Chapter 190 – Going to the Olympics.

After my fight with Michael Jordan, I was quite a celebrity.
When I went to the gym to train, I was greeted with greetings from unknown countries and players.
That is proof of how great Michael Jordan’s reputation is.

Maybe I was quite impressed, Michael Jordan once came to my training and said hello for a while.
It was meaningful to participate in the Olympics just by meeting and building a friendship with Michael Jordan.

After such a pleasant life in the athlete village, the opening ceremony was finally held.

Having become famous for my close friendship with Michael Jordan, I was able to have the honor of standing in the front with the national flag at the entrance of the players at the sudden request of the general manager of the Korean team.

The opening ceremony was truly spectacular.

At the torch lighting ceremony, a disabled person in a wheelchair shot an arrow to ignite the torch, giving a special performance.
This arrow performance was the first event in which a simple torch lighting ceremony was transformed into a unique event format for each country.

The passionate singing of the Olympic theme song by Jose Carreras and Sarah Brightman was also worth seeing.

I heard later that the song ‘Barcelona’ sung by Queen’s Freddie Mercury was originally the theme song for this Olympics, but when Freddie Mercury died of AIDS at the end of last year, it was revealed that he was gay, so I heard that it was changed in a hurry.

After the splendid opening ceremony, the full-fledged games began the next day, Sunday.

The boxing middleweight match began on the 28th, four days after the opening ceremony.
From the round of 32, which was the preliminary round, one match was played approximately every three days.

The first game was a player from Cuba, a South American country.
A dark, muscular athlete was staring at me like he was going to kill me.

His eyes were full of energy, as if he hadn’t come across my information yet.
I was a little nervous and curious about the level of world players.

The head coach came as my second assistant, but he said that since most of the athletes who participated in the Olympics were in their late teens to early 20s, and were of similar age, their skills were quite good.
So don’t be too scared, just do what you normally do and you will be able to win. He encouraged me.

The gong rang and the game finally began.

Since I was already paying attention in Korea, my match was being broadcast in real time.
It was likely that the whole nation was watching my game during prime time in the evening in Korea.
Of course I could never lose this match because my family and my women would be praying for me.

He screamed loudly and shouted “Fighting” And jumped forward.
The opposing Cuban player was also running with a fighting spirit.

They stuck to each other without giving an inch.
However, thanks to my strangely strong stamina and strangely keen senses, I was able to put a hook into the stomach as soon as I got attached.

I could hear the Cuban player’s click, and that was the end of the game.

Immediately, my combination of great speed hit the Cuban player in the face, and the referee stopped the match less than a minute after starting.

It was an absurd match result that made me confuse whether this was an Olympic match or a boxing gym match in the neighborhood.
But inside the stadium, there was a tremendous shout at my game.

I leisurely greeted the people around me as if it were natural and went down the ring.
The head coach lightly patted him on the shoulder and smiled, saying he did a good job, and the other players cast an absurd look at me as if they were looking at a monster.

In this way, I created an issue by receiving a lot of attention in my first game.

These results were also intentionally created by me.

In the first game, it was natural that the opponent would just jump at me because he didn’t know my information, but since the other players now know who I am, from the second game, they may be wary of me, or even frightened, like in previous matches. There would be.
Then my game will be more likely to go smoothly in the future.
But this was purely my expectation.

The second match was against a British player, and it seemed that he had studied me thoroughly for three days, and even though we exchanged fierce battles with each other, he endured better than expected.
I managed to win in the fierce battle going into the 3rd round.

The British player got up and attacked until the end despite being downed more than 10 times during the 3rd round.
It was clear that European players have good stamina.

However, just before the end of the third round, the British fighter fell to his knees and fell forward, unable to get up, and managed to win by KO.

People gave a standing ovation to me and the British players who showed off a hot game in a huge slugfest.

As I took off my headgear, I could feel my face swollen.
As the director put ice on his face, I finally realized that the world stage is not so easy.

I returned home and called home.

It was already midnight in Korea, approaching 12 noon.
But her mother said she wasn’t sleeping and she was only waiting for my call.

As soon as she answered the phone, her mother came to her crying voice asking if she was okay.
He must have seen my match today.

