529 The Trap in the Interview

Williams got into his own office with several newspapers. He was in a very good mood.

"Good morning, Mr. Williams." His secretary greeted him the moment she saw him.

"Good morning, Jenny." Williams smiled nicely and then said, "Go to Mr. Frey and tell him to come to my office."

"I was about to tell you that Mr. Frey is waiting in your office. He came in very early this morning," Jenny said.

"It seems like someone was even more excited than me." Shaking his head with a smile on his face, he stepped into his office.

Frey had been waiting for quite a while. He stood up when he saw Williams. He was about to speak when Williams threw the newspapers at him.

"Good job! We won four medals in one day. This is the best results we've ever gotten. Almost all of the media is talking about this. You as the COO must have done quite a lot of work behind the scenes," Williams said with compliment.

"I have been in contact with the media. The front pages of newspapers had already been decided when I talked to them and had them changed. Of course, we paid for it. I promised them that we will print some advertisements in their newspaper," Frey said.

"It's worth it. The dosing scandal inflicted us with a lot of negative attention. We really needed some good news to boost our public image," Williams said, nodding.

Frey continued, "Mr. Williams, I think we should hit the iron while it's hot and increase our publicity. I hope I can get some more funding."

"We have quite a big budget this year, right? The dosing scandal has cost us a big sum of PR expenses. We have been trying to cut the expenses recently so you need to give me a good reason," Williams said, frowning.

"Yes. We do have a bigger publicity budget this year due to the Olympics. I assure you, it is absolutely worth it to increase the budget. We did very well in the Olympics, and this will get us more sponsors. We can get twice the amount we spend now from sponsors," Frey said.

Williams nodded. Weighing the pros and cons of the whole thing, he did not speak.

Frey continued, "Mr. Williams, our track and field team has won 11 gold medals so far this Olympics. This is more than we won in the last Olympics, yet it is now only the fifth day of this one. Besides the marathon in the last day, we have four days left to get even more gold. We can win at least 15 gold medals even according to conservative estimates. With a little luck, we may even win 20 gold medals!"

"The national team of this year will be historic. This is a heaven-sent chance for us to expand our influence! We can wipe off the negative influence caused by the dosing scandal and gain more recognition from the public. It would be such a pity to miss this opportunity and we may never have a chance like this again."

Williams was finally convinced. He nodded, saying, "You are right. It is a rare opportunity, I agree with you. I'll try to persuade the board to increase the budget."

"I also want to go to Europe. So I need some PR expenses," Frey said.

"What is your plan?" Williams asked.

"I want to meet the officers of the Laureus World Sports Academy," Frey said.

"You want to lobby them?" Williams understood immediately what Frey was going to do.

Frey nodded. "The Team of the Year award should be ours. I want to see if Alwyn or Alexander can get the Comeback of the Year award. Each of them has gotten a gold medal in the Olympics, which makes them both successful comebacks."

"About Laureus, I heard some rumors that they will have three more awards this year: Action Sportsperson, Sporting Inspiration, and Coach of the Year," Williams said, unconcernedly.

Frey hesitated as he was not so sure about what Williams was trying to say. He then asked, "Mr. Williams, you mean, you want me to persuade them to give the Coach of the Year award to Dai Li?"

Williams nodded, "We hired him because we wanted him to be our scapegoat, but he saved us. Don't you think we should thank him?"

"We should," Frey lied. The Williams he knew was a person who didn't care about repaying his benefactors.

"You didn't follow," Williams said, with an expression showing full seriousness, "I want to show our faith to Dai Li through this. He has shown us sufficient coaching and leadership abilities. He has earned it. Now you see my point?"

"I got it. I'll try to persuade them and get Dai Li nominated for the award," Frey nodded immediately.

If Dai Li hadn't been as good as he was, he would've been used as a scapegoat.

Dai Li had been an excellent coach and had helped the U.S. team recover from a scandal, so they should recognize his excellence.

Dai Li had become valuable for the U.S. Track and Field Association. Dai Li proved that his coaching and leadership abilities were better than other coach's.

Only the best earns the respect of others. It is human instinct to please the more powerful ones.

…

Winning 4 gold medals in a single day was great encouragement for the U.S. track and field team. The gold medals for the man's high jump and 110 meter hurdles especially inspired the athletes because they hadn't been supposed to win them.

Up to now, the US team had won 11 gold medals. In the last Olympics, they won in total 10 gold medals. The Olympic Games was just halfway through and they had already won more gold medals than they had in the last Olympics. In all likelihood they were going to get more medals as well. A better overall result this was already secured'.

On the sixth day of the Olympic track and field games, there were some parts of the men's decathlon. There was only one final match scheduled - the men's 3000 meter steeplechase.

The men's 3000 meter steeplechase was an extremely demanding event. In terms of energy consumption, it was more or less the same as the 5000 meter run. Furthermore, the runners had to jump every few steps to stride over the obstacles, which negatively affected the rhythm of the athletes.

The difficulty of this game showed in the results. Of the 15 runners, only ten finished the run. The tenth runner was 40 seconds later than the first one.

The "king of obstacle race," Hengelo from Kenya, won the championship. He dominated this event. Dai Li had detected him once and found that he had a S+ level. If everything went smoothly, no one could challenge him in the next five years.

