State Recovery

On July 20th, the 28th Olympic Games Chinese sports delegation was officially established. The Chinese team sent 408 athletes, 117 coaches, 27 team leaders, 26 doctors, 27 translators, and 2 sparring partners to participate in the Athens Olympics. This was the largest and most numerous delegation in the history of Chinese Olympic participation.

Additionally, the delegation included 226 officials, including 31 from the delegation headquarters and 195 from various sports teams. Chinese athletes qualified for 26 out of 28 major events and 203 out of 301 minor events. The average age of the athletes was 23.3 years old, with the oldest being 44 and the youngest 14.

Since the next Olympics would be in the capital city, one of the important tasks of this Athens Olympics was to train athletes and prepare for the next capital Olympics. Therefore, out of the 408 athletes, 225 were participating in the Olympics for the first time. Furthermore, over 300 athletes participating in this Olympics would have the opportunity to participate in the next capital Olympics.

In the following days, Olympic athletes would undergo concentrated training. The delegation also provided each athlete with a thick manual detailing everything they needed to know about participating in the Athens Olympics, including information about Athens, local customs, laws, disciplinary rules for athletes, foreign affairs reception rules, how to handle problems, how to ask for directions when lost, and more. The manual was extremely detailed, and it would likely take a lot of effort just to read through it.

The training content was similar to what was mentioned in the manual, but with more emphasis, and given the short time, even those with exceptional memory would find it difficult to remember everything, especially since most athletes were not good at studying.

During the training, Zhang Guan gained a lot. He met many famous athletes at the venue, such as Yao Ming from the basketball team, national players from the table tennis team, elites from the diving team, and the girls from the volleyball team. These familiar figures appeared before Zhang Guan one by one, and many of them even knew Zhang Guan as the fastest man in Asia, which made him feel somewhat flattered.

During breaks or after meetings, you could always see Zhang Guan, who was over 1.9 meters tall, holding a camera and taking selfies everywhere.

If it were a few years later, taking selfies would be normal, and people would be used to taking photos of themselves or friends while eating, drinking, or having fun, and posting them on WeChat. But in 2004, most people were not used to this way of taking photos, so the expressions captured by the camera were often stiff and uncomfortable.

Yao Ming watched Zhang Guan running around taking photos and couldn't help but smile. He thought of many black players in the NBA who seemed to have this habit, and when black players took selfies, whether they were teammates or opponents, they would cooperate to make various poses and exaggerated expressions. But here, everyone had a serious look.

"Yao, let's take a photo!" Zhang Guan ran a few steps to Yao Ming, stretched out his hand, and pressed the shutter from afar.

Zhang Guan was over 1.9 meters tall, but in front of Yao Ming, he looked short and could barely reach Yao Ming's shoulder. Previously, from a distance, Zhang Guan only felt that Yao Ming was tall, but when he stood in front of him, he could truly feel his own insignificance.

At that moment, a short athlete happened to pass by from the side, looking like he had just come out of the health bureau. Zhang Guan immediately recognized him as the future boxing champion, Zou Shiming.

Zou Shiming was only 23 years old this year, but compared to more than a decade later, there were no obvious changes in his appearance, making him look mature beyond his years, so Zhang Guan recognized him at a glance.

"Zou, let's take a photo." Zhang Guan pulled Zou Shiming and took a photo with Yao Ming.

Zou Shiming was 1.62 meters tall, Zhang Guan was 1.92 meters tall, and Yao Ming was 2.26 meters tall, with a difference of thirty centimeters between them. It would have been easier if they had a selfie stick, but Zhang Guan could only take a selfie with one hand, capturing only his own face while cutting off Zou Shiming's head and Yao Ming's neck.

Years later, this photo appeared in a reality show segment where fathers and sons tried to find each other in pictures. Even with several cute children together, they couldn't find Zou Shiming in the photo. All they could see was Zhang Guan's smile, a neck, and a patch of black hair.

After the concentrated training, Zhang Guan asked Coach Yu to continue studying English, so the track and field team found an English department assistant from the Sports University of Northern China to continue tutoring Zhang Guan in English.

Before heading to Athens, there was another important event in domestic track and field, which was the fifth stage of the National Track and Field Grand Prix, also the China Athletics Open of the year.

The level of the China Athletics Open was very high, and the prize money was very attractive, so this competition attracted more than 900 athletes from 39 representative teams across the country.

Among the well-known domestic athletes, some had enough points to qualify for next year's Ten Games and did not participate, but many big-name athletes still came, such as Liu Fei, the 110-meter hurdles champion.

