Chapter 416: It's Lonely Being Invincible

Chapter 416: Invincibility Is Lonely

After the Olympic competition days began, there were numerous matches every day. The primary domestic platforms for live broadcasting and rebroadcasting were naturally under CCTV. Besides CCTV-5 and CCTV-5+, other channels also arranged live and recorded broadcasts of events, focusing mainly on finals, as well as non-final matches of highly anticipated events, such as basketball and, well, the national football team.

For judo events, at most, only the bronze medal matches of popular sessions were broadcast or rebroadcast. Even for Meng Fan, the most watched athlete of these Olympics, his preliminary and quarterfinal matches were not aired. The matches themselves were short—competition time was about five minutes, totaling around ten minutes with everything included. Moreover, Meng Fan’s matches were even faster. A live or recorded broadcast lasting less than a minute? That wouldn’t make sense. With the already tight schedule, they dared not arrange it.

However, although not shown on television, platforms like Weibo had related content, including match information and videos. The three quarterfinal matches, when edited together, couldn’t even fill a minute. The most frustrating part was that one opponent directly conceded.

Of course, the time was indeed short, but you had to admit the thrill was there.

Since the Olympic opening ceremony, Weibo had a dedicated trending topic for Meng Fan called #DidIronGodCompeteToday#. Today he did compete, but the topic hadn’t ended. The comments in the topic area were among the most unique of all athletes’ hot topics during these Olympics.

“Did Iron God compete today? He did—well, it seems like he didn’t!”

“Boring, Iron God’s matches are really boring. They end before they even start!”

“Just give the result directly!”

“@OlympicCommittee, why not just give him the gold medal directly? Don’t let Iron God compete anymore. If he keeps going, this event might have no participants left. It’s too damn humiliating!”

“Haha, either give him the gold directly or disqualify him. Iron God’s participation is really unfair to other competitors!”

“Other competitors say they have zero game experience!”

“Keep a low profile! Meng Fan hasn’t won the championship yet, and you’re already praising him to the skies. What if he doesn’t win? How embarrassing! The higher you lift, the harder you fall. Meng Fan hasn’t done anything, but in the end, he’ll take the blame!”

“We want to keep a low profile, but Meng Fan won’t allow it!”

“Praise? First, you don’t understand Iron God’s strength; second, you don’t understand his weight!”

“Heh, I’m a fan of Iron God’s manga. To me, he’s just messing around for a bit. Go play, have fun, and then come back to draw comics properly.”

“Haha, I’m a manga fan too. I’ll be thrilled if he wins the championship. If he doesn’t—well, maybe he’ll put more energy into his manga!”

“I’m a face fan. As long as he doesn’t mess up that face, I don’t care what he does!”

“Look at South Korea’s Song Experience again. He performed much better this time!”

In the hot topic area, whether it was praise to the skies, hype, or teasing, in short, after experiencing so much online violence and the rise and fall of athletes, netizens had matured. Incidents like the Xiang Feiren affair would no longer happen online. Even with the Zou Quanwang incident, people just teased a bit. The focus was no longer limited to gold medals and wins or losses. Winning was best, but if not, they showed respect or simply stopped paying attention.

Nippon Budokan.

After the men’s judo preliminaries and quarterfinals, the women’s repechage and semifinals began. Chinese women’s judo had an advantage in the heaviest weight class. In the semifinals, Chinese women’s judoka Yu Song once again faced her old rival, South Korea’s Kim Ji-yong. Yu Song had defeated her in the bronze medal match at the previous Olympics, winning one of China’s two judo bronze medals. Ultimately, almost perfectly replicating that match, Yu Song won by ippon, securing a spot in the final—at least a silver medal was already in hand!

So far, Chinese judo had won one gold, one silver, and one bronze, ranking third in the judo medal table, a significant improvement over the previous Olympics. The silver medal came from Cheng Xunzhao in the men’s 90 kg category. He had won a precious bronze last time, achieving a breakthrough in Chinese men’s judo history, and now took another big step forward.

The gold and bronze medals both came from women’s judo: gold in the 78 kg category, bronze in the 70 kg category. For men’s judo, although only one silver was won, their overall performance was excellent—all advanced past the first round, something unprecedented. In the men’s 100 kg category, they performed remarkably well, reaching the bronze medal match, but unfortunately failed to take the bronze. Even so, it was a major breakthrough in the history of the 100 kg category.

Now, for Chinese men’s judo, another historic breakthrough was imminent.

In the semifinals, Meng Fan faced the biggest favorite for the Olympic gold, the gold medalist of the previous two Olympics, French superstar Teddy Riner, who had an undefeated streak for ten years from 2009 to 2019. Even though he was defeated once in 2019 due to injury, and even though his physical condition had declined somewhat with age, he remained the top contender for this Olympics.

If Meng Fan could defeat this top favorite, he would advance to the final; if he lost, he would go to the bronze medal match.

