Go: Is the portable old man the nine-time champion?

Chapter 350 Gold Medal
"I heard before that the Asian Games Go event was going to start internal preliminary rounds? But I only heard about it online... I haven't heard any news about it offline so far."

That account clearly belongs to an internal staff member. Are you deliberately leaking information, or are you hiding something inside?

Yi Zheng recalled an inside message from an online account, but he had never heard anything similar in real life.

If everything he said is true, then he can definitely be considered an insider.

However, judging by the timeline, the Asian Games, which will start next year, should theoretically begin their preliminary rounds.

After all, it's not enough to just select people; you also need to conduct internal training camps because the Asian Games format differs from many other competitions.

Moreover, there are only two spots available for individual men's Go players, so you can imagine how fierce the competition will be.

Upon hearing this, Zhou Songxing unconsciously coughed twice, subconsciously avoiding the topic: "The information you heard is correct. I don't know how it was leaked, but it is indeed preparing to start the preliminary selection. This year, like in previous years, we will hold a round-robin tournament to select two spots."

As we had discussed internally beforehand, whoever wins the title of Chess Saint this time will be exempt from the selection for the men's individual spot at this Asian Games.

The format and timing of Go competitions at the Asian Games are similar to those at the Olympics. We are preparing for the Asian Games as a prelude to the Olympics, especially since we have not won a gold medal in the men's individual event for three consecutive Asian Games.

Especially this year, with your participation, many people are greatly encouraged and hope that you can win the Asian Games gold medal, which you haven't won in over a decade.

Yi Zheng was stunned when he heard this. He had prepared for a fierce competition in the round-robin tournament, but he didn't expect to be exempted from the selection process.

After all, the Asian Games round-robin tournaments in previous years were incredibly intense. One year, the top 36 ranked players were all brought together for a centralized competition, and two rounds of round-robin matches were played, causing some players to quit halfway through.

Even with such intense competition, they didn't win a single gold medal.

Unfortunately, the Asian Games in recent years coincided perfectly with Lee Jun-hyuk's peak years, at the ages of 21, 25, and 29 respectively.

The previous Asian Games was already considered the most promising one, because Lee Jun-hyuk was in extremely poor form before the Games, suffering a losing streak around the world for months before the tournament. His poor performance led to a barrage of criticism from Silla fans, with trending topics like #LeeGodFallen# and #KoreanGodIsDoomed#. Many people were already saying that he was getting old and starting to decline, especially since Jiang Mobai was in phenomenal form.

Countless people were already predicting that China would win gold this time, and there were countless articles online celebrating in advance. But then, suddenly, when the Asian Games came around, Lee Jun-hyuk had a brief resurgence in popularity.

This is why many people have confidence in Lee Jun-hyuk, because for the past few years he has often looked like he is in bad shape and about to collapse, but just when you think he is about to have a major accident, he suddenly has a resurgence.

The same was true for the previous Asian Games, and the same was true for last year's World Cup.

Lee Jun-hyuk: I can't take it anymore! I'm stunned again!

All I can say is that the legend is still in its sit-up phase.

"He's quite impressive. A normal athlete's cycle only covers two major sports events every four years, but he can cover three. Luck and skill are both indispensable."

Mr. Ke couldn't help but nod and say that although he had only participated in the Asian Games once and didn't have much experience in large-scale sports events, he had a lot of Olympic champion-type athletes among his college classmates, so he was quite familiar with this Olympic cycle.

Not to mention the famous Lin Dan, who is said to have broken the limits of badminton, but only has two Olympic gold medals. Although Lee Jun-hyuk's gold medal is only an Asian Games gold medal, winning gold in three consecutive Games over twelve years demonstrates his strength.

"How many Olympic gold medals does he have? Surely he has at least three?"

Old Ke couldn't help but ask Yi Zheng, "The Olympics in this world are only one year later than the Asian Games. The corresponding age range for Li Junhe is 22, 26, and 30 years old. It's quite possible."

That would indeed be terrifying.

When Yi Zheng heard this question, he deliberately followed Zhou Songxing's lead and said, "Although Li Junhe won three Asian Games gold medals, he only won one Olympic men's individual gold medal."

"Think back to when Gu Jiudan taught him a lesson before he reached his peak, and he won what remains China's last individual Olympic gold medal in Go. It was incredibly exciting; the whole country was practically celebrating."

Everyone was really excited at the time because Lee Jun-hyuk had begun to show an extremely terrifying dominance, but Gu Jianhun defeated Lee Jun-hyuk in the semifinals in the later years of his career and won the only Olympic gold medal of his career!
This is why many people believe that Gu Jianhun's status is higher than Jiang Mobai's, because his best result in the two most important sports events, the Asian Games and the Olympics, was only a silver medal.

Mr. Ke understood this, after all, such large-scale sports events are different from individual competitions, as they are truly tied to the participation of the national team.

There's no way around it. In other competitions, you can basically compete as an individual, but when it comes to the flag-raising ceremony at sports meets like this, most of the time it's about people not getting along.

To put it bluntly, even if you normally dislike an athlete, most people will still hold their noses and support them to win the championship at this crucial moment.

As for the so-called "gold medals are useless" argument, it's just that after winning a lot of gold medals, a bunch of people started saying they were useless and a waste of resources.

Before we had gold medals, people would say that Olympic gold medals were a symbol of a country's strength and power, but that's no longer the case after we started having gold medals.

Some people say that a country relies on smaller events to win gold medals, but in reality, a large number of gold medals in smaller events proves that a country is a sporting powerhouse and that its sports are diverse.

After all, most ordinary countries, especially the African people, can only afford to run, a sport with relatively low training requirements, where they can win by relying on their physical abilities and the excellent matching mechanism in the African region.

If you ask them to participate in sports like skiing, sailing, or curling, they don't even know what snow looks like. Such competitions are impossible without national infrastructure.

This is essentially the gap between basic investment and the national economy! Gold medals, especially those in projects that are not traditional advantages and require significant investment of money, manpower, and technology, are indeed a reflection of a country's strength.

Like the jewel in an industrial crown, once it's there, it's no longer a jewel. But I wonder when this industrial jewel, the graphics card, will be removed.

Furthermore, if Olympic gold medals weren't so important, there wouldn't be so many athletes with disabilities and asthma participating in the Games.

No country would manipulate the rankings, because the normal practice is to rank countries by the number of gold medals. However, in order to rank their own country higher, some countries rank them by the total number of medals. They will use whatever method can make them number one and rank higher.

Most countries do this; as long as everyone feels it's not shameful, it doesn't matter.

In this world, shamelessness is the only thing that matters; winning is the most important thing!
"So, we absolutely must beat Zheng Ge! You are the hope of the whole village!"

(End of this chapter)