Chapter 231: I Want to Strive for a Gold Medal
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
This was the first time that Dai Li had attended a meeting like this, so he had made sufficient preparations in advance. Dai Li had formulated a game plan. Now, Weidong Chu was questioning him, so Dai Li firmly decided to start an explanation by himself.
Everyone in the meeting room fixed their eyes on Dai Li. They hadn't cooperated with Dai Li before, so they didn't know him and didn't know the actual level of the young man coming straight from the national team.
Someone was looking at Dai Li with high expectations and hoped he could provide some substantial content; someone seemed to be sneering at Dai Li and hoped Dai Li would make a fool of himself.
Only fools wouldn't be envious of him. As the youngest one in the meeting room, Dai Li was able to enter the national team, and now had even been asked to address the group by Weidong Chu. This treatment was almost the same as team leaders of other training teams; therefore, he could easily be envied by many people.
I'd like to know what this young fellow will say! Baojun Sha was flaunting his seniority by resting on the back of his seat, even crossing his legs.
Beside him, Hua Liu was poker-faced, while Guodong Li was very serious.
Dai Li cleared his throat with a dry cough and said, "I gained a brief understanding of the strength of our sprinters. Frankly speaking, our sprinters could hardly be promoted for the qualification round. Even if they could be promoted, they would be knocked out in the first round of the official competition of the National Games held in August. "
"Coach Li, your point is too arbitrary!" someone said, and that someone was Guodong Li.
"Coach Li, you've just come back, you haven't participated in training yet, and you also haven't met our athletes; how could you determine that our athletes won't be able to enter the official competition of the National Games?"
Guodong Li was quite hostile towards Dai Li, so even though he knew what Dai Li had said was basically correct, he couldn't help finding an excuse to argue with Dai Li. When he challenged Dai Li, he felt much better.
At this moment, not only the sprint coaches, but the coaches of other events turned their attention to Dai Li.
This should be a lot of fun! Guodong Li is trying to spook the newcomer, Dai Li.
In the sprint group, the competition among Baojun Sha, Hua Liu, and Guodong Li has already been very fierce. Now, the arrival of Dai Li will create even more fun!
It's beyond my expectations! This is just the first day, and the atmosphere has been so rousing.
Let's see whether this newcomer Dai Li has real skill!
Everyone had different ideas on the issue.
At this moment, the one sat beside Dai Li was introduced. "This is Coach Guodong Li from the sprint group."
Dai Li also didn't expect someone would oppose him when he had just started to speak. Now that he knew the objector was also a coach from the sprint group, he realized the reason.
Two of a trade never agree. This Coach Li is afraid that I could steal his job! Dai Li smiled; he knew there would be a lot of local bullies like Guodong Li among the sprint coaches in the meeting room. Guodong Li had just stuck his neck out.
As the saying goes, even one with great power cannot defeat a local villain. Since Dai Li had just arrived, he had to show his real strength.
Dai Li said, "The national team asks all provincial teams to submit lists of the names of excellent athletes quarterly; each quarter, the results of the athletes should also be submitted. We submitted our materials on the fifth of this quarter, and the materials of our team of the last quarter were submitted on the sixth, while the materials of our team of the previous quarter to that were submitted on the third…"
Dai Li paused a bit, "The athletes reported should be the best ones on our team. I can still remember several of them who appeared on the name list consecutively for several quarters, including Kun Shen, Yueyang Zhu, and Tingshan Chen."
Dai Li looked at Guodong Li again. "Those I mentioned just now are athletes on our team, so you should know them very well. However, I don't think your information on athletes of other provinces could be better than mine!"
"Just now, I said our athletes weren't good enough to be promoted from the qualification round. My viewpoint was not only based on the results of our athletes, but also from comparison with the results of athletes of other provinces, for their results could be found in the database of the national team."
As Dai Li said this, he looked directly at Guodong Li. To Guodong Li, this was an obvious demonstration.
