Chapter 65

In the athletes' rest room.

Zhang Guan had expected a lot of journalists to come for interviews, but in reality, there was only one. After all, in this era, the domestic media were not well-off, and the cost of a journalist traveling to Athens was quite high. Moreover, obtaining the qualifications to interview inside the stadium was not easy.

The female journalist in front of him was not very familiar with Zhang Guan, but Zhang Guan recognized her. She was a track and field specialist for the official media and had become famous for reporting on Liu Fei, so she could be considered Liu Fei's official journalist.

The official media journalist naturally wouldn't ask overly exaggerated questions, and since the female journalist was not very familiar with Zhang Guan, her questions were all standard and formal. Zhang Guan's answers were also as formal as possible.

"I'm of course very satisfied with the 9.83 seconds. Actually, I didn't think much about it on the track; I just ran as fast as I could!"

"Maurice Greene, as the defending champion, is indeed very strong, but I did think about the possibility of defeating him before the race. I believe every athlete strives to reach the highest level in the world."

"Preparation for the final? At this point, I'll definitely give it my all!"

"Final goal... of course, the Olympic champion! I came here for the gold medal! And I'll try my best to break the world record!"

The female journalist looked at Zhang Guan with surprise. Zhang Guan answered several questions in a row. At first, his answers were still quite formal, but as he went on, they seemed less and less reliable, even mentioning breaking the world record.

"Who would dare say such things, but fortunately, this segment won't be broadcast until tomorrow. If you end up running last, I'll cut out all the parts of the interview after this," the female journalist thought to herself.

...

The semi-finals of the 100 meters ended at 9:10 PM Athens time, but at this moment, Director Hou had just finished his dinner. As the head of the entire delegation, he had been busy all day and only finished his work an hour ago, starting to eat dinner.

Years of irregular work had given Director Hou a chronic stomach ailment. The Greek cuisine did not suit his taste, and eating so late exacerbated his old stomach problems. He had to take several types of stomach medicine to gradually alleviate the discomfort.

"Director! Good news!" A staff member of the delegation hurried over.

"Another medal?" Director Hou asked instinctively.

"Not that. But it's a historic breakthrough. In the men's 100 meters, our country's athlete has made it to the final!"

"What! The final of the 100 meters?" Director Hou stood up abruptly.

Track and field events, as the most prominent in the Olympics, have always been a weak point for the national team. The men's 100 meters, the most watched individual event in the Olympics, is the weakest of the weak points for the national team. Achieving a breakthrough in this event and making it to the Olympic final is even more significant than winning a gold medal in a strong event.

"When does the final start?" Director Hou asked immediately.

"11:00 PM."

"Less than two hours. We can still make it if we leave now. Prepare the car; let's go now," Director Hou said.

"Director, isn't it too late? You have many things to do tomorrow, and your stomach ailment needs you to rest early. The round trip will take more than an hour, and if there's traffic, it might be after 1:00 AM before we return. The U.S. team has a dominant position in the 100 meters, and it's already a great achievement for our athlete to make it to the final. Perhaps it's better to watch the TV broadcast?"

"No, I must go! Our athlete has worked hard to make it to the final. Even if he finishes last, I must go to cheer for him on the spot! At this moment, I must stand with our athletes!" Director Hou said firmly.

...

In the rest room, Greene kept drinking water, hoping to accelerate the circulation of body fluids and quickly break down the lactic acid in his muscles.

"I need to recover my strength quickly; I should eat something." Greene found a special food, something like an energy bar, but it tasted much worse than the ones sold on the market. However, this was the latest scientific product from an American company, and since it was a sponsored product, he didn't have to pay for it.

"I need to rest immediately. With more than an hour left, I should be able to recover a lot of strength." Greene lay down.

On the other side, Coach Yu knelt beside Zhang Guan, continuously massaging his leg muscles.

"How are you feeling? Do your muscles still have sensation?" Coach Yu asked.

"Basically normal. I was really tired just now, but I'm feeling better now," Zhang Guan replied.

"Good. Rest as much as you can and try to recover as much strength as possible. Your food and drink are right next to you, and I'm here. If you need anything, just call me," Coach Yu said.

...

