Chapter 531: A Good Harvest

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

It was the seventh day of track and field events at the Olympics.

The American team was likely to win gold medals in the men’s shot put, the men’s 400m hurdles, the women’s 400m hurdles, the men’s decathlon, and the men’s 200m dash. Additionally, the preliminary round of the 4x100m relay race was also held this day.

Considering the strength of American team, as long as they didn’t drop the relay baton, they’d get through this preliminary round easily.

Actually, Dai Li was known for his practice he called continuous iron chain, which strengthened the cooperation of players on a team. Dai Li use this to successfully help the national team win the championship of the 4x100m relay race in the Asian Games.

With the aid of the continuous iron chain, the American players cooperated with each other very well and successfully advanced to the final.

After the end of the relay race, the day’s first track and field final took place, the men’s 400m hurdles.

Since the boom of track and field sports in the 1980s, America dominated this event and continuously won several Olympic championships in the 400m hurdles.

The American team was powerful in this event because they had a group of excellent athletes. In fact, this was a difficult event and many athletes who ran the 400m hurdles changed from the 400m dash. Therefore, sometimes athletes from the 400m hurdles could act as substitutes in 4x400m relay race.

The American team had the most 400m dash athletes as well as 400m hurdles athletes. It was known that quantity often led to success. When there were many athletes engaged in a certain sport, more of them would be talents. The average talent level of American athletes was world-class.

However, in today’s final of the men’s 400m dash, the person who was thought to win the gold medal was a typical American but a naturalized one.

…

“Klett, you look nervous. Guess the finals in the Olympics is different from those common events. Considering your experience, I didn’t expect you would be so nervous!” said Dai Li with a smile.

“I’m sorry, coach. I’m a little nervous. I will try to adjust,” said Klett. “After all, this is my first time representing the American team.”

Klett was a 31-year old black athlete. He was representing the American team in the 400m hurdles.

He was born in Trinidad and Tobago, a small country along the Caribbean Sea. The people of this country loved sports and there were many excellent athletes; Klett was one of them.

At first, Klett attended events as an athlete for Trinidad and Tobago. He had many outstanding performances at the World Championship in Athletics, the IAAF Grand Prix and Diamond League, and the Olympic Games. However, at that time he was a Trinidad and Tobago athlete.

Later, he was naturalized into the U.S. and became an American athlete. This caused him to miss the last Olympic Games. According to the rules of I.O.C., after changing nationality, an athlete may not represent the state in any games for three years.

In this Olympic Games, Klett benefited from the drug scandal. In the beginning, he came in third place in the qualification trial. However, both the first place and the second place withdrew from the competition due to the drug scandal. So, the last one suddenly became the first one, shouldering the task of winning the gold medal for the American team.

Dai Li was very optimistic about Klett, who was very hard-working and self-disciplined.

Dai Li knew Klett must have worked hard to stand out as he did. The 400m hurdles was the strongest event for the American team, and he was not an American-born athlete.

Klett was different from the champion of the pole vault, Muller. Although Muller was born in Germany, he came to America with his parents when he was very young. He lived in the United States, was educated according to the country’s standards, and grew up in America. He was influenced by the culture and he integrated into the United States. Besides, being Germanic, he was accepted by Americans more easily.

However, Klett was a naturalized athlete. He couldn’t integrate into American culture so easily because he didn’t grow up there. Above all, he was black. This part of his identity was a barrier to his acceptance in the predominantly white country.

Therefore, for Klett to achieve the success he had, he must have worked harder than any other American.

Dai Li was not an American, so he could understand Klett’s eagerness to be part of America. When Dai Li wanted to run a training center in America, no one trusted him and Americans didn’t believe in his ability as a coach because he was Chinese. Later, Dai Li proved himself .as he accomplished great things. Now, he had won his place in Los Angeles.

Obviously, Klett couldn’t be as almighty as Dai Li. For Klett, his biggest issue was his identity. Dai Li had to untangle this knot in Klett’s mind as much as he could.

Dai Li asked, “Klett, you trained according to the plans I made for you, right?”

“Of course. Coach, I finished all the training you arranged for me. I took it very seriously.” Klett nodded, but he didn’t understand why Dai Li had asked him this question.

“Why did you follow my instructions?” asked Dai Li.

“You are my coach!” Klett answered.

“Did you doubt my training?” Dai Li asked again.

“You are the head coach. Why should I doubt you? Besides, the training plan you arranged for me was excellent. It completely solved my problems.” Klett had no idea what the coach was getting at.

“Very good.” Dai Li nodded and continued, “Look, I’m the head coach of the American team and I lead the entire U.S. track and field team. All the members of this team obey me and no one opposes, or even questions, me. I am the head coach, and I lead this team with supreme authority.

“However, I am not an American. Why do you choose to obey me? It’s because I have the ability to lead. I have abilities that you can trust!”

He patted Klett on his shoulder and went on. “Klett, I know what you are worried about, so I hope you understand what I’m saying. People will only accept you based on your talent. In sports, especially in the Olympic Games, people only accept that gold medal!

“Therefore, you don’t have to think or worry too much. Look at the finish line. You just need to cross that line first. Get that gold medal and you are a hero of America!”

Klett nodded as he realized something. “Coach Li, I see. I know what to do.”

Dai Li was satisfied with Klett, who had enough experience with competitions and enough strength, would have a high probability of winning if that mental knot in his head was untangled.

In fact, Klett didn’t let Dai Li down. In the competition, he didn’t perform well to start, but he got better. In the end, Klett won the men’s 400m hurdles with a time of 47.70s.

After the event ended, there was the usual break in the track and field events. In the evening, the first event was the final of the men’s shot put.

Both Russia and Poland were powerful in this event, but the top two men’s shot-putters in the world were Americans.

America had never been short of strong men. In this Olympic Games, the shot-putters were two talented men: Divac, the winner of the World Championship in Athletics, and Luther, the best in the world at the moment.

The world record in shot put was 23.12m and the Olympic record was 22.47m. Both Divac and Luther got over 22.50m in other games, which meant that both of them had the ability to break the Olympic record.

Besides, both of them were young. Divac was 24 years old and Luther was 23. For male shot-putters, they had potential. Many sports commentators thought that one of them could break the world record.

For the American team, this gold medal was expected. Nothing happened out of the ordinary. Luther won the championship with 22.52m and broke the Olympic record, while Divac won the second prize with 22.18m.

On the seventh day of the Olympic Games, the first two gold medals went to the United States.

At the end of the men’s shot put, there came the final in women’s javelin. However, no American players had qualified for the final in this event.

During the women’s javelin, Dai Li focused on the track, where the last event of the men’s decathlon, the 1500m run, was beginning.

American players took first and the second place in this event in the last Olympic Games. After the javelins, the ninth event in the Olympics, American players held first place securely, with a score of more than 7500 points, which was 70 points more than the second place.

Therefore, in this last event, the 1500m run, they didn’t have to get the first place or even rank among the top. They could win the championship if he didn’t fall too much behind the second place athlete.

This American athlete didn’t let Dai Li down. Although he only came in eighth place in the 1500m run, he was still number one on the scoreboard and finally won the gold medal in the men’s decathlon.

The next event was the final in the women’s 400m hurdles. Although the Jamaican team had three players in the final, they couldn’t compete with America and Russia. At last, the American team won the gold and bronze medals, while the Russian team won the silver.

There were five gold medals in that day’s track and field events so far. The American team had won four of them, which was a considerably good harvest.

Now there was only one event left that day, the men’s 200m dash.

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