They promised to win the swimming championship, but what's with this "Grand Slam" thi

Chapter 59 What kind of "group of death" is this?!
It's 8 PM Beijing time.

At Wu Jin's home in Shuangqiao Town, Quzhou City.

After taking a shower, Wu Lisheng sat at his newly bought computer desk in his bedroom, anxiously browsing the web.

However, Sina.com's coverage of the Barcelona World Swimming Championships only included the results of the finals.

There were no results announced during the group stage, mainly because the domestic athletes' performance was mediocre and the event wasn't very popular.

Sina Sports probably can't be bothered to update frequently; although they sent reporters to the scene, real-time news hasn't come back yet.

In order to know his son's grades, Wu Lisheng spent a fortune buying a laptop and broadband; he didn't usually bring it to the office, which benefited Xu Wanqin.

I practice typing in my spare time, learn how to use the internet, and chat with classmates on QQ. My days are quite fulfilling.

"Barcelona's time zone is 6 hours behind China's!"

"By noon, the preliminary rounds must be over, right?"

Wu Lisheng turned to Xu Wanqin and asked.

"How would I know..."

Xu Wanqin was also quite anxious. Ever since they learned that their son had participated in the World Championships, the two of them really wanted to know his results and news.

Although they are likely to be eliminated in the first round, parents' eagerness to follow their children's every match is a common sentiment worldwide.

"The competition is definitely over!"

Wu Lisheng muttered to himself, "The match this morning!"

"Should I send a message and ask?"

Xu Wanqin held her phone, but she was actually very hesitant.

He was afraid that sending a message would bother his son, and what if he didn't swim well? Asking at that moment would only make the child more upset!

But I also want to know his World Championship results, so I'm really torn.

"forget it!"

"Our son is competing, we can't let him down!"

"Let me check out some other websites..."

"Xiao Li said that CCTV's official website will probably also report on the swimming competition!"

"And it's firsthand news!"

As he spoke, Wu Lisheng started searching for CCTV on Baidu.

These days, CCTV's website is quite crudely made, but the corresponding news reports are still very detailed, and it also has a sports section.

Sure enough, a row of very eye-catching characters came into Wu Lisheng's view.

Actually, he had seen it before.

He had already refreshed that website long ago, and only went to Sina and NetEase after not seeing any news.

[Barcelona World Swimming Championships Special]!
The largest image above is the news and photos of Luo Xuejuan winning the championship.

The headline on the front page, highlighted in bold red, announced that she had won two gold medals at this year's World Championships.

Old Wu had known about this news for a few days, and he was so excited that he drank a couple more glasses that night.

Although it wasn't his son who won the gold medal, he was equally happy that his son's teammate achieved such an accomplishment.

"Ok?"

Wu Lisheng suddenly stood up and stared intently at a news headline that had just popped up on the computer screen.

[12-year-old swimmer Wu Jin sets a new Asian record in the men's 50-meter freestyle!]

"Wife, wife!"

"Quick, son!"

"News about my son!!!"

Wu Lisheng was already shouting excitedly, and his hand couldn't wait to pick up the mouse and click on the news headline.

Xu Wanqin also looked up abruptly. Seeing her husband's expression, she quickly walked to his side.

"It's a son!!"

"He broke the Asian record!!!"

Wu Lisheng leaned close to the screen, looking at the news he clicked on. The photo on it showed Wu Jin wearing swimming goggles, leaping into the pool to win first place in her group.

"Asian record?"

"It really is Yu-Yu!!"

Xu Wanqin gripped Wu Lisheng's clothes tightly with one hand. Wu Lisheng's eyes were fixed on her, looking at her over and over again, afraid of missing any crucial information.

"Hahaha!"

After a long while, he suddenly slammed his hand on the table: "Asian record! Good lad, awesome!"

Wu Lisheng was so excited that his blood rushed to his head, and his face turned bright red.

Xu Wanqin stared intently at the text of the news report, feeling a bit dizzy.

This happiness came far too quickly.

"Half-final!"

"See that? Yu Yu is ninth in the preliminaries and has made it into the afternoon's semifinals!"

Wu Lisheng danced with joy like a child, while Xu Wanqin continued watching the news, her face growing brighter with each passing moment.

This breaks the Asian record, which is even more impressive than the previous national champion!

After all, there are many national champions, but how many can break Asian records?
"Don't send me a message!"

"At this moment, you absolutely must not disturb him!"

