Chapter 256

Since the end of the Winter Olympics in early 2022, Su Zhe, who already has a very high reputation in the country, has become even more famous.

To use the words of the Internet gossip: A person like Su Shen, who has spanned both the Winter Olympics and the Summer Olympics and reached the top level in both fields, may not be unmatched, but he is definitely unprecedented.

When Su Zhe officially announced his retirement after the Winter Olympics, countless people tried to persuade him, whether it was from the temptation of money from advertisers or other reasons, but the final result was "very moved but refused". --

Su Zhe only said that he still had his own direction to strive for, and wanted to try a completely new path while he was still young.

Because of Su Zhe's statement, there has been a lot of discussion and speculation on the Internet since the day he retired. People want to know what path Su Zhe, who has become a god on the ice, wants to try after retiring from the ice.

On the Internet, someone dug up Su Zhe's performance in the program "All-Around Sports King" after the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. In this program that once shook the three views of the entire Internet, Su Zhe's performance in shooting, swimming, and hurdles all looked very professional.

Topic: [How about guessing the next area where Su Shen will fight? Bet on it! ]

In this post on the gossip forum, the gossipers quickly dug up the three items from the beginning and asked everyone to vote on what Su Zhe's final choice would be.

Not only the gossip forums, but also a series of sports forums such as the Ice and Snow Kingdom, the Shooting World, and the Track and Field Kingdom are discussing what Su Zhe's next transformation project will be.

Needless to say, the kingdom of ice and snow, the changes that Su Zhe brought to figure skating and the achievements he made are indelible. For ice fans, as long as Su Zhe is willing, even if he no longer makes new achievements in the future and just lives a life of idleness in figure skating, the fans will definitely welcome him with joy.

Such a god on ice will soon have a new transformation direction. As his fans for many years, how could people in the forum not pay attention?

As for the shooting world, these shooting enthusiasts also discussed Su Zhe's performance in "All-Around Sports King". Of course, they would be very welcome if Su Zhe could switch to shooting. However, for shooting enthusiasts, they have always been a major gold medal winner in the country. Although they have not kept up with the newcomers in recent years and the subsequent successors are not stable enough, the shooting team still has veterans who are stable. For them, they have not really thought that if Su Zhe switches to shooting, he will be able to soar to the sky and really reach the top international level.

In fact, the crowd discussing this topic is not limited to the sports circle. In the gossip forum, in the voting post discussing Su Zhe's future, Chigualu jumped out with a serious face - people! Don't forget your roots when you eat melons, gossip should trace back to the source! Before Su Zhe became famous in the sports circle, he was in the entertainment industry!

This sentence, immediately woke up the spectators, and they happily joined in this "Su Zhe battle". Some people also found the clip of Su Zhe's withdrawal from the solo competition that year, and begged for Su Zhe's latest performance in tears.

The internet was abuzz with rumors, and all kinds of gossip were said about Su Zhe's whereabouts. However, the gossip about Su Zhe's whereabouts was not limited to the internet. Physical media with connections, such as sports channels, were more direct in their actions.

The Sports Channel very straightforwardly created a discussion program specifically about Su Zhe in the innovative column "Sports Star Tracking", inviting people from the shooting team, swimming team, track and field team and even other related projects such as table tennis, badminton, tennis, etc. to discuss Su Zhe's possible future development direction.

This program is a bit like tracking sports gossip, but its broadcast effect is good. The leaders of various departments today are no longer as rigid as they were in the past. They are still quite supportive of those programs that can increase the popularity of sports events.

Just like this special discussion about Su Zhe, the well-known coaches from each team were simply sent out, not for any other reason but to have a chat and increase their popularity, which is very necessary.

Needless to say, this episode received widespread attention when the trailer was released. This was due to the popularity of these coaches and their projects, as well as the influence of the name "Su Zhe".

After all, who wouldn’t want to know which sport this real-life legend, who has won historic medals in both the Winter and Summer Olympics, will choose to continue pursuing his dream?

Therefore, when the program was broadcast, the program's editing and directing team looked at the data rising rapidly in the backstage, and everyone smiled.

