Chapter 421: Losing is Still Winning

Chapter 421: A Loss Is Also a Win

At approximately 10:45 a.m., Group B kicked off the first match of the second round, featuring China versus Russia.

In the previous Olympics, Russia ranked third in the judo medal standings, trailing only Japan and France. This time, they currently sit in fourth place with just one gold, one silver, and two bronze medals. Japan and France still hold the top spots above them, with China now added to the mix.

China currently ranks second with three golds, one silver, and one bronze; France is third with one gold, three silvers, and one bronze; and Japan naturally leads with five gold medals.

The first match of the two teams was still the 73 kg showdown. China got off to a very disadvantageous start because Li Wei’s opponent was the champion of that weight class and the only judo gold medalist Russia had so far. In terms of strength, the gap was vast, and the final result was obvious. Even with Meng Fan’s targeted tactics, it was futile against absolute strength.

In fact, Meng Fan even regretted giving Li Wei advice.

Because of Meng Fan’s advice, Li Wei and the Russian champion fought at an extraordinary level, far more intense than the Russian had anticipated. This intensity, coupled with prolonged grappling, led to Li Wei getting injured. Without Meng Fan’s advice, Li Wei would have struggled to hold his ground and would have lost quickly, greatly reducing the chance of injury.

With Li Wei injured, if a substitute had to be sent in for the next round, their competitiveness would drop significantly. Honestly, if they made it past this round to the semifinals, swapping in a replacement would essentially mean giving away points in that weight class. If Li Wei hadn’t been injured, they would still have had a decent chance against some countries.

A bad start!

“Don’t feel pressured!”

After comforting Li Wei, Xiao Yunlin had to continue preparing Cheng Xunzhao for the next match. Currently, the three scoring points against Russia were Cheng Xunzhao, Meng Fan, and Yu Song. If Cheng Xunzhao lost, it would be tough for China to secure victory.

After Li Wei left the mat, Meng Fan’s mind had calmed down. Before Cheng Xunzhao took the stage, he advised, “Play normally, and you can win. Create opportunities to fight on the ground, and you’ll win quickly.”

Cheng Xunzhao nodded to indicate no problem. He had always been a pressure-resistant athlete. Before Meng Fan came along, he had single-handedly carried men’s judo, with a very strong mental fortitude.

Cheng Xunzhao was very strong, and Meng Fan’s judgment was accurate. Less than a minute into the match, Cheng Xunzhao found an opportunity to bring his opponent to the ground, using a yoko shiho gatame to lock him down and win by ippon via osaekomi.

In the third match, Meng Fan took the stage. Russia sent out a substitute, likely figuring that even their strongest wouldn’t stand a chance, so they might as well rest and be in better shape for a possible third round.

Every time Meng Fan stepped onto the mat, he tried to maximize his score, earning a waza-ari, yuko, and koka before securing an ippon. The reason for this was that if it ended in a draw, he would have more technical points to support a final victory—if the teams tied 3:3, the winner was determined by the number of ippons, waza-aris, yukos, and kokas.

With a 2:1 lead, they moved to the women’s 57 kg category. Representing the Chinese judo team was still Feng Xuemei. In the first round, she had made a clever comeback against a bronze medalist. This time, she was in even better form and spirit, once again defeating the Russian opponent—who was also the bronze medalist in that category at these Olympics—with a clever combination technique for an ippon, securing another point for China.

Xiao Yunlin and the others were overjoyed, though also somewhat bewildered. Feng Xuemei’s performance in the team event far exceeded her individual competition, where she had only reached the semifinals. In the team event, she had already defeated two bronze medalists from this weight class at these Olympics!

Quite heroic!

The fifth match was the women’s 70 kg category. There was still a gap in strength between the two competitors, and Russia won.

In the final match, Qingdao native Yu Song took the stage and easily secured one point, allowing the Chinese judo team to advance smoothly to the semifinals.

After the Chinese and Russian judo teams finished, France defeated Brazil in their match. This meant France and China would face off in the semifinals, while Russia and Brazil would compete in the repechage. The winner of that would then face the loser of the other group’s semifinal for the bronze medal.

