On January 10, 2008, the Spring Festival was not far away.

In China, at this time, except for a few areas in the south, basically the whole country has entered a wide range of cooling. And the city of Bradenton, Florida, is still warm and sunny as spring.

"I'm really reluctant to let you go, I think this period of training, you have exceeded my imagination."

In the IMG Academy, on the track and field, Haydn Combe and a group of Chinese track and field team members sat under the pergola, chatting.

"Haydn, if you can't help it, you can come and coach our national team, just like Coach Randy Hunter."

Yang Yao put the T-shirt on his body again, the sweat on his body was still very heavy after training, but although the temperature in Florida was not low, the wind was not small at this time, and he still needed to pay attention to the warmth of his body.

"It's a good idea to coach in China." After hearing Yang Yao's words, Haydn Combe replied with a smile, "Yang, if you can enter the 200-meter final at the Olympic Games, no, it is the semi-final, I will agree to your request, and I can reduce my salary." ”

"Then you should make a bet with Ye Chin." Yang Yao pouted, the Olympic men's 200-meter semi-finals, with his current level, there is still a certain possibility, but in the semi-finals, according to the current level of the men's 200 meters, there is still a distance.

"Him?" After hearing Yang Yao's words, Haydn Combe pointed at Ye Qin, "He can only win the championship, no, it should be to break Michael Johnson's record, I can agree." ”

As he spoke, Haydn Combe shouted to Yechin, who was standing outside the pergola stretching, "Hi Ye, do you think you can break Michael Johnson's record this year?" ”

"Surely, last time Ye Chin was close."

Su Bingtian, who was on the side, pricked up his ears and listened to the conversation between Haydn Combe and Yang Yao with some difficulty, and after Ye Qin ignored this, he replied in English with some stammering.

"100 meters is also possible." On the other side, Zhang Pei Meng also replied in English.

In the past few months, in addition to training, the two have been desperately tutoring English, probably because of the change of native language environment, and the progress is very obvious.

I have been able to go from not understanding at all to being able to communicate in simple oral language, and even occasionally ask some more professional questions.

"Of course, if the game is good." Haydn Combe looked at the sworn answers of several people, and a smile appeared on his face, such a situation is really not out of the question.

Standing outside the pergola, Ye Qin had just finished stretching after training with the help of Coach Yuan Guohua, and walked up to several people shirtless, "Heim, what were you talking about just now?" ”

Haydn Combe glanced Ye Qin up and down, then suddenly turned his head to Yang Yao, Zhang Peimeng, and Su Bingtian and asked, "Hey, have you found out?" ”

"What?" Yang Yao replied with some puzzlement.

"Ye Qin is a lot stronger than before." Haydn Comb laughs and says, "The mass of the muscles is improving. ”

Ye Qin looked at his body, in the past few months in the United States, he has indeed been much stronger than before. Then Ye Qin raised his eyes and looked at the other people, "It's not just me, they are all a lot stronger." ”

"Yes. Guys, you're very physical, better than some of the black kids I've trained. Haydn Combe nodded, and recently coaching the Chinese track and field team made it obvious to him that the physical fitness of the yellow race is not bad, especially these top athletes, who can be called more prominent.

"I'm confident in you now." Haydn Combe stood up and walked over to Yechin and gave him a gentle slap, "I'll be going to the Olympics this year to watch you compete, remember that you have to win at least two gold medals." ”

During his time at IMG Academy, Ye Qin trained under his guidance except for a two-day trip to California and a brief interruption in training.

During this time, Ye Chin's progress was also very rapid, and after temporarily putting aside the training of the 400m event, he went all out to focus on the men's 100 meters and 200 meters, and Ye Chin's strength improvement was very obvious.

However, in just a few months, it is not easy for the training to have obvious results.

In athletics, it is not always easy for athletes to improve their performance. On the one hand, it is necessary to improve physical fitness, and on the other hand, it is necessary to optimize skills, so that athletes can improve their performance through optimized skills in their original physical fitness.

Although Ye Qin has stood at the peak of the current men's sprinters, it is not easy to improve his performance, but Ye Qin is still improving.

The distribution of Yechin's muscles he observed, and the proficiency of the fast-shrinking white muscles was obviously rising, which meant that Yechin's ability to burst at short distances was getting stronger and stronger.

Of course, the corresponding rapid contraction of Yechin's red muscles is decreasing, reducing the training of endurance, which will definitely make his performance in the 400m event or longer distance event a stagnation, or even a decline.

"The results are in!"

A few people were resting and chatting in the pergola, and outside the pergola, Haydn Combe's assistant coach, a tall, thin white young man, ran over with a magazine in his hand.

First glanced at the people in the pergola, and then his eyes fell on Ye Qin, "Ye, you won the 2007 Athletics News Athlete of the Year. ”

"Wow!"

In the pergola, everyone suddenly exclaimed.

They all knew that Ye Qin had gone to California and had been interviewed by "Athletics News" before, and Ye Qin was likely to win the Athlete of the Year selection, but when the news was confirmed, they couldn't help but be amazed.

Haydn Combe snatched the magazine from his assistant's hand and flipped through it.

On the cover of the magazine, there is a photo of Ye Qin winning the championship after crossing the finish line in the men's 100 meters at the 2007 World Championships, but there are several special issues inside, but there are fashionable photos of Ye Qin's special makeup and styling.

"Tut, Ye, looking at it this way, you are really very handsome!"

"Wow, I really can't admit it!"

On the side, Yuan Guohua also came to a few people, and then looked at a selection list on the inside page of the magazine, looking a little excited.

Ye Qin won the 2007 Athletics News Athlete of the Year, which is still very significant.

This is a recognition of Ye Qin's achievements in the United States and the world, and it is also an important step for Chinese track and field to go global.

Athletics News Athlete of the Year, so far, there are only three Asian athletes to win this award, and Ye Qin is the third.

The first two, the first can be traced back to 1963, known as the "Asian Iron Man" of Chinese Taiwanese athlete Yang Chuanguang, who has won two Asian Games men's decathlon gold medals in 1954 and 1958, as well as silver medals in the 110m hurdles and long jump, and bronze medals in the 400m hurdles. At the 1956 Summer Olympics, Yang Chuanguang finished eighth in the decathlon and also participated in the high jump, making him an outstanding track and field athlete who was able to compete in multiple track and field events.

The second is Oriental Shenlu, who won the Athletics News Female Athlete of the Year in 1993.

Ye Chin is the third track and field athlete from Asia, something that even Liu Yangyu, who won the Olympic title and broke the Asian record, and the Athletics News Athlete of the Year in '04 and '05 was won by Ethiopia's legendary long-distance runner Konenisa Bekele.

In 06, he was almost undefeated in the 100m and twice equaled his own men's 100m world record in Asafarville.

For a coach like Yuan Guohua, who is bent on improving Chinese track and field at the international level, there are Chinese athletes who can be selected as the best athlete of the year in track and field news, which has been the goal that they have worked hard and achieved for generations.

Ye Qin looked at the noisy crowd, standing in front of the pergola, and was not too surprised by this result.

I just turned around and walked out, looking at the track and field in the distance, "It's 2008, I've waited for four years, and I'm finally waiting for the Olympics again!" This time, I'm not going to be someone else's backdrop again. ”