The Grandmother in the Siheyuan

Chapter 450 Scientific Training
At the time, they contacted the General Administration of Sport about this idea. The General Administration of Sport was in a dilemma, as some relevant officials believed that this was opportunistic and violated the Olympic spirit.

To this end, they held a special meeting, and at Liu Hua's strong request, he and Li Ning finally attended as well.

At the time, some people at the venue questioned Liu Hua, believing that he had ulterior motives. They argued that athletes' performance is improved through step-by-step training, not through technological products.

Liu Hua scoffed at his statement and smiled dismissively.

The leader's face immediately turned bright red, and he pointed at Liu Hua, asking, "Professor Liu, I respect you as a scientist, but what do you mean by smiling like that?"

“I laugh at your ignorance.” Liu Hua shook his head: “Don’t you know that equipment is also part of an athlete’s ability? Why does Nike release new basketball shoes every year? Why does Adidas always release new soccer shoes? Isn’t it because they want athletes to run faster and jump higher? Wearing these kinds of shoes, these achievements no longer belong to the athletes.”

"This is just opportunism, this is a denial of our athletes' achievements."

Liu Hua sighed and said, "No wonder we have made great progress in some events over the years, but we have never achieved any decent results in track and field. It's because someone is holding us back. The Americans are willing to use performance-enhancing drugs to achieve good results, but when we use high-tech equipment, some people are hesitant."

Is that true?

As expected, some people don't know that some people who manage sports are not from this related field. They are only urging athletes to achieve results, and they don't care much about anything else.

"Nonsense, do you think the anti-doping agency is just for show?"

"Are you really involved in sports?" Liu Hua retorted. "The US Anti-Doping Agency and the International Anti-Doping Agency are two different organizations. The International Anti-Doping Agency has no jurisdiction over the US."

"The US anti-doping organization can't just turn a blind eye to doping, otherwise they'd have a hard time explaining themselves internationally."

"What do you need to explain?" Liu Hua waved his hand: "There are regulations in China that allow exemptions if someone needs to take a certain medication due to illness. When you were in school, you might have even had to get a fake sick leave certificate to ask for leave."

Thus, the proposal was passed smoothly, using those high-tech devices to allow Olympic athletes to compete for medals.

Liu Hua didn't prepare much for the first time, as he might not have enough time, so he prepared two things: a sharkskin swimsuit and carbon fiber running shoes.

Thanks to the concerted efforts of Liu Hua and the engineers from Li Ning Group, they finally produced the finished product in February.

As a result, after using these high-tech products, the athletes' performance improved significantly, greatly increasing their chances of winning medals.

The swimmers and track and field athletes competing in Atlanta right now are working hard. They are already excellent, and now they have the added benefit of high-tech equipment.

They were able to compete for medals in sprint events, and several swimmers made it to the finals, even winning three gold medals.

The young men and women initially complained that the sharkskin swimsuits were very difficult to handle because they were too tight and couldn't be pulled apart. It required two or three people to work together to push them up little by little, and every time they wore the swimsuits, it was like a major battle.

But now that I'm standing on the podium and have won the gold medal, no difficulty is a difficulty anymore, and nothing is as sweet as winning the gold medal.

The athletes were delighted to see the carbon fiber running shoes. From their track and field training until now, all they've done is run, but they've never run so comfortably. After the Olympics, the leaders of the General Administration of Sport exclaimed how great it was, winning three or four more gold medals than expected – that's a significant achievement!

Therefore, they specifically contacted the Chinese Academy of Sciences and found Liu Hua, wanting to deepen cooperation and enhance the role of high technology in improving athletic performance.

Liu Hua then turned around and scolded them: "All you do is think about are crooked ways. If you want to achieve good results, you have to train hard and practically."

The leaders who came to contact him were extremely embarrassed; these were the words they had initially said to Liu Hua.

"Professor Liu, we know we were wrong. We now understand the power of high technology. How can this be called a crooked path? This is the right path."

"The right way is scientific training," Liu Hua said with a smile. "Don't think I'm mocking you. If this kind of high-tech equipment becomes too advanced, it will be banned. The real way to improve performance is still through down-to-earth training, but it just needs to be more scientific."

"How do we train scientifically?"

Liu Hua thought for a moment and said, "I'll help you assemble a scientific training team."

Liu Hua and Li Ning each contributed some money. Liu Hua also found several graduate students from Tsinghua University, including those majoring in mechanics, aerodynamics, and computer science.

Tsinghua University does not yet have a medical department, so Liu Hua could only turn to Beijing Medical University and Peking Union Medical College, and found two graduate students from them to study topics related to sports science.

After setting up such a scientific training team and purchasing some equipment, the money given by Liu Hua and Li Ning was almost used up.

The General Administration of Sport also has a way. They have a major financial backer, the Fok family from Hong Kong. Mr. Fok has always been concerned about the development of sports in the motherland and is still working hard for our country to apply for the Olympic Games.

The General Administration of Sport raised another ten million from the Huo family, and the scientific team was officially established.

Liu Hua redeemed a set of scientific training materials from his system and handed them directly to the team members.

Liu Hua smiled and said to the graduate students, "When you can help the General Administration of Sport establish this scientific sports system, you will be able to graduate. Your graduation thesis will be no problem at all; you can even submit it to Nature."

The team started with track and field, focusing on sprint events. Through computer analysis and the team members' professional modeling and analysis, they corrected a series of ineffective and erroneous movements of the athletes, as well as their gait, speed, and even angle.

The athletes' performance immediately skyrocketed, setting new records almost every day.

Of course, this is related to the fact that our sprint performance is not outstanding. Before Liu Xiang emerged, our country's athletes did have average results in sprinting.

Having tasted the benefits, the General Administration of Sport immediately realized how important scientific training was. It quickly established a scientific training department and tried every means to attract sponsorships and raise funds. From then on, it embarked on the path of scientific training and never looked back.

(End of this chapter)