In the evening, at 8:30 PM Paris time...
Chen Shu, rare for him, did not train and watched the opening ceremony of the 2024 33rd Summer Paris Olympics with his teammates.
Because there was a competition tomorrow noon, and the venue was over a hundred kilometers away from the Seine River, plus the swimming team still had to conduct closed adaptive training.
So, like the shooting team, the swimming team did not participate in the opening ceremony.
However, watching the Olympic opening ceremony together was still very necessary.
"When does the Huaxia team come out?"
Zhang Zhanshuo asked, and Wang Shun, the captain of the swimming team, casually replied, "41st, probably around 10 o'clock!"
"After watching the appearance, we can sleep; it's not easy to adjust to the time difference!"
"Yeah, pretty much, we have a urine test at six in the morning!"
"It's at five o'clock, those WADA guys are getting earlier and earlier!"
"They just don't want us to rest well..."
These days, the urine tests have left the athletes feeling shadowed, and many haven't slept well.
Zhang Yufei and Qin Haiyang were the most tested in the team, seven times a day.
One is the double gold and silver medalist from the Tokyo Olympics, the new world butterfly queen.
The other is the newly crowned king of breaststroke, who created his own myth at last year's Fukuoka World Championships, winning an unprecedented four golds and one silver in breaststroke.
They were the focus of scrutiny from the West, while Pan Zhanle was undoubtedly better off.
Previously, there had been a food contamination incident affecting 23 Huaxia swimmers, and Zhang Yufei and Qin Haiyang were among those selected, so they had ample reason for pressure.
But food contamination is common in doping incidents; if they really had doped, according to Western standards, they definitely wouldn't let the swimming team compete.
Sun Yang was banned for four years for smashing a testing bottle, let alone this situation.
So, besides urine tests, the two also had to undergo blood tests.
"This year on the old European turf, we definitely have to use some tricks!"
"Besides the pool being shallower, they can only use urine tests to mess with us, playing mind games; everyone must not fall for it, keep a good mindset!"
Wang Shun suddenly spoke to everyone, especially looking at a few young athletes.
He often traveled abroad for competitions and had a lot of experience with these little tricks.
But the young athletes were full of vigor and were afraid they couldn't hold back and would trash talk their opponents.
If the media caught that, it would definitely have a very negative impact.
Domestic media, besides asking some silly questions, mostly made things worse.
In recent years, the West couldn't suppress Huaxia economically, so they could only rely on sports competitions.
In fact, the foreign public opinion was much worse than what was imagined domestically.
Especially in swimming, which has always been dominated by the West, regarded as the sport most loved by white people, with a low threshold, unlike tennis, which is for the aristocracy.
Now that Huaxia was becoming increasingly strong, posing a threat to them, they definitely wanted to psychologically defeat their opponents first.
"Let's watch the opening ceremony; don't think too much about anything else!"
"Let the results speak; everything else is unnecessary!"
Pan Zhanle encouraged Chen Shu and the others, and Zhang Zhanshuo nodded, "Yeah, let the results speak!"
Chen Shu, being younger, although he had a mental age of 20, still looked like a middle school student on the surface.
So, he had always played the role of a listener, not talking much on usual days.
But to be honest, these days, being subjected to urine tests twice a day had left him feeling quite unhappy.
The only way to truly defeat these guys was in the pool.
At this moment, the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics also began on the television.
This time, Paris took a unique approach, being the first to hold an opening ceremony without a main venue, using boats to navigate the Seine River.
Each country's athletes boarded boats, holding their national flags as they opened the ceremony.
The appearance of famous French football player Zidane ignited the atmosphere of the opening ceremony, but as time went on, the increasingly eye-watering scenes made Chen Shu question life.
"What the hell is this?"
"Is this opening ceremony really that simple?"
"Our city's sports meeting opening is better than this!"
"Be bolder, even the village basketball is better than this!"
"Hahaha!"
"Come on, don't talk nonsense; I saw online that this is called art, the French's relaxation!"
"You old fool, if you don't understand, don't talk nonsense; can't you feel the strong artistic atmosphere?"
"???"
A few athletes were complaining, originally watching seriously, but increasingly found the opening ceremony to be a boring joke, and even the teasing from a few clowns in the team was more entertaining.
"It further highlights the gold content of our Huaxia opening ceremony!"
"Hahaha, you can't say that; there are a bunch of people online praising it, especially those girls on Xiaohongshu!"
"They still praise this opening ceremony? Have they lost their minds..."