Facing the French judo team meant Meng Fan would once again go up against Teddy Riner, and Yu Song would also face her old rival. Unfortunately, Cheng Xunzhao would also have to face the French athlete who had defeated him in the individual final of his weight class.

This match was truly a battle of destiny!

Originally, France had the strongest gold medal potential in these three weight classes, but Meng Fan and Yu Song had snatched two of them away.

On paper, it seemed like 2:1, but in reality, even though Yu Song had already won once, objective analysis still put it at fifty-fifty, or even slightly in Yu Song’s favor. Although the French athlete had only competed once before, it was against a very simple opponent, serving as a warm-up. Yu Song, on the other hand, had expended a lot of energy, so the French athlete was in better physical condition.

As for the other three matches, France had a clear advantage, especially in the men’s 73 kg category. Even if Li Wei took the stage, the chance of winning was still very slim.

Relatively speaking, Feng Xuemei’s match became the key and the most unpredictable one!

In short, there was a fight to be had, and everyone had a chance. Who was stronger was still uncertain. France had confidence, and so did China.

During the pre-match meeting after drawing the schedule yesterday, the Chinese judo team was well aware that if they kept moving forward, the likelihood of facing France was very high. This match had already been analyzed yesterday, and it was a key focus.

“We’ve come this far; there’s no reason not to go for it!”

Xiao Yunlin knew that talking tactics anymore wouldn’t have much effect, so he directly encouraged them: “If we win, we go to the finals against Japan. If we lose, we fight for bronze. Either way, we have to fight another match. Don’t put any pressure on yourselves; just let loose.”

After the encouragement, there were, of course, individual instructions. For example, to the athlete replacing Li Wei, the requirement was simple: don’t get an ippon.

“If the score falls behind, don’t panic. Don’t try to catch up. Just aim to lose as few points as possible. A loss can also be a win!”

To win four matches outright, Xiao Yunlin and the coaching staff knew it would be very difficult, so they strategically lowered their expectations, aiming for a 3:3 draw and relying on technical points. That’s why they told the weaker team members that losing with fewer points was also a win.

After all the instructions, Xiao Yunlin couldn’t help but pull Meng Fan aside and ask, “Can you score that many points against Teddy too?”

Everyone knew Meng Fan could score freely against other athletes, but whether he could do the same against Teddy was something Xiao Yunlin and the others weren’t entirely sure of. After all, this was Teddy Riner. Meng Fan could win, but that didn’t mean he could win however he wanted!

If that were the case, Teddy would be crushed!

Meng Fan didn’t guarantee it either, only saying, “I’ll do my best.”

The other semifinal, the final match of Group A, was between Japan and Italy.

Italy was not weak; in Group A, their overall strength was second only to Japan. In the previous Olympics’ judo medal standings, they tied with the United States for fourth place. In this Olympics, they currently ranked sixth—well, if Italy had been placed in Group B, they might have already been eliminated in the quarterfinals—and the two groups would compete for the final spot. Just looking at the schedule, it was predictable.

The result was also within everyone’s expectations: Japan won 4:1 directly to advance to the finals, while Italy would compete against the winner of Group B’s repechage for the bronze medal.

Group A was settled, and next came Group B’s battle of destiny.

After finishing their semifinal, the Japanese team didn’t return to the locker room. They all stayed by the sidelines to watch the match. No matter which team won, they were confident they could beat them, but neither would be an easy opponent. They needed to observe further and prepare thoroughly with pre-match analysis. As for rest, after the Chinese and French teams finished, there were still two repechage matches and two bronze medal matches, so there was still time.

Italy, on the other hand, went straight back to rest. Regardless of who won or lost, it didn’t matter to them at all.

The Group B semifinal began. The first match was the men’s 73 kg showdown. As both teams had analyzed before the match, China’s substitute was no match for the French athlete. Fortunately, the Chinese athlete adhered to the “delay tactic” given by the coaching staff and Meng Fan, dragging the match out until the end. He ended up conceding a waza-ari and two koka penalties—both koka were for avoiding penalties, and he didn’t receive an ippon.

The second match was the men’s 90 kg showdown, once again replaying the individual final of that weight class. The battle was intense, but in the end, Cheng Xunzhao lost. Although he had scored a waza-ari on his opponent, he lost on the koka count. This match was somewhat regrettable, but still, no ippon was conceded.

