Before the Tokyo Olympic Games entry standards were announced, each event discussed the estimated qualifying results for the Tokyo Olympics.
Among them, the Athletics Administration Center has also made multiple plans for the Olympic participation standards. However, not only in discussions here in China but also in discussions in other countries, it is believed that although the participation standards for the Tokyo Olympics will not be low, it is expected to be similar to the participation standards for the 2020 World Athletics Championships.
For example, during the 2016 Rio Olympics, the qualifying score for the men's 100m event was only 10.16 seconds. According to this standard, Fang Yu from China could easily meet the standard. In addition to Fang Yu, Zhao Shu, who is currently ranked second in the domestic 100m, also has hope as long as he tries hard.
Of course, now that four years have passed, competitive sports are pursuing the Olympic belief of higher, faster and stronger. There will definitely be an improvement in performance standards. However, most people only think that the degree of improvement should be from 10.16 in the 2016 Rio Olympics to 10.12 in the 2017 World Athletics Championships or the 10.10 standard of this year's World Championships.
But the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee obviously does not think so.
Taking the men's 100m event as an example, in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, if a men's 100m sprinter wants to qualify for the men's 100m sprint, the qualifying standard is 10.05 seconds.
Fang Yu is the only one who can achieve this result in the whole country.
Even if Pei Jinan had the most courage, he would not dare to boast that he could improve Zhao Shu's current 10.17 100m PB to 10.05 before next year.
The 100-meter sprint is the event that most relies on the athlete's personal physical talent among all sprint events. Even though it may sound cruel, the athlete's personal talent accounts for a huge proportion of the performance when it comes to the ten-second mark.
Zhao Shu is certainly a talented athlete. What's more, he can be said to be the athlete with the best physical talent in sprinting in the country besides Fang Yu.
But compared with Fang Yu, the gap between the two is difficult to measure.
In short, it's not that Zhao Shu has no hope of running under 10.05 seconds, but the distance between his current PB of 10.17 and 10.05 seconds is far from something that can be made up in one year.
The standards for the men's 100-meter sprint are so strict, and the other events are equally amazing!
In the 400-meter sprint event, the required performance for male athletes is 44.90 seconds, while the qualifying performance for women is 51.35 seconds.
This qualifying standard is like a bucket of cold water poured over the heads of Chinese track and field enthusiasts, the Athletics Administration Center, the national team and others.
They originally thought that the Chinese team had made considerable progress in the 400m event.
After all, Zhang Ziyi has broken the national indoor and outdoor records in the 400-meter sprint in the past few months, and behind him, two young men, Qiu Wen and Li Junhao, are also working hard to catch up.
Judging from their indoor results, the upcoming outdoor season is very worth looking forward to!
As for the women's team, Chen Yada's result of 51.61 seconds has exceeded the qualifying standard for the women's 400m at this year's World Athletics Championships by 0.19 seconds. As a result, the qualifying standard for the women's 400m sprint at next year's Tokyo Olympics is as high as 51.35 seconds? !
Not only that, the entry standard for the 110-meter hurdles event has also reached 13.32 seconds. Currently, based on the personal best scores of the athletes in China, only Cui Luoheng's 13.31 seconds barely meets the entry standard, and Lu Mengfan's best score of 13.39 seconds is still 0.08 seconds away from this standard...
800m, 1500m, high jump…
It can be said that almost all athletes in track and field events have to face this terrifying qualifying score threshold.
Of course, it cannot be said that it will be very difficult for the Chinese team to meet the standards in all events. For example, in strong domestic events such as women's shot put and javelin, it is still easy for athletes to meet the qualifying standards.
But, overall, the Tokyo Olympics' standards have reached a level that can be called strict.
After the standard was announced, domestic sports media practitioners were shocked, and track and field enthusiasts also found it difficult to understand this inexplicable standard.
The Olympic Games have high entry standards, which is understandable to everyone. After all, this is the world's highest level of competitive sports. However, if the extent of the increase in entry standards in previous sessions is used as a reference, track and field enthusiasts will no longer be able to remain calm.
——Are the entry standards for the 100-meter sprint so high? Are the Japanese crazy or are we crazy?
--I looked and found that in the entire season last year, there were 5 Japanese athletes whose 100m results were less than 10.10 seconds, and 3 of them reached the standard of 10.05 seconds. The fourth one may be born at any time this year. The Japanese may really not be crazy, as they can have a full team of men's 100m athletes!
