The Olympic Stadium in Athens, also known as the Spirizon Luis Stadium, is named after the Greek Spirizon Luis, the gold medalist of the marathon of the first modern Olympic Games.

The stadium was first used in 1982 at the 13th European Athletics Championships. After Athens' successful bid to host the 2004 Summer Olympics, the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava designed the Olympic Stadium to be used as the main stadium of the Olympic Sports Center for the Olympic Games.

The stadium has an exquisite glass roof, and the spectator seats are divided into two floors, with nearly 70,000 spectator seats, more than 400 media seats and more than a dozen VIP boxes.

The men's 100m race at this Olympic Games is a four-shot victory, with preliminaries, semi-finals (quarter-finals), semi-finals, and finals.

The first two rounds of preliminaries and semi-finals will be played on the morning and evening of August 21, and the semi-finals and finals of the last two rounds will be held on the evening of August 22. After each game, the interval is relatively sufficient, the athletes can get the news, and the event schedule is more reasonable.

As for the short interval between the semi-finals and the final, it is generally about two hours, which is a common practice in the Olympic Games, and is designed to ensure the tension of the 100-meter race and the effect of television broadcasting.

At 10:35 a.m., the first round of the men's 100m preliminaries officially began. The whole preliminaries were divided into 10 preliminaries groups, with a total of 86 athletes participating. Four of the groups consisted of 8 runners in 8 lanes, and 6 groups had 9 lanes on the very edge.

When the first group of the preliminary round appeared at the Olympic Stadium, the crowd of nearly 70,000 began to erupt in cheers, all looking forward to the start of the men's 100m race.

Due to the impact of international terrorism, the organizing committee has mobilized more than 45,000 security personnel to further strengthen security work. But by the time of the opening ceremony, less than half of the 5.2 million tickets had been sold. In the first few days of the event, there were plenty of empty seats in many of the stands.

Until the start of the track and field competition, the crowd at the Olympic Stadium increased, and by the beginning of today's most high-profile men's 100-meter sprint competition, the entire venue of more than 70,000 people had been filled.

As someone said when Coubertin founded the modern Olympic Games and agreed on the program:

All life is lifeless, except for sports;

All sports are devoid of spirit, unless there is an Olympic Games;

All Olympiads lack a foundation, unless there is athletics;

All athletics are devoid of passion, unless there is a 100-meter.

……

"Chen Jian is on the field."

On the sidelines of the outer circle of the Olympic track and field track, several head coaches of the track and field team's sprint event hung their work badges and stared nervously at the starting line of the 100-meter track.

At this time, in the entire stadium, although there are not many people who really pay attention to the performance of the Chinese players, there are some people. In addition to the coaches under the spectators, there are already many athletes in the spectators, such as shooting teams and windsurfing kayaks, as well as many local overseas Chinese, even international students in other regions, government officials, media workers, etc.

From the 80s and 90s to the present, there have been very few Chinese athletes on the men's 100-meter track, and no one reached the A standard at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, and four years later this year, we have two A standard athletes.

"Chen Jian is in the first group of the preliminaries, and Su Zu is in the fifth group of the preliminaries, in terms of the level of the group members, Chen Jian's group is lower, but it is also dangerous. The first group suffers, and so does the lam-rim. ”

Yuan Guohua looked at the arrangements of the athletes in each group in his hand, and then looked at the competition scene, as if he wanted to match the names on the table in his hand with the athletes on the schedule.

"As long as you run in the top three, you can enter the semi-finals!" Mak Shaoqiang clutched the hem of his shirt tightly with both hands and pursed his lips, showing his inner turmoil at the moment.

Chen Jian's path is the ninth lane, a marginal path that is not good at all, Chen Jian's points ranking in the IAAF is not high, even if he has won several national championships, but in the eyes of the Olympic Organizing Committee and the IAAF, he is still an unknown junior, and there is no way to be arranged in the ninth lane.

However, this is 100 meters, all straights, and the ninth lane is only affected by the spectators, as long as you can run to the top three, you can successfully advance.

In the ten preliminaries of the men's 100m, athletes from each preliminaries group can successfully advance to the semifinals as long as they run the top three in the group. The rest will be sorted by the results of the preliminaries, and the top 10 athletes will be selected, and a total of 40 players will enter the semi-finals.

In general, if the preliminary group is in the first group, in most cases, only the top three results will have a chance to advance. If the athletes in the front group of the preliminaries enter the state relatively slowly, the level of running is relatively low, if they are not in the top three, they want to enter the next round of the semi-finals according to the ranking of the later results, the chances are very slim.

Of course, if the group is particularly strong, the athletes are in good shape, and there are many masters, then it is another matter.

As the head coach, Mai Shaoqiang has high hopes for Chen Jian, and he does not want to be able to reach the final finals, and he can run to the semifinals of the semifinals, and he will be satisfied when he hears the second gunshot.

Li Zhizhong's expression was also a little nervous, there was no expression on his face, although it was not Su Zu's turn to play, but he was also holding a heart like Mai Shaoqiang.

It is already a huge progress for Chinese athletes to be able to stand on the 100-meter track of the Olympic Games, and Su Zu is under more pressure than Chen Jian.

This kind of round by round of preliminaries, unlike the football league and a home and away, athletes only have one chance, once the mistake does not play well, they will immediately lose the qualification for the next round of promotion, at that time it is useless to talk about any level of strength. Losing is losing!

The greater the fame, the more controversy it will receive, and the more it will be attacked and scolded. Because, there are some expectations that cannot be disappointed.

Chen Jian stood in front of the starting line, only feeling slightly dizzy, and the sound of his heart pounding was more intense than any time.

"That's a lot of viewers!"

Chen Jian held his waist with both hands, took two long deep breaths, raised his head and glanced around the arena, and closed his eyes slightly.

Standing in this highest arena, the pinnacle platform, countless scenes from his youth seemed to suddenly emerge.

From the age of 11 to the Doumen Junior Sports School, at the age of 14 into the Guangdong Provincial Institute of Physical Education track and field team, at the age of 22 into the national team, more than ten years, all the way ups and downs.

Two national championships in 2000 and 2001, a left Achilles tendon strain before the Ninth Games in 2001, entering the national team to participate in the Busan Asian Games in 2002, and the 2003 Asian Championships, every training and game seems to pass through my mind in an instant.

There is the joy of the champion, the loneliness of being injured, and the pain and helplessness of being surpassed.

But, finally got here.

"There shouldn't be live TV, right?"

An irrelevant thought suddenly appeared in Chen Jian's mind, in fact, he also knew that after so many years of competition, there must be CCTV's satellite live broadcast and commentary at the conference site at this moment, but it will not be for the 100-meter preliminaries, it may be other events. The preliminaries usually don't appear on TV, at least the semi-finals.

Probably, among those of us, maybe Su Zu has a chance.

There was another long exhalation, and Chen Jian knew that he was nervous.

When I stood on the ninth track of the first group of preliminaries, the distractions in my mind jumped out uncontrollably.

I've been in so many competitions, and I've never been like this one, and my hands and feet seem to be shaking.

"Calm down! Calm down! Look at the finish line and don't think about anything! ”

Breathing heavily and long, Chen Jian soothed the somewhat restless emotions in his heart over and over again, and the international password sounded on the field.

“On your marks.”