However, Guodong Li was dumbfounded. Dai Li had mentioned the database of the national team, which was irrefutable for Guodong Li.
Guodong Li was not capable enough to be admitted to the national team, so he wasn't qualified to have access to the database of the national team. Therefore, he had to believe whatever Dai Li said, as he wasn't able to verify it.
Even now, Guodong Li raised questions. What he questioned wasn't Dai Li, but the database of the national team. Guodong Li was only an ordinary coach for the provincial track and field team. His questioning of the database of the national team was just like the complaint of a roadside restaurant owner about the recommended dishes of a 5-star hotel executive chef, which could only be described as sour grapes.
It's not a big deal to have access to the database of the national team! Guodong Li became depressed and didn't speak anymore.
"Ha, Guodong Li is humble now!" Baojun Sha gloated silently over Guodong Li.
Hua Liu was relieved. Li, at first you jumped out to challenge Dai Li, that was obvious to everyone. Dai Li isn't a fool, he will definitely get revenge. Later, he'll definitely ask for Tingshan Chen, so Yueyang Zhu and Kun Shen are safe now. They shouldn't be chosen by Dai Li.
The originally offensive Guodong Li had been subdued, so he sat back in his chair silently. Then Dai Li continued, "I'll carry on. As I said just now, our athletes aren't strong enough to be promoted from the qualification round, and can't achieve good results. Our insufficient strength is one reason, but another is our powerful opponents."
"Li, like the old saying goes, if you know yourself and know your enemy, you will win every war. Everyone knows that our sprint team is indeed not strong enough. Could you give us a brief introduction on other provinces' sprint teams?" Weidong Chu asked suddenly.
"Okay. Last year, local teams sent many excellent athletes to the national team. Especially during the training camp of the Asian Games, the national team enrolled forty sprinters during the first stage of the training camp. All forty of these sprinters were strong enough to enter the official races of the National Games, which means half of the positions in the official competition were taken by them.
"Besides that, as far as I know, some senior athletes of the provincial teams who had abundant experience didn't participate in the training camp for the Asian Games organized by the national team. The main reason was that provincial teams are putting emphasis on the cultivation of young athletes. However, these senior athletes are still powerful. According to my estimation, a quarter of the positions of the official competition will be taken up by them.
"In addition, the athletes from Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan will attend the National Games. Sports organizations like the Xinjiang Construction Corps Team, the Rolling Stock Team of the railway industry, the Coal Mine Team, and the Vanguard Team, among others, will also participate in the National Games.
"Basically, the athletes from Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, as well as sports organizations will not participate in events with a high technique difficulty; they'll focus on the track events, with sprints as the highest priority. I think these athletes will also take up a quarter of these positions.
"There are some unknowns in the races, such as the emergence of unexpected winners, so it's actually almost impossible for our athletes to be promoted from the qualification round, whether in the 100m sprint or the 200m sprint."
Weidong Chu nodded. He also had a general understanding of what Dai Li had said just now. However, the basic-level coaches of the team were unlikely to know such detailed information.
Weidong Chu said, "Li, the reason that we called you back this time was to help our athletes break through in the National Games. You should have known the status of our team. The configuration of athletes in our team is complete; we can't just select new athletes now. Just like a card game, we've drawn all cards, but our cards aren't good. How do we play the cards, what do you have in mind?"
"Coach Chu, could you tell me the goal of our sprint team in this National Games?" Dai Li asked.
"At least one or two athletes should be promoted from the qualification round and enter the official races in August." Weidong Chu said.
"That's not a difficult one. We still have nearly three months before the qualification round. If I'm responsible for the training, as long as the athlete is talented enough, I'm sure they could enter the official competition." Dai Li said resolutely.
Maybe Dai Li had been a little bit overconfident; people around him looked at him with strange eyes.
Some thought Dai Li was gutsy, while some thought he was bragging.