Although this "Sports Star Tracking" is a sports gossip program, it is produced by a sports channel after all. It is impossible for it to be as nonsense as those mindless gossip tabloids. Therefore, the well-known coaches in various events that they invited have actually conducted adaptability assessments on Su Zhe in related events.

Among them, the introductions given by the coaches of shooting, swimming and hurdle jumping were the most serious.

Zhou Shoufu smiled and said to the host: "In the past few years, Su Zhe has had a good relationship with everyone in our shooting team. He would come to our team from time to time to practice shooting. I can responsibly say that in terms of designated events, Su Zhe has definitely reached the level of a world-class shooting athlete."

?

? ? --

???

The host looked at the head coach of the national shooting team and didn't know how to continue - in fact, as insiders of this program, and with the official background of the sports channel, they already knew Su Zhe's final choice at this stage. The purpose of this program is first to discuss Su Zhe's gossip, and then to show the thirst for talent in each project, and finally it will be over.

The coaches all knew what to say, and the host was not too worried at first. However, he did not expect Zhou Shoufu to speak in this state. It looked like he wanted to snatch Su Zhe back to his shooting team immediately...

"Ahem." The swimming team coach also coughed twice at this time: "I think Su Zhe is also very talented in swimming, and the swimming team is very welcome to him."

These two coaches not only welcomed him verbally, but they also produced some sports data related to Su Zhe, indicating that Su Zhe is very talented in this event.

Sitting next to the two of them was the head coach of the table tennis team. Like Zhou Shoufu, this head coach always had a smile on his face when he had nothing to do. After hearing what the swimming team coach Li Ting said, he smiled and waved his hands.

--

"Hey, Lao Li, we coaches have to stick to the basics. It's fine if Lao Zhou and his shooting team think Su Zhe is good at shooting and has talent, but your swimming team has different requirements for athletes' body shapes than the track and field team. You want athletes to be tall and have a high fat percentage. How can Su Zhe have such a physical advantage?"

The coaches present naturally knew where Su Zhe was going. It was just that Zhou Shoufu and Li Ting had indeed seen some of Su Zhe's relevant data before. However, they knew in their hearts that it was not reliable for Su Zhe to switch to their event at this time. Apart from other things, when Su Zhe was in the figure skating team, it was at least a winter event, and the competition time could be coordinated with sprinting. But what about their events?

After all, they all knew that a player like Su Zhe had no affinity with their events. Although they also envied the fact that sprinting and figure skating could produce such a legendary figure, they could not force it if there was no affinity.

When this episode was broadcast, apart from anything else, the onlookers who were watching the program were still very happy. After all, by watching the program, they could not only learn about the selection characteristics of athletes in some events, but also watch these top coaches "compete" for Su Zhe, which was really a great pleasure.

Although the entire program did not clearly point out which event Su Zhe was most likely to choose, smart viewers have already seen from the mutual "attacks" among the coaches that the most likely event is still crossing the hurdles.

After all, if Su Zhe switches from sprinting to other events, there will be obvious conflicts in training and competitions as an obstacle. Apart from those coaches who are obviously using this as a cover-up, the three events of shooting, swimming and hurdles, excluding the events with obvious conflicts, what remains is just hurdles, right?

When spectators and fans guessed that Su Zhe was going to make a fresh start in the hurdles event, track and field fans in the track and field kingdom became visibly excited.

Su Zhe's achievements in sprinting and his current status as the top sprinter in the country have already made them very satisfied. You know, from the perspective of these track and field fans, Su Zhe's ability to compete in sprinting was all earned by splitting his time between his efforts in figure skating.

They were originally worried about the fact that Su Zhe had been competing in multiple events for so many years. Now that Su Zhe has retired from figure skating, they hadn't even started to get excited before they found out that Su Zhe said there were other areas he wanted to pursue.

This...where is the realm that Su Shen wants to fight?

For these track and field fans in the track and field kingdom, as long as Su Zhe's ultimate goal is not revealed, they will be panicked.

Fortunately, shortly after the broadcast of the program "Sports Star Tracking", the national track and field team also officially issued an announcement, announcing that Su Zhe will officially compete in the hurdles in the new track and field season in 2022. Su Zhe's debut battle in the hurdles was directly set at the Osaka station of the World Athletics Challenge, the same as Su Zhe's first international sprint battle that year.