——…So the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee deliberately set this high standard? Where's the face?
——But this time the passing standards for all events are very strict, and Japan is not good at every event, right?
In addition to these discussions, the first batch of news clips from various sports media also began to be published on the Internet as soon as possible.
"Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee releases participation standards for track and field events - the most stringent in history! 》
"100 meters in 10.05 seconds!" Fang Yu is the only Chinese athlete who can qualify for the 100m event! 》
"The men's 400m sprint qualifying standard is 44.90 seconds!" Can the Chinese track and field team finally break through this dangerous barrier? 》
The men's high jump competition standard is 2.33 meters. Can Wang Shen and Ye Wenhao overcome the 1 centimeter gap? ! 》
"Heroines in track and field - women's shot put, discus and javelin show no fear of challenging the most stringent standards in history!" 》
On the Internet, ordinary people initially didn't quite understand what was going on, but track and field enthusiasts had already been in an uproar because of the overly high entry standards.
Later, as discussions among track and field enthusiasts spread and reports from various sports media flooded in, new track and field enthusiasts finally figured out what was going on.
Although these new fans know that these standards seem very high, they have only known about track and field for a short time and do not really know much about track and field events, so they are not as nervous and anxious as the old fans.
On the forum of the Track and Field Kingdom, some people were discussing whether Wang Shen and Ye Wenhao could break the 2.33-meter mark within a year.
There are some new fans in this building who are very curious about this.
32l: [Aren’t Wang Shen and Ye Wenhao’s best results both 2.32 meters? There's only a 1 cm difference, there shouldn't be any problem, right? 】
37l: [The one on the 32nd floor in front is new, right? Well, you don’t know that less than a year ago, both of them were still under the 2.30 meter mark! These two are talented, have potential, and are hardworking. They are the current leaders of the domestic high jump event after the retirement of the older generation of high jumpers. But even so, none of these two dare to say that they can definitely jump over 2.33 meters in a competition. According to last year's results, a score of 2.33 meters would have put him in the top 8 in the world last year. Do you think this is a good standard? 】
40l: [=口=? ! The top 8 in the world this year? ! Is this the qualifying score for the Olympics...are the Japanese crazy? ? ? 】
42l: [Who said it wasn’t? Do you understand now? Why are we all worried... After all, last year, there were only 11 people in the world who could jump to this height. 】
46l: […So does Japan only plan to allow these 11 people to participate in the high jump competition in the Tokyo Olympics? ? ? You can't be that crazy, right? 】
50l: [Hey, there were 11 last year, but not necessarily this year. Open the website of the IAAF and take a look at the 2017 men’s high jump world rankings. 2.33 meters is good enough to be ranked 4th. What do you think? Is it awesome? 】
52l: […This is really amazing? Does the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee not want any athletes to participate? 】
The Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee is certainly not refusing athletes to participate.
As for the Athletics Management Center, after the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee announced the participation standards, the cadres of the Athletics Management Center headed by Wang Zhengsheng and others could no longer sit still. They asked the staff to bring all the existing information at hand and go directly to the national team. They gathered all the coaches currently in the national team and held an emergency meeting.
Currently, the team members are participating in indoor tours or domestic indoor zonal competitions, while coaches and players in some events without indoor events are still training with the team.
After the cadres from the Athletics Management Center rushed to the national team training base, the coaches shouted and everything was basically ready.
Su Bai was of course among them. He brought Wang Ting, the coach of the men's 400m team, and Zheng Xingguo, the coach of the women's team, and followed Pei Jinan directly to the national team's conference room, ready to listen to the discussion topic.
In fact, Su Bai could probably guess what the topic of discussion was.
Just now, the coaches in the team were also discussing the competition standards released by the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee.
"The Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee is probably crazy..." Wang Ting sighed, with an annoyed look on his face.
The current 400-meter sprint event is indeed much better than in previous years. Wang Ting had even discussed privately with Zheng Xingguo happily that he could go to the Olympics with the national team next year!
This was unimaginable for the 400-meter sprint event in previous Olympic Games.
But this time, he and Lao Zheng were still happy, but then this cold water poured down on them... 45.24 seconds and 44.90 seconds, the difference between them is a full 0.34 seconds...
Can Zhang Ziyi really do it?