Wu Lisheng turned his head sharply, and Xu Wanqin nodded frantically: "Yes, yes, we'll wait, we'll wait for the semi-final results!"

"If it starts at 5:30, it won't start until 12:30 here!"

"It's 11:30. I checked, what's this about daylight saving time and standard time? It's daylight saving time now, which is 6 hours later than our time!"

"Teacher Li knows best; his favorite football team is Barcelona, ​​Barça!"

"A world-class powerhouse!"

In fact, Wu Lisheng occasionally watches football, but he watches basketball, track and field and swimming the most.

He used to train in track and field for a while, otherwise he wouldn't have become a physical education teacher.

"Then let's wait until 11:30!"

Xu Wanqin touched her phone, feeling that she needed to talk to her sister and parents about her son breaking the Asian record.

"I'll make two calls!"

As Xu Wanqin spoke, Wu Lisheng burst into laughter: "I'll fight too!"

"Hahaha!"

The couple looked at each other and laughed happily.

Meanwhile, Wu Jin, who was thousands of miles away, was unaware that his parents had seen the news about him and were overjoyed beyond belief.

He was on the bus back to the hotel. He would come back in the afternoon to participate in the semi-finals in the evening. He would need to rest for a while at noon to recharge.

"Wu Jin broke the world youth record, and the news has spread to several other countries!"

"I bet everyone'll be here to watch his game this afternoon!"

Zhao Ge looked at the message from his friend on his phone, and Xu Guoyi grinned helplessly: "There's nothing you can do about this. Luckily, he changed his swimming style after the World Championships!"

"Yes, a happy problem!"

"Finally, other countries are coming to study our team members!"

"Ha ha!"

The two men laughed out loud, but Huang Qi, the deputy team leader sitting in the front row, leaned over and said, "Coach Zhao, after the semi-finals this afternoon, a reporter wants to interview Wu Jin. Should we train him on the appropriate talking points or something?"

"What, you didn't follow the group stage? Now that the news is out, you're looking for fodder?"

Zhao Ge clearly didn't like these reporters. Athletes, in general, dislike being interviewed.

"Wu Jin cannot afford to be distracted right now!"

"If he can swim a similar time to his group stage performance, he might even make it to the finals!"

"We can't let the reporters interfere with him!"

Zhao Ge spoke very forcefully.

Huang Qi shook his head helplessly: "Okay, then I'll say hello to the reporters..."

In his view, the semi-finals will depend on the situation, and he needs to prepare for both possibilities.

If Wu Jin doesn't advance, the reporters will definitely want to interview her for information; there's no stopping them. We'll need to provide emergency training and prepare appropriate communication strategies in advance.

If you advance, then everything will be fine.

The reporters had nothing to say; they were certain they would be able to interview them after the final.

This is customary.

After the finals, when interviewing the contestants, media reporters from every country would be waiting in the press area; sometimes, if you were famous, you would even be interviewed by foreign reporters.

Conversely, Sina.com interviewed Phelps and Popov a few days ago, and did a special interview with them.

This is certainly not a bad thing; it can enhance an individual's commercial value abroad.

For example, if it weren't for the extensive media coverage in China, Popov wouldn't actually be that famous there; only swimming enthusiasts would know that he was very strong.

After all, the media was not as developed as it is in later years.

***
Back at the hotel, Wu Jin went straight to sleep.

The alarm clock rang promptly at 3 o'clock. Wu Jin went to the bathroom to wash her face before rushing downstairs.

Xu Guoyi was already waiting there, while Wu Peng and the others were going to cheer for Wu Jin at the stadium. They weren't going to the back of the athletes' locker room, but to the stands that the organizers had reserved for China.

Each country will still have a few seats, and coaches and athletes will usually choose to sit there to watch important matches, such as the finals.

Some were analyzing their opponents, while others were cheering on their teammates.

This time it's clearly the latter.

Other countries, however, fall into the former category.

They mainly wanted to see who the newly crowned World Youth Championship record breaker was.
So, in what seemed like an ordinary semi-final, the spectator area was already filled with athletes and coaches from various countries. The American team uniforms stood out in the spectator area because... there were many of them, and they had the best seats, with their faces directly facing the live broadcast camera.

It's because their team has many high-profile celebrity teammates, and the organizers understand the importance of generating buzz.

"No way, this many people are watching the semi-finals?"

Zhang Lin was a little taken aback. It was his first time participating in the World Championships, so everything seemed very new and exciting.

