After Leaving the Sports Circle, I Became a Cooking God (Completed BL)

Chapter 241-242

Translator: dapotaturs

Release Date: 10/11/2023

Chapter 241: Preparing for the Olympic Year

After the official selection of trial athletes for the national team was completed, those who didn't make the final cut returned to their respective provincial teams over the next two days. While they didn't make it to the national team, as athletes who were sent back in the final round of selection, the coaches from various provincial teams recognized their value. Upon returning to their original provincial teams, they would undoubtedly receive more training resources. With proper training, their future achievements might not be much worse than those who made it into the national team.

The athletes who were officially selected to join the national team also received a brief holiday to return home for some rest and to prepare for their formal induction into the team.

Winter training would commence in November, and there were only two months left in 2019. Crossing into the new year would bring the most important event for active athletes—the Olympic year.

The Olympics, being the quadrennial world's top multi-sport event, was seen as the "ultimate" in the minds of people worldwide. It had the most sports, the highest standards, and the strongest athletes. In short, the Olympics were the pinnacle.

Although each edition of the Olympics awarded over a hundred gold medals and hundreds of medals in total, the sheer number of gold medals often led viewers to lose their initial excitement about athletes winning medals. Some even only remembered the daily count of medals being won, while completely forgetting the names behind those medal counts. However, in reality, for each event's participating athletes, there was always a group of the world's top athletes competing against them on the same stage.

For athletes, merely stepping onto the Olympic stage was already a dream come true for most.

As the athletes took a brief break from the national team, Su Bai, along with the head coaches of various track and field events, attended a meeting organized by the General Administration of Sport. The theme of the meeting was "Motivation and Encouragement for Olympic Year Training in Various Sports."

Not only the track and field team, but also the principal coaches from various sports such as table tennis, badminton, gymnastics, diving, and other disciplines were gathered in the auditorium of the General Administration of Sport. They sat together, listening to the leaders on stage outlining the Olympic year's goals.

This was a customary practice before major competitions. Each sport had its own performance targets to achieve. These meetings were held because, for many countries, the level of sporting success also represented their economic strength and national power. After all, economically disadvantaged and weak countries would not have the resources to develop their sports prowess.

The sports system's meeting, while including some routine topics, was generally straightforward. During the meeting, they first summarized the results and shortcomings of the previous Olympic Games, as well as some of the lessons learned. They then presented observations and records of the recent years' achievements in various sports. Finally, they outlined the Olympic performance requirements for different sports.

The leaders on stage announced the requirements for each sport one by one. In the audience, coaches from various sports were looking at their data and silently calculating whether their sports had a chance to meet the objectives. They also checked to see if there were any discrepancies in the calculations made by the General Administration of Sport. If there were, they needed to communicate the current challenges in their respective sports to the authorities.