Zheng Xingguo didn't say anything. After all, he was older than Wang Ting. Although the current emergency situation exceeded his psychological expectations, he still felt that there might be hope.
Before several leaders from the Athletics Management Center came on stage to speak, the coaches of the national team were discussing the standards that had just been announced today. Except for the coaching staff members of those strong events, the remaining coaches had a solemn look on their faces.
Wang Zhengsheng and others from the Athletics Management Center did not keep everyone waiting too long. The staff they brought had already connected the data and materials with the staff at the national team training base. In addition to projecting directly on the screen, printed versions of the documents were also all prepared and then distributed to the coaches one by one.
In this material, the Tokyo Olympic Games' qualifying standards are of course consistent with those disclosed externally. The difference is that in each event, the best domestic athletes with the best performance or potential are listed. At the same time, their PBs are listed, as well as the year and competition in which their PBs were achieved. In addition to PBs, the results of these athletes' most recent three outdoor competitions are also listed.
These materials are obviously data that the Athletics Center has been following up on continuously. After the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee released the Olympic track and field standards, all these materials were integrated in such a short time. It can be seen that the Athletics Center also attaches great importance to the Tokyo Olympic standards.
For the coaches present, they all had a basic understanding of the situation of their own events. Most of them paid attention to whether the data issued by the Track and Field Administration Center was consistent with what they knew. After confirming that there was no problem, they also briefly scanned the data of other brother events and the situation of domestic qualifying athletes.
After watching it, all the coaches didn’t say anything, but just sighed slightly in their hearts - no matter which project it is, it’s not easy!
They originally thought that after the variety show during this year's winter training became popular, the track and field events would finally become popular. However, when the Tokyo Olympic Games entry standards were announced, it was like a cold gun to the head.
Whether the variety show is popular or not is just icing on the cake for these track and field athletes. What really matters to them is the qualification to participate in events like the Olympics.
Although for many spectators, it is very boring to just qualify for the competition and be eliminated in the first round of the Olympics, but now, there are many events where you may not even have the chance to be eliminated in this round.
This terrible result is not a pleasant thing even for coaches of strong programs.
The leaders of the Track and Field Management Center were very accurate in calculating the coaches' time. When everyone finished looking at the data in their hands, Wang Zhengsheng and others appeared on the stage and greeted all the coaches.
"Everyone, let's not talk about politeness today. I think everyone has already got the Tokyo Olympics entry standards. Today's emergency meeting is to talk to everyone about the entry standards and how confident everyone is that they can meet the entry standards."
The first person to speak was Wang Zhengsheng, and as soon as he finished speaking, a coach in the audience immediately asked questions.
"The entry standards for the Tokyo Olympics are so high, just like high jump, there shouldn't be many athletes who can meet these entry standards within the limited time? Does the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee only have this one way to meet the entry standards?"
This is also the question raised by many coaches present. The standard this time is really too high. Not many people can easily achieve such an incredible performance standard within a year.
Not to mention other things, a result like 44.90 seconds would have ranked among the top 30 in the world in the 2018 and 2017 seasons, and it is obvious that the number of Olympic preliminaries is definitely not among these 30.
"That's right." Jiang Wentao took over the question and nodded, "According to the regulations, if a country does not have athletes who meet the standards in a certain event, it can send the country's best athlete in that event to participate."
"In addition, there is another way to participate, which is what we are about to talk about. The IAAF has reached a consensus with the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee to use the IAAF world ranking points that were just launched this year as the basis. In fact, this time for the Tokyo Olympics, there are two ways for athletes to meet the standards, and the number of athletes admitted in each of the two ways is half."
"In addition to the aforementioned performance-based approach, the IAAF will also select athletes from the top to the bottom based on world ranking points before the designated date."
Having said this, Su Bai looked up at Wang Zhengsheng, Jiang Wentao and others on the stage and understood the meaning of this sentence.
The IAAF world ranking points are the latest ranking calculation method launched by the IAAF at the end of 2018. This point system will be officially implemented on January 1, 2019.
This ranking is not entirely based on the strength of the athletes, but on the level of competition the athletes participate in and the results they achieve in that level of competition. These data are converted into IAAF points, and these points are used to rank the athletes in the world.
The reason why this score cannot fully reflect the strength of the players is that some players with average results can use "hard work" to make up for the shortcomings of their overall performance and strength by participating in a large number of competitions. Therefore, although some domestic players have good personal rankings after the appearance of this IAAF ranking, they have not received much attention from the team.
