Chapter 53: Expeditionary Training! Theories of Racial Superiority Are Total Bullshit!

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The "Six-Second Law," spearheaded solely by Su Shen, finally began to make some ripples domestically. The intense intellectual battle between Ning Debao and the entrenched veteran faction within the country had fully erupted. Moreover, Su Shen’s achievement of securing a medal at his very first provincial competition was already astonishing. However, no matter how fierce the internal struggles were, as long as they hadn’t broken into the public sphere, ordinary people outside had no idea what was truly happening within.

Su Shen’s progress remained formidable; both Zhou Bing and Chen Juan benefited alongside him, with none of them hitting a plateau. They were continually improving. Only those who have been trapped in a bottleneck phase could truly understand the pain of stagnation. By applying the "Six-Second Theory," even ordinary people could significantly delay their bottleneck period.

Currently, Ning Debao alone was coaching three national first-level athletes. Chen Juan’s 200-meter sprint had also broken through to first-level during these months of training. One person mentoring three athletes, all at the first-level standard, made the other coaches at Xiangshan Sports School somewhat at a loss. Yet, their previous attitudes toward Ning Debao left them unable to swallow their pride now. People were always so contradictory—yearning for breakthroughs, yet resisting change. Nothing good comes easily.

...

Upon returning this time, Su Shen had clearly become a well-known figure at the school. Even Zhou Tao hadn’t won any medals in the 200 meters. In other words, aside from Su Shen, the Xiangshan Sports School had no other medals to claim. It was a unique distinction.

The principal and leaders were no fools; they quickly began funneling resources toward Su Shen, and without Ning Debao having to ask, the support was handed to her willingly. Others envied but could do nothing about it. If anyone disagreed, the principal and leaders would simply say: "Win a provincial medal, and we’ll give you the same support." That was a joke. Despite being a city-level sports school, winning medals at the provincial level wasn’t so easy. After all, each event awarded only three medals, and with so many cities and plenty of provincial team members, Xiangshan’s standing was still a bit lacking.

Now that resources and funding had arrived, and Ning Debao hadn’t yet decided how to spend them, Su Shen had already figured it out for her. First, they would invest in some specialized training equipment—some of which were still in their nascent international stages. Su Shen clearly understood that these devices would become the mainstay in the future, indispensable parts of formal training. However, domestic and international connections weren’t that convenient, and some equipment wasn’t readily obtainable.

For example, there was one piece of equipment Su Shen had long coveted: the single-leg backward thrust machine. Many confused it with the backward leg press machine, but they were completely different. Even in 2021, very few people had seen such a device. It was hard to obtain; whether it was available abroad was uncertain. Yet Su Shen used the excuse that he had seen it mentioned in SCI journals and asked Ning Debao and the procurement team to keep an eye out and bring it back if spotted.

This device was Su Shen’s favorite, essential for many detailed training exercises to come.

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The key advantage of this machine was that it didn’t require the user’s own body weight for resistance—it was purely mechanical assistance, allowing training at any age. Additionally, they planned to add more resistance machines. Training only in running would soon hit a bottleneck; only by continuously increasing resistance training could breakthroughs be achieved.

Whenever Ning Debao heard "SCI," she no longer argued and immediately relayed the instruction. After Su Shen completed several sets of breath-holding sprints and rapid arm swings, he asked Ning Debao how much funding the school was willing to allocate. She gave a considerable figure, which Su Shen thought was enough to support an "intercontinental trip."

When he mentioned this, Ning Debao was stunned. She didn’t oppose competitions, but immediately proposing to go abroad was quite bold. Frankly, this would be ordinary in the future. Because going forward, not only sports schools but even better key schools would send athletes abroad for training and competitions to gain experience.

Currently, aside from some minor invitational meets, the largest competitions in China were still two months away. After months of training, Su Shen needed to unleash all this accumulated effort on the track. Domestic medium and small invitational competitions weren’t enough for this purpose. So, why not go abroad?