Athletics Kingdom

Topic: [Su Shen's first cross-hurdle battle! May 22, Osaka Challenge Tournament in Japan! ]

At the same time when the national track and field team released the announcement, track and field fans in the forum immediately posted the news to the forum, and everyone made an appointment to watch the live broadcast of Su Zhe's first hurdles battle together.

Speaking of the live broadcast of the World Athletics Challenge, in the early years, due to the small number of people paying attention and low ratings, no platform in China purchased the live broadcast rights of this competition. However, since the emergence of Su Zhe and his repeated breaking of short-distance running records, the domestic track and field atmosphere, especially the short-distance running atmosphere, has really been boosted in recent years.

With this foundation, sports channels have also begun to purchase the live broadcast rights for each World Athletics Challenge race. However, only the races where Su Zhe or domestic celebrities compete will be broadcast live on TV, while the rest of the races will still be broadcast live on the Internet.

Even if it's just this, track and field fans are very satisfied. You know, if they wanted to watch the live broadcasts of these related competitions, it would be much more tortuous than it is now.

Among the replies from track and field fans who agreed to join together on the forum to watch Su Zhe's competition live, there were some rather unusual replies.

17L: [Shinkansen tickets purchased, see you in Osaka 0v0 Sushen! ! ! ]

20L: [=w=! Airline tickets purchased, see you in Sushen Osaka!!!]

…

…………

21L: [The two in front, judging from your profile pictures, you must be Zhe Shao’s figure skating fans, right? Why did you come to our forum? The length of time you’ve been online… you must have been lurking in the forum for quite a long time, right?]

23L: [_(:з」∠)_During Su Shen’s figure skating competition, you guys also visited our figure skating forum quite often! ]

Just like what this ice hockey fan lurking in the track and field kingdom forum said, in recent years, ice hockey fans and track and field fans have been "competing for favor" because of Su Zhe. Things like lurking in the "enemy forces" are no longer a big deal.

Su Zhe's track and field fans are not all these big men. There are also some female fans who are dedicated to and passionate about track and field. They are very smart. When Su Zhe rarely participates in figure skating competitions in China, they will also go to watch Su Zhe's performances. While watching, they will throw snow leopard dolls to the scene. Occasionally, some of them are thrown in front of Su Zhe and he picks them up. If he does, he can show off on the ice and snow kingdom forum for a year.

In the past, Su Zhe's fans were not particular about throwing dolls at him, after all, Su Zhe had never revealed any favorite cartoon characters. Since the "snow leopard incident", the fans have specifically avoided various cats that resemble snow leopards when throwing dolls at Su Zhe in the past two years. Even the tiger dolls that the fans loved to throw at the beginning were completely abandoned, just to have a "clear distinction" between themselves and the track and field fans who sneaked into the scene.

This time, when Su Zhe retired from figure skating, these ice fans thought to themselves, although they can't see Su Zhe on the ice, who can stop them from watching Su Zhe in other arenas?

So aren't they here now?

When the national team announced that Su Zhe's first race would be the World Athletics Challenge in Osaka, Japan, the organizers, who originally had a certain amount of tickets in stock, found that their ticket stock had dropped significantly overnight.

Not only Su Zhe fans in China, but also fans in Japan, South Korea or other places. For them, no matter what project Su Zhe is going to promote, just the name "Su Zhe" is enough to attract them to the scene.

What's more, this is Su Zhe's first battle in a new field!!

With this mentality, all Su Zhe fans who were able to attend the event rushed to buy tickets, waiting to witness Su Zhe's new journey on the court.

On May 20, the participants of the national track and field team went to the airport together, ready to go to Osaka, Japan.

When the national team members arrived at the airport, they were stopped by several sports media who had been waiting for a long time. Obviously, as a sub-race of the challenge competition, the reason why these media were worthy of such a large-scale deployment was because this was Su Zhe's first battle across the hurdles.

"Su Zhe, this is your first time participating in an international competition as a hurdles athlete. Do you feel you are ready for it?"

The person who handed over the microphone was Su Zhe's old acquaintance, Xu Zhi, a reporter specializing in track and field for the Sports Channel.

Su Zhe smiled and nodded to him: "I think I am fully prepared for this."