The men's 100 meters remained the most fiercely contested but least suspenseful event. It was fiercely competitive because of the large number and high level of participants, but there was no suspense because Zhang Guan was competing.

Compared to the fourth stage of the competition half a month ago, Zhang Guan's competitive state had improved today, and the training plan formulated by Coach Yu was indeed effective, something Zhang Guan could feel most keenly.

However, compared to the beginning of the year, Zhang Guan still felt a lot worse. Although his competitive state was not bad now, it was still at an ordinary to lower level. It was obvious that he wouldn't win a medal with this state of performance in the Olympics.

In the preliminaries, Zhang Guan easily ran a time of 10.21 seconds, a result that instantly brought despair to other competitors. For ordinary athletes, running within 10.40 seconds was already considered a huge success, and it was possible to win the championship in domestic competitions with a time of 10.40 seconds.

In the semifinals, Zhang Guan continued his performance from the preliminaries and ran a time of 10.19 seconds. And in the semi-finals, Zhang Guan still ran a time of 10.20 seconds.

Zhang Guan had been using the first three matches to adjust his state. In the previous matches, Zhang Guan struggled a lot, mainly due to inadequate control of his body. Therefore, Zhang Guan had been trying hard to control his body and speed. As the competition progressed, Zhang Guan's control over his body improved, and his competitive state gradually recovered.

Finally, it was time for the final, and Zhang Guan decided to challenge the Asian record again.

The athletes who made it to the final were all strong players in the country. Although everyone knew that winning first place was hopeless with Zhang Guan present, the final rankings were still worth fighting for. As the China Athletics Open, the prize money was much higher than other domestic competitions. Each advancement in ranking meant more substantial rewards.

At the same time, the rankings in the track and field open could also earn more annual points, which not only qualified athletes for the year-end finals of the National Track and Field Grand Prix but also allowed them to participate in next year's Ten Games. For those athletes who didn't have the opportunity to compete in the Olympics, the Ten Games were the highest-level competition they could participate in.

When the starting gun fired, Zhang Guan took the lead, while the seven athletes behind him fiercely competed with each other.

The cheers in the stadium were continuous, but there were basically no cheers for Zhang Guan. With him running alone in the front, winning the championship was already a certainty, so there was no excitement. Compared to this, the fierce competition among the seven athletes behind him was more stimulating to watch.

The more intense the competition among the others, the louder the cheers from the sidelines. Although Zhang Guan couldn't hear what the audience was shouting while running, he could still feel the increasing tension in the atmosphere. Zhang Guan liked this atmosphere very much. The sense of urgency seemed to constantly call out to him, awakening his cells and making him feel excited!

Excited! This was the competitive state that athletes should have during competitions.

Zhang Guan felt that this excitement allowed him to vaguely find some competitive state, but it was still not enough. He couldn't feel the pressure from his opponents, nor could he feel the excitement of determining victory or defeat at the finish line.

Then, Zhang Guan crossed the finish line!

Zhang Guan felt disappointed. He had just found a bit of the competitive feeling, but the competition had already ended, as if a musician had just heard the most beautiful music in the world, only for it to abruptly stop, making it impossible to find again.

At the moment he crossed the finish line, he looked back at the other athletes still striving, and suddenly felt a bit envious of them. At least they could experience the thrill of competition, the true essence of sports! As for himself, he was just a lonely front-runner.

Zhang Guan suddenly realized that perhaps deep down, there had always been a soul hidden within him, a soul belonging to an athlete.

"Breaking the Asian record for the men's 100 meters sprint, reward: 2 skill points."

The system prompt appeared, and Zhang Guan realized that he had once again broken the Asian record.

A few seconds later, the electronic scoreboard displayed the athletes' results. Zhang Guan's first-place result stood out conspicuously because his time was one digit less than others'.

"9.98 seconds! Zhang Guan has broken the Asian record again!" The announcer holding the microphone immediately shouted, spreading the news throughout the stadium and beyond.

The entire stadium erupted in continuous applause and cheers.

Zhang Guan looked at the result, although he was still not very satisfied, but by breaking the Asian record and earning two skill points, he had achieved his goal.

"I have seven skill points now, let's complete the task quickly." Zhang Guan opened the skill synthesis column, spent 6 skill points, and combined the skills "Strong Body" and "Healthy Body" into a new skill called "Strong and Healthy Body."

A golden icon appeared in the skill box, accompanied by the following description:

"Strong and Healthy Body: Increases physical strength and endurance, enhances the recovery speed and level of tissue damage. Explanation: A growth-type skill, a composite skill."