The third match was Meng Fan once again facing Teddy Riner. This match left Teddy Riner completely crushed, and it truly showed the world the gap between them. Meng Fan indeed tried his best. After scoring a waza-ari, when he clearly could have secured at least a waza-ari or even an ippon, he deliberately controlled his strength and the landing area of Teddy Riner’s fall to get a yuko, then scored a koka before finally taking the ippon.

During the individual competition earlier, some European media had harbored a sliver of hope that Meng Fan’s victory over Teddy Riner was partly due to luck. Now, even the blind could see that Meng Fan could fight however he wanted, even controlling the score.

Watching from home, Chinese audiences couldn’t help but think of the scenes of Zhang Yining playing against Ai Fukuhara—every match had the same score, even the number of points where she deliberately let a point slip was perfectly arranged. Scoring a symmetrical score was beyond compare.

Meng Fan and Zhang Yining weren’t much different; both were absolute dominators in their respective fields. The difference between Teddy Riner and Ai Fukuhara was significant: first, their status in their fields, and second, Teddy Riner hadn’t been reduced to tears by Meng Fan.

But one thing was certain: after this match, Teddy Riner once again considered retiring. Originally, he had planned to retire after this Olympics. Then he met Meng Fan and lost to him, which reignited his fighting spirit and desire to win, so he decided not to retire for now. Now, he was quite shaken.

After this match, industry insiders whose vision wasn’t limited to the team event were all stunned. Earlier, when Meng Fan defeated Teddy Riner in the individual competition, they had already hailed him as the strongest in judo. Now, they were completely baffled and couldn’t see how strong Meng Fan really was. Defeating Teddy Riner was already hard for them to accept, but crushing Teddy Riner was beyond their imagination!

The Japanese athletes watching were the same. Their eyes still held admiration for Meng Fan, but now there was also fear. The coaching staff, however, had their eyes lighting up.

Meng Fan had won, but given the current situation, it was extremely difficult for China to secure victory. There were still three women’s matches left. If China could win one more, it was possible; winning two would be too difficult. In other words, France was very likely to advance to the finals. And if France advanced, Japan’s chances of winning in the men’s 90 kg+ category would increase because Teddy Riner was clearly crushed and wouldn’t be in good form for the next match.

When Japan faced France, only the two heaviest weight classes for men and women were uncertain. The others had a high chance of winning. If Teddy Riner was also crushed, then Japan had a high chance of winning five matches, and naturally, winning the championship would be a foregone conclusion.

As for France’s 90 kg champion, Japan had a specialized athlete to counter him, with three successful counter-strategies in previous international competitions. However, in this Olympics, they hadn’t met yet, and he had entered the repechage early, only winning bronze.

What if China advanced?

That would be more difficult, because they would have to give up the heaviest weight classes for both men and women, and they had no athlete to counter Cheng Xunzhao. Without Meng Fan’s appearance, they would definitely win 4:2.

However, reality sometimes doesn’t follow imagination. Both France and Japan had clearly overlooked an unstable factor in China’s women’s judo team: in the fourth match, Feng Xuemei, representing China in the women’s 57 kg category, continued her far superior performance in the team event compared to the individual competition. She kept up her inspired, clever moves, and in just two minutes, she won by ippon against the French athlete, securing the second point for China.

Even more unexpected was that in the women’s 70 kg match, China won again!

“It’s not just Teddy Riner who’s crushed; the entire French judo team is falling apart!”

“This is definitely the effect of Meng Fan crushing Teddy Riner! France is collectively collapsing, while China’s morale is soaring!”

“In a team event like this, the performance of the earlier athletes greatly affects the state of those later!”

“But that’s not always the case! It’s mainly because Meng Fan crushed Teddy Riner so thoroughly! Not just his teammates, but even the other athletes watching probably had their minds blown!”

“Meng Fan’s match was too stabilizing for morale! After losing two matches in a row, he stepped in and turned the momentum around with just one match!”

“The next match is another battle of destiny! But this battle of destiny is somewhat irrelevant. Even if the Chinese athlete loses, and the teams tie in matches, China can still win on technical points! Right now, China is already leading by two ippons! No matter how this match goes, at worst, they’ll lose one ippon!”

(This chapter ends)