Although he has not had the opportunity to step onto the hurdle track over the years, he has always been independently training in hurdle jumping in the training space of the sand sculpture system. He has not forgotten the pleasure of racing on this track, nor has he forgotten the joy of competing with his opponents on this track.

When Su Zhe and his team boarded the plane, Su Zhe originally planned to walk to the back with his teammates, but in the first-class cabin, he saw Shao Xingchen sitting quietly in his seat again.

Li Cheng, who was traveling with Shao Xingchen, stood up with a smile after seeing Su Zhe - obviously, he was going to give his seat to Su Zhe.

When the members of the track and field team saw this scene, many of them laughed.

"Hey, how come we had to eat dog food as soon as we got on the plane?" Zhang Minghao from the high jump group shouted happily, and then was patted on the head by Chen Zhi, who is now the assistant coach of the national team. He and everyone else went to the back row with laughter.

Naturally, most of the people on the plane knew Su Zhe and Shao Xingchen. Many of them were surprised to be on the same plane with them. After hearing Zhang Minghao's shout, they all smiled kindly.

When the plane landed in Osaka, the track and field team members were once again greeted by the news media. Su Zhe's popularity in Japan is not much lower than that in China. These Japanese media had been waiting for a long time, and when they saw Su Zhe, their eyes lit up and they surrounded him. After an interview, they smiled and wished Su Zhe all the best in the competition.

In this World Athletics Challenge, Su Zhe did not sign up for the men's 100m sprint. His only task was the 110m hurdles race at 3pm on May 22.

In this 110m hurdles race, in addition to the new face Su Zhe, there were many famous athletes, but most of them were veterans, all of whom were old acquaintances that Su Zhe knew back then.

There are Alcides from Spain, Gomez from Brazil, Adolfo from France and Percival from Jamaica. In addition, there are three local players from Japan and a new American player, Gart.

When all the players were warming up at the training ground, the foreign players did not react much to the sudden appearance of such a strange face as Su Zhe. After all, to them, the 24-year-old Su Zhe looked very young and looked like a rookie player who was less than 20 years old. They did not know Su Zhe's previous brilliant resume.

Even though some of them thought Su Zhe looked familiar, they could not imagine that someone could move from the men's 100m event to their hurdles. Some of them thought Su Zhe was not tall enough, but since Holness, who called himself the shorty king, appeared, many hurdlers had a certain psychological shadow towards opponents who were around 180cm tall, so they did not comment on Su Zhe's height.

The three Japanese skaters looked at Su Zhe with a strange look in their eyes. Given Su Zhe's popularity in Japan, they were used to knowing that this talented Chinese skater and sprinter was going to compete with them. This strange situation made them nervous.

On the domestic Internet, members of the track and field kingdom forum had already started to get nervous a long time ago. After all, this was Su Zhe's first 110-meter hurdles race. On the "All-Around Sports King", Su Zhe seemed to run very fast, but it was still a variety show after all. Thinking about it now, many people didn't dare to take it seriously.

After thinking about it, there were many things to worry about, and these track and field fans began to feel anxious.

At 3 pm, the 110-meter hurdles competition was about to officially begin. After all the contestants officially appeared on the stage, the audience's hearts were lifted into the air as the cheers rang out!

Take a look!

Although their Zhe Shao is too tall for figure skating, he has no advantage standing next to these big guys who are over 190cm tall!

Track and field fans are all worried at this moment. Looking at the stadium, they are afraid that Su Zhe's first performance will not be ideal. What should they do then?

Su Zhe on the field naturally had no idea what the audience was thinking before the live broadcast. At this time, he had already adjusted his starting blocks and was fully prepared on the 5th lane.

In the Japanese live broadcast room, Kazuhei Ishida, who was in charge of the commentary, was also a little excited at this time.

"I never thought that after leaving the figure skating arena, our Snow Leopard boy chose the 110-meter hurdles as his new journey! This is a brand new challenge for him. I hope he can get ideal results in today's starting battle!"

Following the announcement from the stadium broadcaster, all the athletes have already squatted on the starting blocks, ready to start the battle at any time.

"It's about to begin! Su's first 110-meter hurdles battle!"

After Ippei Ishida's commentary, the starter's cold voice was heard in the live broadcast.

"Everyone, take your positions."