He performed exceptionally well in the 800 meters this time, being the only male swimmer on the team to reach the final, although he finished last.

That is, eighth place in the finals.

However, this is already the best result achieved by the Chinese men's swimming team at this year's Barcelona World Swimming Championships.

"Wu Jin swam the World Youth Record, so I guess everyone's here to watch!"

"The Americans and Australia really don't let any potential adversary get away with it!"

"Of course! Would you come and watch if you were in my shoes?"

"The coaches of Russia and Australia practically watched Phelps' group stage matches through binoculars from the front row!"

"Haha, this guy is something else! 3 gold and 2 silver medals, 5 world records broken! Even Thorpe is outdone by him!"

"Why are Americans and Australians so twisted?"

"..."

While Wu Peng and the others chatted, the athletes participating in the women's 200-meter backstroke semifinals began to enter the stadium one by one.

After this event, the next event is the men's 50-meter freestyle.

Meanwhile, backstage at the swimming team headquarters, the coaches from each team have already received the schedules for the upcoming events.

The opponents from both groups have taken their places, and the top 8 will advance to the final two hours later.

"As expected of a semi-finalist!"

"I recognize all those English names!"

Holding the semifinal list for the first group of the men's 50-meter freestyle, Xu Guoyi didn't know how to describe his complicated feelings.

To call it despair... might be a bit more serious than despair.

So all he could do was make fun of himself.

Apart from Wu Jin and César Cielo being placed in the same group, the other six all have at least an Olympic medal.

Five of them have won Olympic gold medals, plus two world record holders.

The good news is that Hogenband, currently ranked number one in the world in this event, is not in the first group of the qualifying rounds, and he is also the biggest favorite to win the championship before the competition.

The bad news is that, apart from him, the other top players were all assigned to the first group.

Including Alexander Popov, who won two gold and one silver medals in this event in the previous three Olympic Games!
Gary Hall and Anthony Irwin both won gold medals in the 50-meter freestyle at the previous Sydney Olympics, with identical times.

Gary Hall, in particular, is set to retain his title as the world's number one in the 50m freestyle in Athens next year.

Although this guy isn't ranked number one in the world in the 50m freestyle, or even number two, and is currently ranked fourth, he still manages to win a gold medal. On the contrary, Pieter Hogenband, who holds many records in this event and has been ranked number one in the world for a long time, has missed out on the 50m freestyle several times.

Besides these three, the world's number one Thorpe was also placed in Wu Jin's group.

The 50-meter dash isn't his main event, so he's not much of a threat.

The other two are Jason Lezak and Mark Foster!

His two main events are the 100m and 50m butterfly. Jason won a bronze medal in the 100m freestyle in Sydney, so he might be the slightly weaker one among them.

But BJ could win an Olympic gold medal in the 100 meters in the future.

As for Mark Foster, he is currently the world record holder for the 50-meter butterfly short course.

The first group consisted of eight people, two of whom were unknown, while the other six were all world-class. When Wu Jin, a reborn individual, saw this list, he felt it was a battle of gods.

Apart from him, they are all past and future Olympic champions!

Some of them will be the first in the future.

"King versus king!"

"As expected of the 50-meter dash, a short-distance explosive battle of geniuses, second only to the 100-meter dash!"

Looking at this list, Wu Jin felt her blood boil.

Just looking at these seven people gave him a feeling of god-slaying. Even if it was just a semi-final, competing against seven Olympic champions was something he probably couldn't even dream of in his previous life.

Those are 7 Olympic champions, the "Grand Slam" champion, and the future number one!
What could be more exciting than this match?!

Wu Jin was getting impatient.

The crucial point is that Xu Guoyi was unaware that his disciple was prepared to slay a god, and he said with a serious expression, "Go all out with this shot, don't hold back!"

What else could he say?

Faced with such an opponent, no amount of words or words of comfort can truly suffice.

"Fortunately, you're at an age where metabolism is fast, so you don't need to conserve your energy!"

This is probably due to the physical advantage of not being fully developed.

The recovery was very fast.

An adult might risk their life for a single shot, but Wu Jin, after giving it her all, doesn't need a nap. Just lying there for 1-2 hours to rest is enough to make her feel refreshed and back to her best condition.

This is something that many people can only envy.

"Okay, coach!"

Wu Jin clenched his fist, feeling the fighting spirit surging within him, and he was completely eager for the upcoming match.

Blood is boiling, just waiting for the sword to be drawn!

(End of this chapter)