Obviously, the IAAF has also noticed this problem. They probably hope to increase the attention of athletes around the world to this points ranking by tying the IAAF points ranking to Olympic qualification.
After all, the IAAF must also know how strict the track and field competition standards are for the Tokyo Olympics. If they can qualify through the points ranking, then this IAAF ranking will become a must-fight place for athletes around the world.
When Su Bai thought of this, he couldn't help but speculate in his heart - perhaps the track and field competition standards for the Tokyo Olympics are so strict, and the International Association of Athletics Federations may have played a role in this.
After hearing Jiang Wentao's words, not only Su Bai, but many coaches present also understood what was going on.
Although these coaches don't like to play tricks, when it comes to brains, they are certainly no worse than anyone else.
Of course, it cannot be said that the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee and the IAAF are wrong in this action. This ranking method can also enable some athletes whose results do not meet the competition standards to qualify for the Olympics, but... the coaches present always feel a little uncomfortable.
Logically speaking, if the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee follows the standards of previous years and raises them a little bit, for example, by adding some reasonable data to the participation standards of this year's World Athletics Championships, everyone can give it a try, speak with strength, and just meet the standards.
But now it’s different.
Of course, the top athletes will still be able to advance to the Olympics, but those other athletes who might have been able to achieve lower-tier results if they had tried their best may now need to turn to competing in competitions to earn points.
It’s not that it’s a bad idea to let the athletes participate in competitions and win points, but with the Olympics only a year and a half away, which of these coaches is not carefully adjusting the training and competition status of the athletes who have a chance of qualifying for the Olympics?
Every time you participate in a competition, if you want to get high points, you need to participate in some high-level competitions. Whether it is the pre-match state adjustment and preparation, or the long-distance travel back and forth, these are all interferences to the athlete's overall state adjustment.
However, among these contestants who originally had the opportunity to qualify, there might be a group of contestants whose scores were slightly lower than theirs. If these contestants were to compete based on their own hard skills, it would be difficult for them to reach a slightly lower standard than the current one, but they could risk their lives to participate in more competitions and earn more points...
For these coaches, if their athletes were originally strong enough but were squeezed out of the Olympic qualification just because they did not play as many games as others... that would be really frustrating.
It can be said that this method of obtaining Olympic qualifications is indeed not satisfactory.
On the stage, Wang Zhengsheng said to the coaches: "I know that everyone has some small ideas about how to obtain the qualification this time. Our Athletics Management Center still encourages everyone and hopes that our players can obtain the qualification for the Tokyo Olympics next year by meeting the competition performance standards as much as possible."
"This way of obtaining qualifications allows our coaches to make scientific and reasonable arrangements for the conditions of each athlete. Secondly, we can also take this as a challenge and raise our goals as much as possible within this year. As long as we succeed in this challenge, I believe our track and field athletes will have a much better chance of winning in the Olympic Games."
Wang Zhengsheng's statement was recognized by most coaches. Of course, they were not particularly rigid people. The coaches had already started to make calculations in their minds - they certainly could not mess around with some top athletes, and they had to let them try their best to qualify for the Olympics by meeting the performance standards.
But... for some players in the team who originally have little hope of qualifying, we can consider arranging a reasonable 'match-brushing process' for them?
In the subsequent meeting, the Athletics Center had a brief communication with each coach and reconfirmed whether there were any omissions or updates in the previously distributed meeting materials for each athlete's data. At the same time, a 'list of key reserve athletes for the Tokyo Olympics' was determined with the coaches. In the coming period, the Athletics Center will pay special attention to these athletes.
After the meeting, some coaches stayed to have follow-up discussions with Wang Zhengsheng and others. Jiang Wentao also kept Su Bai and asked him privately how Cui Luoheng's eight-to-seven training was going.
"My current condition is still okay. I'm still in the final stage of adaptation and adjustment." Su Bai answered truthfully.
Jiang Wentao frowned: "Then can he reach his previous PB now?"
This refers to Cui Luoheng's result of 13.31 seconds.
Su Bai did not give a definite answer for a while: "...It depends on the final adjustment situation."
"Alas..." Jiang Wentao shook his head: "If I had known that the situation at the Tokyo Olympics would be like this, I should have told you to play it safe."
Unfortunately, this is something no one expected.
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