"Be prepared."

"Bang."

After a sharp blast of the starting gun, nine figures on the track stepped out. All the runners reacted quickly to the start, but Su Zhe's quick response to the gun still gave him a certain advantage at this time.

After stepping on the starting block with his left foot and starting with a strong explosive force, Su Zhe quickly completed his starting acceleration in the first three steps. With each strong and powerful step, his body flew forward like a bow and arrow.

Many track and field fans watching the competition on TV in China were already a little surprised.

etc!

Why does Su Zhe's pace and rhythm at the hurdles not look like an eight-step attack, but rather a seven-step attack that is only used by players with a greater height advantage? !

Although domestic players such as Zhou Tianjue and Ye Jun have already adjusted their stride in front of the hurdles, these track and field fans did not expect Su Zhe to also adopt the plan of attacking the hurdles with seven steps. After all, considering his height, attacking the hurdles with eight steps is a more comfortable stride for Su Zhe.

If we use the seven-step attack strategy... will Su Zhe really have no problems?!

When track and field fans saw this, they felt their scalps go numb.

From an outsider's perspective, it can be seen that Su Zhe's seven-step attack on the hurdles is actually very sophisticated. At the same time, his seven-step attack on the hurdles technique, excellent reaction to the shot and explosive power in starting, all of which enable him not to lose to those cross-hurdles champions who are obviously taller than him in the pre-hurdle stage!

Before the attack, Su Zhe was also in third place among all the players! Ahead of him, there were only two famous players, Alcides from Spain and Gomez from Brazil.

The new player from the United States was now following not far behind Su Zhe and started attacking the hurdles almost at the same time as him!

Seeing this, everyone's eyes lit up again - in the first stage of the column, Su Zhe did not lose!

What about the attack phase? !

Because of Su Zhe's height and his seven-step attack technique, his body is leaning forward and his forward momentum is greater. Before the first hurdle, his starting leg pushes the ground in front of the hurdle. Under the momentum brought by this push and the previous seven-step attack, his body is lifted up and pressed down, and his swinging leg swings over the hurdle quickly, followed by his starting leg.

Throughout the entire process, Su Zhe's hurdle-crossing technique was crisp and neat, without any drag.

It was not until after seeing this that the tension in the hearts of track and field fans finally eased a little.

Afterwards, everyone watched Su Zhe rush forward with unstoppable momentum, as he passed over the hurdles with ease, took three steps between the hurdles, and then passed over them again.

As the fences were breached one by one, the audience was surprised to find that Su Zhe not only had good skills in front of the fences and excellent attacking techniques, but he even had his own unique rhythm control between the fences. His rhythm control between the fences was even able to affect the young American player behind him, making him feel affected and lose his original rhythm.

What kind of terrifying rhythm control and influence is this? !

Domestic track and field fans were already shocked as they watched the competition in front of them.

Before the game, they were still worried about Su Zhe's performance, but in fact, Su Zhe's strength in hurdles seemed to be no worse than his strength in sprinting?!

Even his talent for controlling the rhythm between the columns shocked everyone.

Alcides and Gomez, who were originally in front of Suzhe, did not pay attention to Suzhe behind them until Suzhe gradually reached the seventh hurdle and started to attack the last few hurdles. Then people discovered that his ability to accelerate in the late stage, which he originally had in the sprint event, also existed in the hurdles!

Amid the cheers and shouts of surprise from all the spectators at the venue, and the excitement of the audience in front of the TV, Su Zhe was already the first person on the track when he passed the last hurdle!

When he rushed through the final sprint track and crossed the finish line amid the incredible gazes of all the athletes, the name of a man who was once the legendary king of China's hurdles event resounded in the minds of all the spectators - Song Chen.

Looking at Su Zhe crossing the finish line in first place, everyone seemed to have an epiphany.

A new era of Chinese cross-country sports is about to begin again!

The author has something to say: Alas, here I am again!

But this time, it won’t go beyond the expected chapters! (clenching fist)

Ahhhh, too late to say more, see you all tomorrow!

PS: I saw some little angels asking, the next book is temporarily "The God of Cooking". Oh, I beg you to collect "After I Quit the Sports Circle, I Became the God of Cooking" ← It's still a cool sports article for a silly newbie