What a head coach said was ignored by the athletes! In the eyes of those athletes, I was probably a Be transparent! Haha, isn't this enough of a failure?" Rivers said.
Carter sighed slightly: "Coach Rivers, you are actually a very good coach, but this time, you should not have come. The national team is a hot potato that you cannot handle."
"Why?" Rivers asked.
"Coach Rivers, haven't you ever thought about why the position of head coach of the national team will eventually fall on you? Although you are just an agent, do you think you can sit in this position with your qualifications? Or Do you think you are favored by the goddess of luck?" Carter asked solemnly.
"Do you know something?" Rivers sobered up by three points from his drunkenness. He said sincerely: "Dr. Carter, we have known each other for many years. If you really know something, please tell me. I."
"The Athletic Association chose you because they had no one available." Carter said softly.
"No one is available? What do you mean?" Rivers asked.
Carter leaned forward and lowered his voice and said: "The head coach of the national team has always been a sought-after position, but this time it is different. As you can see, affected by the doping scandal, there are still many players left in the team. The bottom half, many of the best athletes, will not be able to participate. No matter who becomes the head coach of the national team, he will lead a defeated team to compete in the Olympics. The result is actually doomed. We will fail in this Olympics. , and will fail miserably."
"We are the world's number one track and field power. Our citizens may be able to accept a less serious defeat, but they will never allow a disastrous defeat, so someone must take responsibility. Do you think the person who takes responsibility will be Who? Will it be an athlete? Or a head coach?"
"I think you should understand now why the position of national team head coach will fall on your head. Because those coaches who are more famous than you, have more seniority than you, and have better abilities than you all understand that there is only one coach left in the national team. It's a mess, and if you take over this mess, you have to bear the responsibility for failure. The head coach of the most failed national team in the history of the United States is not a very honorable title. This may become a stain that a coach can never wash away in his life! "
At this moment, Rivers was fully awake.
"Dr. Carter, thank you for your advice! Thank you so much!" Rivers has made up his mind. When he returns, the first thing he will do is to immediately type a letter of resignation and resign as head coach. .