Mr Mermaid | LK Adaptation

Chapter 92 Part 3 : Side story (4)

7.

Unknowingly, the Olympic Games arrived.

This time, the Olympic Games would be held in Melbourne, Australia, and the swimming events would run from August 2nd to August 9th.

The men's 100-metre freestyle would forever be the most highly anticipated solo race among the swimming events. In addition to the popular candidates from the World Championships last year, there was an up-and-coming newcomer in contention for the gold medal this year — the 18-year old swimmer Yugyeom from Canada. Although he was a newcomer, he was first in the world rankings with his time in this year's qualifying race, far better than Jungkook's 6th place ranking. (Jungkook's time used in the ranking was taken from his results in the Champions Tournament this year.)

Although Jungkook only ranked in 6th, considering the fact that the fellow had the 'precedent' of achieving a great reversal, there were still a considerable number of people betting on Jungkook becoming champion. His odds were only second the Sanger, who was 2nd on the rankings. The world number one, Yugyeom, was further behind instead.

Therefore, there was a significant group of people overseas who were optimistic about Jungkook's chances to win gold. In contrast, the Chinese media and public were generally lacking confidence in him. A domestic poll regarding the predicted outcomes of the 100-metre freestyle showed that there was only 15.3% who believed Jungkook could win the gold.

After the preliminaries and the semi-finals, Jungkook successfully qualified for the finals with the overall ranking of 3rd. His semi-finals time was 47.82 seconds, an improvement of 0.2 semi-finals on his Champions Tournament results, much to the surprise of those who had doubted him in China. Without even having to look at the finals, just this time alone was already enough to prove these people wrong.

Lisa shook her head, marvelling. Tsk, tsk, tsk, haven't you all already been smacked in the face once? People, when will you learn...? Shocked now? Hahaha! ~\(≧▽≦)/~

Ahead of Jungkook were Yugyeom and Sanger respectively. Yugyeom was truly on a roll, coming in first place in the semi-finals with 47.67 seconds. Meanwhile, Sanger was performing at his usual standard, coming in at 47.70 seconds, only slightly behind Yugyeom. The gap between Jungkook and them was rather wide.

Coach RM knew Jungkook's true capabilities, so after the semi-finals, he said to Jungkook, "You are in good form right now. If you harness it well, you'll be able to compete against Sanger. Yugyeom' momentum is too strong. You and Sanger might not be able to beat him, so just do your best. But you also need to be wary of Samuel and Taehyung."

Jungkook thought for a moment, then said, "I've seen all the videos of his races, even for this race."

Coach RM was unable to follow. "Whose?"

"Yugyeom."

"You..."

"Coach RM, have you seen them?"

Coach RM rolled his eyes. "Of course."

"Then let me tell you my thoughts. Yugyeom is a swimmer who is very fierce in the first half, almost invincible. He can swiftly widen the gap between himself and his opponents, establishing a great lead in the first half of the race. This way, in the second half, his opponents will have a very hard time chasing up to him to overtake him. At the same time, due to the large gap, opponents will lose their fighting spirit when they feel that it is impossible to catch up. See here. The second and third place of his group in the semi-finals both did slightly worse than their previous times... because they already lost hope halfway through."

Coach RM stared at him with a dark gaze. "So?"

"So, to beat Yugyeom, the best plan would be to put controlled effort into the first half to maintain the gap within a reasonable distance. That way, there will still be the chance to overtake him in the second half."