"I can't even bear to look at the Seine River's water; didn't they say the waterways were cleaned and maintained? Is this the level?"
"I'm worried for the triathletes; swimming in the Seine River must make them vomit!"
"Are they sure they don't want to change the venue for the triathlon? I can't even bear to look at the Seine's water!"
"Hahaha!"
The more they talked, the funnier it became.
Especially when they heard the host mistakenly refer to the South Korean team as North Korea, they couldn't stop laughing; this little stick was definitely the most hated country among the athletes, with various unfair refereeing and many little tricks during competitions.
Not to mention the 2002 World Cup, which caused great harm to the sport of football.
Even the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics and the 1988 Seoul Olympics were regarded as the darkest Winter and Summer Olympics in history, as these people would stop at nothing to win medals.
Especially targeting Huaxia athletes, they were extremely petty.
So, based on everyone's understanding of the little sticks, they couldn't predict how they would break down.
"At first, I was quite angry about giving South Korea a boat!"
"Now it's comfortable!"
"Little sticks are definitely going to jump online!"
"To be honest, I'm very happy that little sticks are being messed with, but this opening ceremony is really poorly done!"
South Korean athletes have always been looked down upon, mainly because this country lacks sportsmanship.
Compared to another East Asian country, which is known as the sleeping dragon and phoenix of the sports world.
"Here it comes, here comes our boat!"
Seeing the five-star red flag appear, everyone present jumped up excitedly.
Although they couldn't participate in the opening ceremony, everyone felt like they were part of it.
Everyone was excitedly waving their fists and shouting, as if they were participating in the whole event.
This was a belief etched in their bones.
However... the appearance was given only a few seconds.
"What the hell?"
"Damn, the commentary hasn't even finished, and the camera is gone?"
"Was it even 10 seconds?"
"Damn it, it's one thing to target our athletes, but now they're targeting our appearance?"
Ni Guangsheng was cursing, while Zhang Zhanshuo had already stood up: "I'm going to sleep, I'm going to sleep, this is boring!"
"This opening ceremony is truly unbearable!"
"Huaxia's appearance only got a few seconds, and we were on the same boat as a few other countries?"
"This is clearly just to annoy us!"
Many people were also confused, with one program after another, one introduction after another, without any main storyline.
Then the scene paying tribute to the movies "The Ancestor and the Occupation" and "A Brief History of Paris" appeared, which was even more frustrating.
Two men and one woman... not only homosexuals but also various politically correct and LGBT individuals.
"Damn, I knew I shouldn't have watched this!"
"It's too eye-watering!"
"Pure pollution, the Parisians are finished..."
Everyone scattered, unable to withstand this round after round of visual explosion impact.
Chen Shu also greeted everyone and returned to his dormitory; watching this opening ceremony was a waste of time, and he thought it would help adjust his mood, but it just made him want to laugh.
The good mood of the day was ruined by this opening ceremony.
But thinking about it, it was actually quite funny; wasn't this just a reflection of the West at this moment?
"Damn, the West is on a downward spiral!"
"They play like this at the opening ceremony..."
"It's too damn eye-watering!"
Zhang Zhanshuo was still cursing when he returned to the dormitory.
Chen Shu was scrolling through his phone and couldn't help but smile.
"The whole foreign internet is cursing, but in the distant Eastern country, there is a group of French people who don't even know their own subjects, crazily adoring and licking them!"
"What does that mean?"
Zhang Zhanshuo didn't understand.
"The domestic big colonizers are on a mission to praise, art, relaxation, stunning beauty, paying tribute to the classics... I really want them to see the comments on the foreign internet!"
"Hahaha!"
Chen Shu preferred to look at his classmates' group, where they were discussing him.
However, before the competition, the coach didn't allow them to chat too much in the group; if the competition results were poor, such things would be magnified.
Like chatting before the competition, etc.
Chen Shu was scrolling through domestic social media, and in the middle of the night, he felt like he was going crazy.
How could there be so many praises for the opening ceremony? Is there really someone praising this garbage opening ceremony?
"Time to sleep!"
Feeling frustrated, he thought it was better to recharge his energy for tomorrow's relay race selection!
If it really came to it, Chen Shu felt he should volunteer!
Cui Dengrong's only taboo about him was that he hadn't participated in major competitions and was too young, so he was afraid his mindset would be poor... In fact, Chen Shu really didn't have these issues; having a system was his strongest confidence!
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PS: A huge thank you for the rewards that are as pure as the morning!!!