<h4>Chapter 531: A Good Harvest</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Nyoi-Bo Studio <strong>Editor: </strong>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 ry race was also held this day.


    Considering the strength of American team, as long as they didn’t drop the ry 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 yers on a team. Dai Li use this to sessfully help the national team win the championship of the 4x100m ry race in the Asian Games.


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


    After the end of the ry race, the day’s first track and field final took ce, 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 ry race.


    The American team had the most 400m dash athletes as well as 400m hurdles athletes. It was known that quantity often led to sess. 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-ss.


    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 thosemon 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 ck 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 thest Olympic Games. ording 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 ce in the qualification trial. However, both the first ce and the second ce withdrew from thepetition due to the drug scandal. So, thest 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 ording 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 epted 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 ck. This part of his identity was a barrier to his eptance in the predominantly white country.


    Therefore, for Klett to achieve the sess 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 aplished great things. Now, he had won his ce 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 ording to the ns 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 n you arranged for me was excellent. Itpletely 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 ept you based on your talent. In sports, especially in the Olympic Games, people only ept 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 withpetitions 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 thepetition, 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 Pnd 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 sportsmentators 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 yers had qualified for the final in this event.


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


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


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


    This American athlete didn’t let Dai Li down. Although he only came in eighth ce 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 yers in the final, they couldn’tpete with America and Russia. Atst, 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.