The Marrakech International IAAF World Youth U18 Championships were about to take place. Because of this, many strong athletes were competing in warm-up and invitational events there. Su Shen’s plan was to participate in these to prepare for the 2006 Beijing World Youth Championship. He needed rapid improvement, and the stronger the opponents, the better.

At this stage, results were not the priority—winning or losing didn’t matter. The crucial thing was to accumulate extensive competition experience, especially against top-tier opponents. His body had never yet competed against international peers of the same age.

Su Shen’s words left Ning Debao somewhat taken aback, but ultimately she was convinced. Recently, there weren’t many major domestic competitions, and Su Shen was a typical athlete who trained through competition. For his future prospects, she made a firm decision and nodded.

At first, the school was equally shocked. But after Ning Debao’s persistent persuasion and presenting Su Shen’s arguments—that this year they wanted to elevate Su Shen to the national master athlete level—the entire school leadership was collectively stunned.

You must understand, the fastest domestic 100-meter sprint times were around 10.20 seconds. At this level, it was possible to win championships at any national-level competition—highly likely, in fact.

It was like Zhang Peimeng from the capital city: once you approached the national master athlete level, you were likely not only invited to provincial team training but also on the doorstep of the national team.

If Xiangshan Sports School could produce a national team member, that would be far more prestigious than just entering the provincial team. The attention from the nation and provincial funding would surely be much greater.

Weighing the pros and cons is their specialty. After a meeting, they decided to support Ning Debao in taking the team abroad for competitions and research, with the school fully covering the expenses.

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Excellent! That was exactly what they wanted.

However, Ning Debao also understood that if she couldn’t bring Su Shen and his teammates out successfully this time, she might not last long at the school. This wasn’t a charity; high schools had promotion rates, and sports schools naturally had other performance metrics. Athletic achievements were the primary criterion.

If this overseas "training through competition" succeeded, future approvals would be much easier. Even other capable students at Xiangshan Sports School would have opportunities to compete abroad early and face top opponents.

This was beneficial both publicly and privately.

When Ning Debao shared this news with Su Shen and the others, Su Shen was fine—he was the proposer. But the other two nearly dropped their jaws.

"Go abroad to compete?" Zhou Bing frankly admitted he had never even left the province. The very thought made him nervous again.

"What are you nervous about? You haven’t even gone yet! This is a perfect chance to cure your competition jitters!" Ning Debao echoed Su Shen’s thoughts. The more competitions they participated in, the better they’d get, especially abroad, which would greatly boost their domestic confidence.

At present, Asian short-distance sprinting was not top-tier. The Asian leader in this field was Japan.

"Ah Bing, this is a great opportunity. Grab it well and spar with these international peers. You’ll definitely improve after coming back," Su Shen said. Zhou Bing was still overwhelmed; it seemed like this kind of "problem" could only be cured by competition. No amount of talking would help.

"Alright, you’re all national first-level athletes now. It’s time to see the world, so you don’t get too full of yourselves," Ning Debao said, already preparing for the trip. Since it was their first time leading the team abroad, there were many things she needed to inquire about and seek help with—no time to waste.

"Tian, why aren’t you nervous at all? You’re about to compete with foreigners," Zhou Bing’s expression made Su Shen want to laugh.

"Nervous about what? They’ve got one nose and two eyes just like us. Besides..." Tian said, "I don’t think we’re any worse than them."

"But they’re foreigners, their genetics and physique are naturally better than ours!" Zhou Bing started to say, but Su Shen interrupted, "Who says?"

"Isn’t that what they say on TV and in the newspapers? What else could it be?" Zhou Bing’s answer reflected reality; he didn’t mean it deliberately, it was just the prevailing environment—constant indoctrination. Especially in this era, with “public intellectuals” spreading all kinds of toxic ideas everywhere, impossible to suppress.

"TV and newspapers?" Su Shen took a deep breath, his tone calm but forceful: "Then we’ll make them shut up."

"By proving with facts that we Chinese are no worse than any other race."

PS: Here it comes~~~~~~

A new chapter begins. What new characters and stories will appear? Let’s all wait and see.

The excitement awaits after the voting.