The American team won a gold medal, and Dai Li also had a peaceful sleep.
Early the next morning, Dai Li came to the Maracanã Stadium.
The first event is the qualifying round of the women's triple jump, which will start at 9:30 am.
In this event, the gap between the world's top players is not big. Both Europe and America have athletes capable of winning gold medals. Therefore, the United States cannot be said to be strong.
In the end, an athlete from the United States entered the finals. Her name is Mamina Jin. She is only 20 years old this year. She is also a player who originally had no chance to participate, but was discovered by Dai Li after the doping scandal.
Seeing Mamina Jin enter the finals, Li Dai had already decided in his mind that he would continue to use the status scale until the finals.
Then the preliminaries of the women's 3000-meter steeplechase were held.
Obstacle racing has always been a strong event in the United States, but the distance of 3,000 meters is close to long-distance running, and it also has to overcome obstacles, so the physical consumption is similar to that of an ordinary 5,000 meters. In this long-distance sport, Africa's long-distance running duo Kenya and Ethiopia are also very strong. These two countries are also the main competitors of the US team.
There were a total of 18 places in the finals of the 3000-meter steeplechase, so it was slightly easier to advance. In the end, all three contestants from the American team advanced. However, Ethiopia and Kenya each also had three players advance to the finals. In addition, two people from Germany and Australia each advanced. Among Asian countries, only Bahrain's naturalized African athletes advanced to the finals.
After that, the first round of the women's 400 meters was held on the track. This is an event in which the American team occupies an absolute dominance. With the strength of American athletes, it is possible to win gold, silver and bronze medals. Of course, advancing to the first round is with no doubt.
At the same time, the field event was the men's discus throw. All American athletes were eliminated in the previous qualifying rounds, and Li Dai did not pay attention to the final results of the men's discus throw.
The last track and field event in the morning was the first round of the men's 100 meters. The 100-meter trapeze has always been the most watched event and the event with the largest number of participants. Among the contestants, about one-third of them entered through the B standard. These people are really here to make soy sauce. They will definitely be eliminated as cannon fodder in the first round. Another third of the people have just reached the level of Olympic A list. This type of players also focuses on participation. They are thankful to be able to enter the second round.
American athletes naturally go for the championship, especially Justin Alexander, who was the "second in the world" before the suspension, so the first round can only be regarded as a warm-up for American athletes.
There were still no track and field competitions scheduled in the afternoon. In the evening, the men's pole vault qualifying round and the men's 400-meter semi-finals started at almost the same time.
The men's 400 meters is the most stable event for the US team. With the presence of "400 meters king" Jimmy Irvine, the gold medal has already been won by the US team. The only suspense is whether the US team can win three medals at the same time.
In the men's pole vault qualifying round, Franz Muller, who Dai Li has high hopes for, is about to appear. Although this German-born young man did not participate in the Olympic trials, he has S-level talent. Under Dai Li's training Under this, it quickly broke through the 6-meter mark.
The world record for men's pole vault is 6.16 meters, and the Olympic record is 5.97 meters. This means that with a score of 6 meters or more, it is already possible to win the Olympic championship.
Franz Muller did not disappoint Li Dai. He successfully advanced to the finals, and he was the only one from the American team to enter the finals.
The situation in other countries is similar. For example, Russia, which is very strong in the pole vault, has only one player entering the finals; Germany, which is also very strong in the pole vault, has only one player entering the finals. In addition, there are the Czech Republic, France, Poland, etc., and they all have one player entering the pole vault finals. The final list of 12 men's pole vault finalists was finally announced, coming from 12 different countries. In other words, no country can dominate this event, and everyone's strength is average.
Then the men's long jump final was held, which was a gold medal for the US team. Three players from the US team advanced to the final.
…
In previous doping scandals, the long jump event has also been affected. There are several famous long jumpers in the United States who have not participated in this Olympics.
But there are too many famous long jump athletes in the United States. Even the athletes who come on the bench are all world-class athletes. Coupled with Dai Li's surprise training, their strength has been greatly improved.
What's more, Dai Li also has a condition scale. For a sport like long jump where there are many trial jumps, but only the best result is calculated, the condition balance is really an artifact.
The result did not disappoint Li Dai. After the first trial jump, one of the American athletes was in a bad state and jumped less than 7.5 meters. The other two athletes were in extremely good condition. , one jumped 8.38 meters and the other jumped 8.37 meters.
The world record for men's long jump is 8.95 meters, and the Olympic record is 8.90 meters. However, such abnormal results were all created in the 1980s and 1990s when track and field performance exploded. Today's athletes can't even jump over a distance of 8.50 meters. In general international grand prix competitions, a champion can be locked in with a score of over 8.30 meters.
At the Olympics and World Championships, the level of athletes is definitely higher, but not much higher.
One is 8.38 meters, and the other is 8.37 meters. For athletes from other countries, these two results are really like two heavy punches to the chest, causing internal injuries even if they don't die. It is estimated that after seeing this result, those relatively low-level athletes were ready to quit the competition.
Athletes with high levels of strength can feel the deep malice of reality when faced with a performance close to 8.40 meters. They all came here for the gold medal. If they really can't get the gold medal, it would be nice to get a silver medal. But now it's just the first trial jump, and the gold and silver medals have almost flown away. This is really frustrating for those athletes who aim to win the championship.
Moreover, American athletes faced two such good results at the beginning of the competition, which means that in the next five trial jumps, competitors from other countries must choose the extreme jump method every time, because it is impossible to achieve stability. exceed these two results. The extreme jumping method also means that the chance of making a mistake will increase, which will also put additional pressure on the athletes.
Faced with this situation, athletes from other countries have no choice but to fight. The result is naturally that some are happy and some are sad, some athletes succeed and some fail.
After three rounds of trial jumps, the best result was still 8.38 meters created by an American athlete, the second best result was 8.37 meters created by an American athlete, and the third best result was also 8.31 meters created by an American athlete. The American athlete, who had only jumped less than 7.5 meters in the first round, finally experienced a burst of form in the third trial jump and improved his score to 8.31 meters.
In this way, for athletes from other countries, the gold, silver and bronze medals seem to have all flown away.
…
British star Rutherford looked at the scoreboard with a look of despair. He had just jumped 8.33 meters, pushing the American who was originally ranked third to fourth.
However, the American athlete immediately jumped 8.39 meters and rose directly to first place.
What made Rutherford even more desperate was that the last American player to appear jumped 8.41 meters.
Seeing this result of over 8.40 meters, Rutherford felt like crying.
"What's going on with the American team today? Have they all got wings? If this continues, all the gold, silver and bronze medals in the long jump will belong to the American team!" Rutherford felt extremely frustrated. He had no hope of winning anymore. Ambition.