The weekend is here again, and the Olympic Games has also arrived on its penultimate competition day.
In the track and field competition, the finals of the women's high jump event began first.
Two players from the U.S. team advanced to the finals, one was 32-year-old veteran Jennifer, and the other was 18-year-old Aiman.
The old are old and the young are young. This situation is also a true portrayal of the U.S. track and field team in this Olympics. This situation often occurs in other sports. Affected by the doping scandal, most of the backbone of American track and field have not come, so they can only rely on veterans who are no longer at their peak and young players who have not yet grown up.
But it is this kind of U.S. track and field team that has won 20 gold medals, setting a new record for the U.S. team's best results.
Under normal circumstances, athletes like this who are not at their peak would not be favored, but it was different today. Competitors from other countries all paid enough attention to the young and old, because they are American athletes.
The number of 20 gold medals is really too terrifying. It fully demonstrates the strength of the American team. What's more, in this Olympics, the American team has created too many upsets in this stadium. There are veteran athletes. The athletes who were rejuvenated and young again became a blockbuster. No one can guarantee whether the next upset will happen immediately.
Li Dai's expression seemed very relaxed, because the women's high jump contestants were all relatively average in strength, and no one athlete stood out, which also maximized the benefits of the status balance.
A total of 17 athletes participated in today's final. Originally, there were only twelve finals places. However, in the qualifying round, six athletes could not jump to the next height, so they had to come to the final together.
The starting height of the finals is 1.88 meters. For those who can enter the finals, the first starting height will not be too difficult, and all contestants have successfully advanced.
The second height was 1.93 meters, which disqualified six players from continuing to compete.
Then the height reached 1.97 meters. At this height, the 18-year-old player from the American team was eliminated. In the end, only five players advanced, namely a Spanish player, a Bulgarian player, and a Russian players, an Italian player, and Jennifer, a thirty-two-year-old veteran of the American team.
The next height was 2 meters. Surprisingly, none of the five contestants could cross this height.
In this Olympic Games, the strength of women's high jumpers is indeed somewhat unsatisfactory, and they did not even jump over 2 meters. You must know that the world record for this event is 2.09 meters, and the Olympic record is also 2.06 meters. In recent Olympic Games, the gold medal has to be above 2.03 meters to determine the winner.
When this happens, the height can only be lowered according to the rules. The competition will lower the height of the crossbar by 1 centimeter to 1.99 meters.
American veteran Jennifer was the first to start trying to jump. For her, 1.99 meters should not be a difficult height to cross. When she was young, she could easily jump over 1.99 meters. Even now that she is 32 years old, she does not think it is How difficult heights are.
Jennifer took a deep breath and started to run. She rose into the air in front of the crossbar and climbed over it beautifully.
At 1.99 meters, Jennifer succeeded in one try.
As for the American team, the coaching staff immediately burst into joy. This successful jump in one attempt meant that Jennifer was already in an undefeated position.
Since this is a reduced height, it is equivalent to an extra competition after the regular competition, so there is no need to complete all three trial jumps. As long as someone succeeds in the trial jump and others fail in the same round of trial jumps, then it is also He was eliminated from the game.
For example, if Lawrence succeeds in the first trial jump, then if other athletes fail in the first trial jump, they will not need to make a second trial jump and will be eliminated directly. And if other contestants also succeed in the first trial jump, then the person who succeeds in the trial jump will increase the height and continue the competition until the winner is determined.
Therefore, after Lawrence succeeded in his first trial jump, the other four players must also succeed in their first trial jump if they want to continue to the next level.
For the other four contestants, the pressure suddenly increased several times. This was equivalent to three opportunities to try jumping directly into one opportunity.
Under pressure, the Italian and Croatian players failed one after another and were eliminated, which also put greater pressure on the other two players.
The Russian player who came up next also failed in the test jump, which means that he and the Italian and Croatian players who failed before can win at least a bronze medal.
In the high jump competition, tied silver or bronze medals are allowed, but there can only be one gold medal.
At this time, these eliminated players hope that the Spanish player who has not yet appeared on the stage will also fail the trial jump. Once the Spanish player fails the trial jump, the four of them will tie for runner-up, and the bronze medal will become a silver medal.
Perhaps the curse of these three people had an effect. As expected, the Spanish player knocked off the crossbar and she failed. All four of them won silver medals.
The only gold medal naturally belongs to American veteran Lawrence.
…
"Twenty-one gold medals!" Downey's face was filled with a smile, and he continued: "If we include the final 4x400-meter relay race, we can win 23 gold medals!"
"23 gold medals are not enough. I said before that we want to win 25 gold medals." Dai Li replied.
"Have you not given up on this idea yet? 25 gold medals is too difficult. It is two gold medals short of our expectations. In fact, 23 gold medals are already good enough. There are 47 gold medals in the Olympic track and field events. We Aren't you satisfied after getting half of it? No country's track and field team in the world can win 23 gold medals in one Olympic Games!" Downey said.
"Perhaps it won't be long before you see the 24th gold medal." Dai Li said, pointing to the javelin field.
The men's javelin throw final is about to begin.
"Are you talking about the javelin?" Downey shook his head: "That has never been our strength."
"The previous men's pole vault was not our strong point." Dai Li replied with a smile.
"But in the pole vault event, Muller is very strong. We can't expect that there will be a Muller in every event, right? In the men's javelin, we only have Marcus Allen to advance to the finals. I I don’t think he will have the strength of Mueller,” Downey said.
Li Dai shook his head indifferently: "In the pole vault event, our team Muller is very strong, but the opponent is also very strong. The next men's javelin throw is different, our team Marcus - Although Allen's strength is relatively average, the strength of his opponent is also relatively average. In sports competitions, the person who wins the gold medal may not be the strongest person, but he must be the person who defeated all other opponents. As for what to do To defeat all opponents, either you are strong enough, or your opponents are weak. Since the strength of our contestants has been relatively fixed, why not pray that the opponents are weak?"
