On January 10th, the grouping of the 2008 Australian Open was officially announced. What surprised people was that the defending champion of the men's singles and the world's No. 1 Zhang Guan withdrew from the Australian Open.
This news made a sensation in the tennis world like a thunderbolt. People are very curious about why the defending champion Zhang Guan will withdraw from the Australian Open.
What followed was all kinds of rumors. The first was the injury, some said Zhang Guan's arm was injured, some said Zhang Guan's leg was injured, and some said Zhang Guan's lumbar spine was injured, and Zhang Guan became a wasteful man with a long history in a martial arts novel.
The second is sickness, some say that Zhang Guan has a cold and fever, and some say that Zhang Guan has gastritis and appendicitis, and even serious cases of Parkinson's and AIDS are mentioned.
There are also more unreasonable reasons why something was hit by a car, the crime was caught in the bureau, and was reported by the enthusiastic Chaoyang masses.
Under various rumors, the championship team and the tennis center jointly held a press conference to explain that Zhang Guan withdrew from the Australian Open to prepare for the Olympics, and said that Zhang Guan will also give up the other three majors this year. Throughout the tournament, only participate in the tennis match of the Capital Olympics.
To give up the four Grand Slam games for the Olympics, this is incredible for many people, especially professional tennis players. After all, the prize money of the four slams is very high, and the popularity of the four slams can also bring additional benefits to athletes. Especially in sports with a relatively high degree of professionalism, the Olympics are more of an honorary nature, while professional competitions are related to their jobs. Participating in the four Grand Slam matches without delaying the Olympic Games, and giving up rice bowls for honor, many people do not understand Zhang Guan's choice.
Another day later, the Athletics Management Center issued a press release with the theme that Zhang Guan was about to return to track and field training in preparation for this year's Olympics. At the same time, the press release also hinted that Zhang Guan would participate in multiple Olympic track and field events.
At this time, everyone realized that Zhang Guan was preparing for this year's Olympics, so he gave up the Grand Slam competition. Zhang Guan wants to participate in the Olympic track and field events, so participating in several small events will certainly require a lot of time to prepare for the battle.
And some media saw the news of the Tian Xie Center, and then thought of the press conference of the Tennis Center, and instantly came to the conclusion that Zhang Guan wanted to participate in the Olympic Games track and tennis and tennis at the same time!
An athlete has to participate in two major events in the same Olympics! Although this happened in the early Olympics, it is impossible to appear in the modern Olympics.
The participants in the early Olympics were amateur athletes or sports enthusiasts, so the same athletes participated in two or more Olympic events at the same time. However, in the modern Olympics, all athletes participating were professional athletes. Many athletes have trained for more than ten years for one Olympics. Therefore, both the competitive level and the level of competitors are unmatched in the early Olympics.
In this situation where athletes are becoming more "specialized", they participate in different sub-events, such as swimming in freestyle, backstroke, and butterfly strokes, track and field at the same time in 100 meters and 200 meters, and gymnastics in freestyle, vault, and rings. These are relatively common, but it is impossible to participate in two major events. Because it is necessary to meet certain standards to participate in the Olympic Games, so it is very difficult for an athlete to meet the standards for the Olympic Games in a large event, not to mention two large events.
Zhang Guan once again violated everyone's normal cognition, he also successfully grabbed the headlines of the sports version the next day.
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Fierce discussions have also begun on the Internet, with some optimistic about Zhang Guan and of course declining.
In a sports fan discussion group.
"Have you heard that Zhang Guan wants to participate in both the Olympic track and field and tennis events?"
"Of course, today's sports media headlines are all this, the comments of the netizens below are tens of thousands!"
"You said that Zhang Guan can get several gold medals in the Olympic Games? He can at least get four!"
"Four? You look at him too high, I think he can't even get one. Zhang Guan hasn't participated in the track and field competition for more than a year, and now he estimates that there is no competition at all. The medal is too good for him! Maybe because of the track and field practice, the tennis is delayed again, and then the bamboo basket will be empty!"
"It's too one-sided to say so! Zhang Guan's advantages in the 100m and 200m projects are still very obvious. Even if the state is down, I think there should be no problem in keeping the gold medal! If you add 400m, 800 meters, 1500 meters, and long jumps, so many projects, it is not too much to get two or three gold medals..."
"How can Zhang Guan have so many matches alone? It is physically not allowed!"
"There is no problem with physical strength. At the Asian Games last year, Zhang Guan participated in seven events at the same time? And won seven gold medals."
"These are all track and field events. Don't forget that Zhang Guan will also participate in the tennis competition this year. He wants to win the gold slam! There is one more tennis event, but it's very different!"
"Look at this report quickly. Zhang Guan did not participate in the four Grand Slam tournaments and lost hundreds of millions! I sent the news link!"
This news report first listed the gains made by Federer, Nadal and other tennis stars in the Grand Slam, and then calculated the total slam gains that Zhang Guan received last year, including bonuses, advertising endorsements, etc., and finally proposed Zhang Guan not to participate The four Grand Slams of tennis will bring you a lot of economic losses, and a very exaggerated figure has been calculated.
At the end of the article, it is specifically stated that Zhang Guan did this for the Olympic Games held in the capital, to win more gold medals, and willing to bear huge economic losses, which is a performance that takes into account the overall situation.
In Zhang Guan's view, some of this report is too exaggerated, the income figures are exaggerated, and the comments attached later are also exaggerated, which simply portrays himself as a hero who cares for everyone in the Olympic Games. However, in this era of money supremacy, the title of "hundreds of millions of losses" is indeed enough to attract people's attention and enough to win applause for Zhang Guan's heroic act.
This report is of course from the hands of the champion team. Under the operation of the champion team, the direction of public opinion is also one-sided to praise Zhang Guan. Of course, this time also needs a positive propaganda object. The sports world even set off "Xiang Zhang Guan" The call to "learn".
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Zhang Guan did not participate in the Australian Open, but Sharapova performed very well in the Australian Open. She defeated Davenport in the second round, Dementieva in the fourth round, and beat Hein in the quarter-finals. In the semi-finals, she won against Jankovic and Ivanovic in the final. She won the women's singles all the way and won the championship. This is her third Grand Slam title.
With the end of the Spring Festival, Zhang Guan also ended his vacation, bid farewell to his family, and returned to the training center, once again returning to the track and field training ground.