The athlete from the U.S. team won the silver medal of the 3000-meter steeplechase. Dai Li was satisfied with this as the gold medal was unlikely with Hengelo in the game. Silver was the best result that the U.S. team could hope to get.

There were no events in the afternoon. Dai Li, however, was busy with the interview with the Sports channel of the Central TV.

…

"Coach Li, it is said that you aren't an American. So, you are the first non-American head coach in the history of the US track and field team?" the reporter chose to start the interview with this question.

"No. I don't have American citizenship and I don't intend to apply for it. I do have a green card, as I mainly work in U.S. and it is much more convenient for my work and my life," Dai Li answered.

"The U.S. track and field team was thought to be the weakest it has ever been this year. Now, you have gotten very good results. How did you achieve this?" The reporter began to ask the important questions.

Dai Li thought for a while, and then said, "The team did have some problems before I was appointed at a kind of difficult moment. The first thing I did when I began my work was change the normal rules for athlete selection. They used to select the athletes for the Olympics according to their scores in the qualifiers. I, however, didn't choose that way…"

Dai Li went on without interruption. He didn't mention anything about the training nor did he give a comment on any athlete. He only told her some non-essential things.

Dai Li was not so silly as to reveal any secret, such as the weakness of the athletes and the corresponding training he had prescribed for them. Dai Li would never make such a stupid error.

Dai Li's answer was not valuable, but the reporter thought it was sophisticated

"Coach Li, as the head coach of the US track and field team, what do you think of the Chinese track and field team? What suggestions do you have for the Chinese track and field team?" The reporter asked another question that was of some significance.

"The development of sports team is a long term endeavor, the success of which requires the efforts of several generations. It needs a long term plan and just a few pieces of advice are not be enough to improve the ability of a nation," Dai Li answered, smiling.

"Coach Li, I have an irrelevant question. Are you interested in coming back to China to be a coach on, our national team?" the reporter asked.

"Actually, I used to be a coach on our national team. For me, going back to the national team was like going back home. I surely am willing to go back if I have the opportunity. However good it feels to be abroad, it is never as good as being home," Dai Li said with a sigh.

"I have noticed that. You stayed quite a long time at the training camp of the national team when you were in China and went to the Asian Games with the national team." The reporter then asked, "Why didn't you stay in the national team after that?"

"My position was actually in the Sports Bureau of the Hanbei Province and I was temporarily transferred to the training camp of the national team, which was quite common. When the Asian Games ended, I had the opportunity to get a job on the national track and field team. As chance would have it, I came across Coach Zhizhong Gu, who recruited me onto the national pingpong team as a fitness coach. The national pingpong team was composed of the top athletes in the world. As a coach, I wanted to coach the best athletes; so I went to the national pingpong team. It was the national team, right? It just wasn't the national track and field team. It was the same for me as long as I was serving my country," Dai Li said.

"According to your resume, you went to Dingtian Football Club after you left the national pingpong team. Why did you leave the national pingpong team? Did the Dingtian football club headhunt you with higher pay? Everyone knows that Dingtian football club is always willing to spend huge money on excellent talent," the reporter said.

"About that." Dai Li hesitated but finally said, "I didn't want to leave the national pingpong team at that time. After the strike, I was transferred from the team to an intangible cultural heritage application committee for Taijiquan as a committee member. I am a coach and I don't know anything about intangible cultural heritage applications. So, I quit the job. There was a friend of mine who recommended me go to Dingtian football club. I went there to be a fitness coach."

"Intangible cultural heritage application committee for Taijiquan? It was a promotion-like demotion? It seems you were shelved," the reporter said in a joking tone. This was quite unprofessional, or seemed like some careless mistake.

Dai Li, however, believed that the reporter setting him up.

The reporters for the Olympic Games are really hard to deal with, Dai Li thought to himself.

However, Dai Li was not the ignorant young lad anymore. He would not say tell the truth although he had really been demoted and shelved.

"I am only a sports coach. I don't know about anything but leading and training my team." Dai Li shrugged his shoulders, "For me, it is good enough to do the things I'm good at. For example, I am leading a team in the Olympic games. This is what I am competent at."

The reporter was a little disappointed that Dai Li didn't answer her question on the "shelving" but she didn't show it. Retaining her professional smile, she asked another question.

"Coach Li, I heard that you are running a fitness training center in the U.S. Could you tell us something about it?" she asked.

"Sure. I prepared some documents for you to reference." Dai Li took a pile of files from his assistant and then said, "Ms. Liu, I can email you the information if you give me your email address. Now, I will tell you something about my training center. Oh, this is not advertising, right?"

"Coach Li, you are so humorous. This is an exclusive interview to learn about what it's like for you to be the head coach. This is a necessary part of this interview," the reporter said with a even bigger smile.

"OK then. I know it is not allowed to utter the words like the best, or the number 1 in a commercial, or you'll be fined by the industry and commerce bureau. Since this is not a commercial, I'll be honest and tell the truth: my fitness training center is definitely the best of its kind in the whole world."

A glittering of admiration brightened up the reporter's eyes. At that moment, Dai Li seemed to be shining with confidence.