…
Twenty minutes later, Donnie seemed to have forgotten what he had just told Dai Li, and he celebrated more joyfully than anyone else.
American player Marcus Allen indeed won the final gold medal with a time of 85.38 meters. The second-place German athlete's score was 85.32 meters, which means that the American team only won by 6 centimeters.
In javelin throwing, the difference of 6 centimeters is really very small. If calculated based on the total score of 85 meters, 6 centimeters is equivalent to seven ten thousandths. Losing the game by a margin of seven ten thousand points, it was a pity that the German team lost, and it was too thrilling for the American team to win.
Moreover, this winning result of 85.38 meters is also the worst winning result of men's javelin throw in recent Olympic Games. The world record for men's javelin throw is 98.48 meters, and the Olympic record is 90.57 meters. The championship scores in the past few Olympic Games have all been above 88 meters.
As Dai Li said before the game, in this Olympics, the men's javelin throwers are not very strong. As an athlete, if you want to win, there are only two possibilities. The first is that you are strong and strong enough to defeat everyone else; the second is that everyone else is weak and cannot pose a threat to you.
If you want to keep yourself strong, you can only continuously develop yourself. If you want others to be weaker than you, then in addition to developing yourself, you can also weaken others. It’s just that in sports, competition is relatively fair. As an athlete, there is basically no way to weaken your competitors, because there will definitely be someone who is more talented than you and works harder than you. Athletes can only make themselves more competitive. Be strong and then defeat your opponents on the field.
…
On the track, the men's 1500m final is about to begin.
In this project, American player Ramon entered the finals. Ramon is 25 years old this year and has participated in many international competitions. He once won the IAAF Grand Prix championship. He is a strong and experienced athlete. He is also one of the rare players in the US team who has not been affected by the doping scandal. athlete.
In terms of strength, Ramon has the possibility of winning the championship, but the opponents Ramon faces are also not weak. Algeria, Uganda, Kenya and other African countries have strong opponents participating.
This is another event in which the contestants are relatively average in strength, but the 1,500 meters is not like the high jump or the javelin. The athletes do not have the opportunity to try multiple times, and the status balance cannot take effect.
"We can only look at Ramon's own performance." Dai Li took a deep breath. He hoped that Ramon could bring him some surprises.
At this time, Ramon was already standing on the track, but in his mind was the image of the men's javelin event award ceremony just now.
As early as more than ten days ago, Ramon arrived in Rio de Janeiro with the US team. In the previous eight days of competition, he also witnessed American athletes win championships and gold medals.
Among them, there are athletes like Jimmy Irvine who have dominated an era, athletes like Justin Alexander who have worked hard after suspension, athletes like Sean Ford who have not achieved good results for many years, and athletes like Eli Athletes like Smet, who stopped in the first round of qualifying, and athletes like Franz Müller, who were not even qualified to participate. And they all won gold medals.
In today's game, Ramon witnessed the veteran Lawrence and the relatively mediocre Marcus Allen winning the championship. At this time, Ramon's heart had already begun to turmoil.
Ramon feels that compared with these players, he should have an advantage. He originally won first place in the domestic trials in the United States. Even if a doping scandal broke out later, it did not affect him.
Compared with Irvine, Alexander and Ford, he is not too old. At the age of 25, he is at the peak age of a track and field athlete.
Compared with athletes such as Meteor and Muller, he is also more experienced. He has participated in world-class competitions and won the championship in the IAAF Grand Prix.
Compared with Lawrence and Marris Allen, who just won the championship, Ramon is also more outstanding. He is not a mediocre athlete. His strength is top-notch in the men's 1500 meters event.
"They can all win the gold medal, and so can I!" Ramon suddenly became excited when he thought of the gold medal, and he became more confident.
During the eight competition days of track and field, he had been envious many times. Every day he could see several teammates showing off their gold medals. Today, Ramon is also going to fight for a gold medal of his own.
…
Dai Li looked at the timer on his hand.
"The speed of the players today is a bit slow. If we continue at this speed, the final score may be beyond 3 minutes and 50 seconds." Li Dai said to himself.
The men's 1500 meters is not run in separate lanes, so the speed of the athletes depends on the speed of the leader. In today's competition, the leader's speed is not very fast, so it also suppresses other athletes relatively slowly.
The world record for this event is 3 minutes and 26 seconds, and the Olympic record is 3 minutes and 32 seconds. If you only run 3 minutes and 50 seconds, it is indeed a relatively unsatisfactory result.
"The speed in the front is slower, and the players will have more energy. As a result, the competition in the last lap of sprint will be extremely fierce." Downey said from the side.
"This may be an advantage for Ramon. He is not an athlete good at distributing and retaining physical strength, but he is very good at explosive sprints." Li Dai said.
As the head coach, Dai Li naturally knows the strengths and weaknesses of his athletes very well.
Sure enough, after entering the final sprint, Ramon's speed became faster, and in the last 100 meters, he was already in the lead.
"This game should be winnable." Dai Li also gave his own judgment at this time.
"Can we really get 25 gold?" Downey suddenly realized this.
At this time, Ramon started the final sprint. He was the first to cross the finish line, and the final result was just as Li Dai expected, exactly 3 minutes and 50 seconds.
Unconsciously, today's U.S. track and field team has won three gold medals.
Counting the 4x400m relay race that has not yet been held, the U.S. team can win five gold medals today.
Including the previous 20 gold medals, the U.S. track and field team really won 25 gold medals in this Olympics.
The prediction made by Dai Li during the interview yesterday has come true again!