Teddy Riner stood 204 cm tall and weighed 135 kg. When they bowed and stood together, Meng Fan was a head shorter and much smaller in build. However, in terms of presence, Meng Fan was not inferior.

For both of them, this was a match they had long anticipated.

Meng Fan had watched many of Teddy’s matches, almost all of which were dominant performances. This was rare in the heaviest weight class of judo, where the probability of an ippon decreased with higher weight. Yet Teddy seemed unaffected by this limitation. Indeed, in terms of height, weight, strength, technique, and experience, Teddy was the undisputed king.

He was the only opponent Meng Fan truly cared about in this event. Against others, as long as he didn’t encounter an insurmountable accident, victory was certain. But against Teddy, Meng Fan felt that if he made any mistake, he could be defeated.

Teddy showed an excitement on the court that he hadn’t displayed in previous matches. Recently, Meng Fan’s reputation had soared. Winning the Masters title in his first appearance demonstrated world-class level. From the start, Meng Fan was ahead of him. Teddy had watched and studied every one of Meng Fan’s matches. The final result left him frustrated: apart from height, weight, and experience, he was inferior to Meng Fan in every way.

In strength and technique, he admitted—or rather, it was publicly acknowledged—that he was no match for Meng Fan. Even in terms of aura, he seemed to find that he couldn’t surpass Meng Fan.

Yet this realization only made Teddy more excited.

He had been invincible for too long!

Even his previous loss was due to an accident. Now, after recovering from injury, his physical condition, though not at its peak, was close. And with richer competition experience, he knew that the current him was the strongest he had ever been. And this version of himself—no one could defeat him!

Now, he had finally met someone who might be able to defeat him. How could he not be excited?

Winning another Olympic gold would only be a three-peat. For someone who had won nine consecutive world championships, it was just icing on the cake.

Invincibility is lonely!

Are you lonely?

Teddy amusingly read that question from his opponent’s eyes. His gaze sharpened. Though he didn’t smile, he believed the other understood his meaning—Come keep me company!

The match began!

Teddy moved forward aggressively to grab Meng Fan, like a fierce tiger baring its claws, full of menace.

Meng Fan couldn’t dodge and didn’t intend to. Instead of retreating, he stepped forward, grabbing Teddy’s arm while allowing Teddy to grip his collar. He wanted to test Teddy’s strength while also staying on the defensive. Even if Teddy combined strength and technique to skip the probing phase, he couldn’t overcome him.

In terms of mental state, Meng Fan was absolutely no match for Teddy. Teddy wanted an opponent; an Olympic gold medal mattered less to him than a worthy rival. Meng Fan, on the other hand, simply wanted to win.

Teddy began with probing, steadily pulling Meng Fan. He also wanted to gauge Meng Fan’s strength. But after two pulls, Meng Fan didn’t budge. Then he naturally applied technique, attempting a large inner reap to attack Meng Fan’s base, but Meng Fan’s base was even more stable than he imagined.

Hmm—must be from weightlifting!

Teddy’s rich experience told him not to bother attacking the base anymore. Instead, he shifted his focus to Meng Fan’s upper body, transitioning from positional combat to guerrilla warfare. He tried to make Meng Fan abandon his base advantage through movement, seeking openings while on the move.

He attempted a sleeve throw, but when Meng Fan didn’t follow his direction, he switched to a drop technique, then an outer leg sweep. After circling once, Teddy changed techniques several times, unleashing a series of combos to disrupt Meng Fan’s rhythm.

However, Meng Fan was even more composed than he expected. He also moved, but with very small steps, defending tightly and flawlessly. Unable to overpower him in strength, Teddy’s techniques also lost their effect. This frustrated him, but he wasn’t in a hurry. He continued to steadily break Meng Fan’s rhythm, searching for an opening.

Suddenly!

Meng Fan, who had been on the defensive, launched an attack. In a sudden gap, he grabbed Teddy’s lapel with one hand and his wrist with the other, yanking hard to interrupt Teddy’s attack. Then he unleashed a series of techniques: outer leg sweep into large inner reap, suddenly transitioning into a flying armbar.

The flying armbar is one of the most spectacular techniques in judo, highly entertaining. Leaping into the air, wrapping both legs around the opponent’s neck, then twisting to bring the opponent down to the ground, followed by an armbar to control them on the mat.

To be honest, Teddy was indeed strong. Even with Meng Fan’s keen observation, he could only find minor openings, none fatal. After Teddy circled twice, Meng Fan finally spotted an opening that could be decisive.

Teddy’s experience was rich. After being thrown, he tried to minimize the area of his back hitting the mat, avoiding the danger of an immediate ippon. But Meng Fan’s armbar still locked him firmly, and it was a deadlock. With grappling skill +10 (*17.5%) and overwhelming strength, Teddy had no escape.

Invincibility is lonely. The desire to find an opponent was urgent, but unfortunately, the opponent was too strong. His mood suddenly became complicated.

(End of Chapter)