"Keep bragging. The more you brag, the more embarrassed you'll be when your swans are proven to be geese!" Baojun Sha said silently in his mind.
Dai Li even said so himself! Is he bragging or is he really that competent? Hua Liu's mind was full of doubt.
Guodong Li was the most nervous one among them. Dai Li's words could be understood as asking for athletes from the team. The subtext of "as long as the athlete is talented enough," was "just give me the most talented athlete." On the sprint team, the most gifted athlete was obviously Tingshan Chen, who was under twenty and under the management of Guodong Li.
Dai Li continued, "You may think I'm bragging. Actually, my confidence comes from successful cases I've had before. I think all of you should know Yue Zhao, the champion of the 200m sprint at the Asian Games. When he was enrolled to the training camp for the Asian Games, his level was just above average. After three months of my training, he managed to win the championship during the Asian Games."
"Was Yue Zhao trained by you?" someone immediately asked in surprise.
In the national team, all the coaches and athletes knew Yue Zhao was trained by Dai Li, but the coaches of Hanbei Province track and field team hadn't known. Hence, they had only heard the outstanding performance of Dai Li in the national team without specific examples.
Now Dai Li mentioned the case of Yue Zhao as a fact, which made everyone think highly of him immediately.
Dai Li smiled and nodded, "This is not a secret. Everyone on the national team knows it."
Everyone in the meeting room knew that the underlying meaning of Dai Li's words was, "if you don't believe me, you can verify my words." Since Dai Li dared to accept the verification, what he said must have been authentic.
He cultivated a champion at the Asian Games in three months, this Dai Li is really somebody!
It's quite impressive that he could be on the national team around twenty-five-years-old and could be chosen by Li Xue.
It turns out that this Coach Li is the coach of a champion at the Asian Games. When it comes to achievements, our coaches couldn't match him.
At this moment, Dai Li immediately stood tall. A lot of people who had planned to address him as "Li" had changed the salutation in their minds to "Coach Li."
Results were decisive in the competitive sports world. Those who bragged before the matches without results were bragging in vain. For those who were degraded before the match, as long as they could produce a champion, they would still be regarded as legendary heroes.
In all sports, if athletes were regarded as powerful, number one in the world, or leading an era, but they didn't have any decent achievements, their career would always be regarded as a fluke.
In the NBA, a lot of star players tried to join a powerful team, even with an annual salary of one dollar. They just wanted to get an NBA championship ring. Those who had an NBA championship ring at a young age, even if they were nameless, would be remembered as winning an NBA championship whenever they were mentioned.
This was the power of a championship. Dai Li showed his identity as the coach of an Asian Games champion at this moment to gain leverage.
Dai Li knew he was young and a newcomer. It was quite normal that others didn't accept him. He needed enough leverage to show his real strength, so that troublemakers or local bullies could be overpowered.
Weidong Chu was very delighted. He had heard Dai Li was very successful on the national team, but he didn't know Dai Li had accomplished such a remarkable achievement as this. A coach of an Asian Games champion was very rare in China, and Hanbei Province track and field team was lucky to find one.
This made Weidong Chu smile harder. He said, "Li, of course I believe your capable. Tomorrow, you'll just choose the athletes during training. Those who you select will be your trainees in future."
What Weidong Chu said made Guodong Li nervous. He intended to object, but he felt his voice would be very lonely.
Dai Li waved his hands, "Coach Chu, I still have an idea myself, although I don't know whether it's appropriate to say."
"Just say it, please tell us your idea!" Weidong Chu said generously.
"In my opinion, the promotion of our athletes from the qualification round and their entry to the official matches shouldn't be regarded as a breakthrough." Dai Li said.
"Li, are you going to achieve better results? Good, young people are always bold and resolute!" Weidong Chu was even more delighted.
"Coach, I want to strive for a medal." Dai Li paused, and continued as everyone snapped to attention, "I want to strive for a gold medal."