The two-hour rest period only allowed Zhang Guan to recover 3 points of stamina. At this point, Zhang Guan's stamina was 59 points, still not reaching 60, and his condition was 73 points. With his current stamina and condition, it was impossible for him to achieve a good result. Therefore, Zhang Guan used two bottles of medium stamina recovery potion and three bottles of medium condition recovery potion, bringing both his stamina and condition to 100 points.

"Task completed!" The system's message made Zhang Guan happy for only a second, but the new system message made his mood plummet.

"Besides physical condition and athletic state, athletic equipment is also very important for an athlete. The various types of athletic equipment provided in the store can effectively improve training and competition performance."

"What's going on? They're actually selling equipment! Sure enough, they're selling equipment!" Zhang Guan started cursing in his heart, but while cursing, he still opened the store in the system and found a new "Athletic Equipment" category.

Entering the athletic equipment store, Zhang Guan immediately saw a wide variety of items, divided into different categories. For example, the shoe category included basketball shoes, soccer shoes, spiked running shoes, tennis shoes, cycling shoes, equestrian boots, various ice skates, and even roller skates. Other categories included items like table tennis, badminton, and tennis rackets, golf clubs, swimming goggles, boxing gloves, weightlifting belts, various firearms for shooting, and archery bows. The equipment for various sports was all available, and the prices varied.

Zhang Guan randomly clicked on a pair of track and field running shoes, and the price of 10 skill points immediately made his face turn sour. 10 skill points were enough for Zhang Guan to upgrade three skills and still have some left over, and this was one of the cheaper items in the athletic equipment.

"The system really understands the essence of online games. They're selling equipment now. Next, will they sell gems, gem synthesis stones, and hole-opening stones..." Zhang Guan shivered slightly at the thought and dared not continue.

Zhang Guan exited the store, and at that moment, the system's prompt appeared again.

"Having good equipment does not mean you can dominate the sports world. As an athlete, competition experience is indispensable and is also a valuable asset for an athlete. Therefore, the system provides you with various experience books, allowing you to learn from the experiences of your predecessors and quickly grow into an excellent athlete. You can purchase them from the store."

"Again? Predecessors' experience? What is this?" Zhang Guan cursed again and then entered the store in the system.

"Michael Jordan's Basketball Career Competition Experience, Michael Tyson's Boxing Career Competition Experience, Michael Schumacher's Formula 1 Career Competition Experience, all three Michaels are here!" Zhang Guan continued to look down, and they were all the competition experiences of superstar athletes.

"Roger Federer's Tennis Career Competition Experience, Tiger Woods' Golf Career Competition Experience, Zinedine Zidane's Football Career Competition Experience, Ma Lin's Table Tennis Career Competition Experience, Xian Dan's Badminton Career Competition Experience..."

These names of superstar athletes represented the highest achievements in their respective fields, and they looked very tempting. Zhang Guan felt that these things seemed very powerful and subconsciously looked at the prices.

"Forget it, I can't afford them. It's just depressing to look at them. I'll look at something else!" Zhang Guan shrank his shoulders.

"Alan Iverson's Basketball Career Competition Experience, this is much cheaper than Jordan's! Hmm? Kidd's is quite expensive, and Shaq's is even more expensive than Kidd's. Is the price set according to the players' strength? Then for other sports... Beckham, Kahn, the big and small Ronaldo, Kaka, even Messi! They all look so powerful! Unfortunately, I can only look. The cheapest one I can't even afford. I should focus on the upcoming final! The race is about to start!"

Zhang Guan's attention returned to the track, to the upcoming 100-meter final, which would be his last race in this Olympics and would become his crowning achievement!

"This is the first time I've maxed out my stamina and condition. According to the system's description, when stamina exceeds 80, strength and speed increase; when condition exceeds 80, performance exceeds the norm. Now both of these values are 100, the best state I've ever been in. It looks like I'm going to win this championship!"

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Chapter 1 is here, please support with recommendations! It's been exactly one month since I uploaded on December 15th last year. I really appreciate everyone's support and encouragement over the past month. I've updated over 210,000 words in total. I searched for new books with similar word counts, and many of them started in November, with a few starting in early December. At least in the new author rankings, I'm the one with the fastest updates. I'll continue to work hard! Finally, thank you to the two new patrons, Qingyi Ruhongchen and Dushuren-YES, for their generous support of 10,000 starting coins.

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