She was hit a lot, but also hit a lot, so she said she felt like she was being beaten while watching her mother, and she was not the only one worried.
I reassured him in a bright voice that he was fine, and hung up the phone.

I play today while being beaten like this, and after hearing my mother’s voice a moment ago, I want to hear the voices of the rest of my women.
So it was late, but Aunt Jeong-hee, Young-hee’s sister, Kyeong-mi’s sister, and Su-yeong’s sister all called and said hello briefly.

It was all late, so it was the voice that woke up, but all the women’s reaction was the same.
A worried response asking if he was okay and asking him to come back please don’t get hurt.
The concern of my women made me feel better, and though my face ached, I was able to pass the evening in peace.

Quarterfinals and semifinals were rather easy to play.

In the quarterfinals, miraculously, I faced the Filipino player who faced the final in the Asian region qualifier again.
After placing second in the preliminaries, it seemed that he was selected for the Philippine national team.
And because of my good luck, I came to the quarterfinals, and, of course, I met myself again.
If this is the case, should Daejin Luck be bad now?

As soon as the Filipino player saw me, he sighed with an expression that he had come this far.
Still, he didn’t run away because he had the experience of fighting in the preliminaries in the Asian region.

After the match, the Filipino player came to me personally, shook my hand, said ‘good luck’ and left with a smile.

The semi-final was an Argentine player, and he was a slim, handsome outboxer.
From the start, he moved around me vigorously, jabbing and moving quickly, and eventually got knocked out by my quick counter punch.

He would have struggled quite a bit if it wasn’t for my abnormal ability, but rather he met me and was defeated so absurdly.

Having won the semi-finals, I now have a silver medal, so even if I lose, I can get exemption from military service.
However, I wanted to win a gold medal if possible.

The final match was held on August 9, the day of the closing ceremony.

Michael Jordan, who had already won the gold medal, and several players came to the stadium to cheer me on, and among the Korean players who finished the game, there were people who came to cheer for today’s game.

What was interesting was that the squad leader and executives came to watch my game.
It must mean that there is a lot of interest in me in Korea.

Among the Korean players, I was able to see the players who came to support me and found Michael Jordan and approached him to get his autograph.
And when I heard that Michael Jordan came to cheer me on, everyone was surprised, and there were people who saw me differently.

The last final was a tough-looking black man representing the United States.
The American fighter was a tall fighter, rare to see in the middleweight class.
I laughed, thinking to myself that Michael Jordan would have a hard time cheering for me since my opponent was an American player.

It was the United States, the world’s largest boxing powerhouse, with many well-known fighters such as Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, Mike Tyson, and Sugar Ray Leonard. And the player who made it to the finals today was a fairly famous player as a promising rookie.
He was probably an athlete who was likely to raise his weight class immediately after the Olympics and turn professional.

Looking at the momentum of the American player, a pretty tough fight was expected today.
However, I am also a person who has returned from the future and has special abilities.
I made up my mind that no matter how strong the American player is, it will not be easy for him to beat me.

The director also put a mouthpiece in my mouth and cheered me on saying that I can definitely win if I just do what I normally do and don’t be too nervous.
For some reason, the coach seemed nervous after seeing the opponent American player.
Seeing him even say words of encouragement that he didn’t normally say.

Finally the gong rang and the game began.
As expected, the match was fierce from the beginning.

The opponent was really good at boxing.
He did so well that I thought that if there was a standard in boxing, it would be about this player.

He was a player that made me think that he was really great, whether he avoided the flying fist with his fist, which I had once shown, or turned his head in that direction with exquisite timing to release power, and counters flew from time to time.
After all, I could feel that the world stage was definitely different.

I didn’t know how right I was.

The second round passed in an instant, and when I roughly scored, I was behind in effective strokes.
If the third round ended like this, I was in danger of being judged.

For the first time, the director gave the operation instructions.
While rinsing my mouth, I thought in my head what the director had told me to do and quickly drew an image.

I still had enough stamina.
It was hit, but it wasn’t hit enough to damage the body, it was just pushed from the technique.

As much as I was beaten, the opponent American players were also beaten by me.
I could tell because I had quite a lot of feeling that my fists were going in heavily.

I had to put my hopes on that I had an advantage in physical strength.
So, for the third round, I decided to go to a slugfest by driving myself into a corner.

The manager’s operation was also the same.
It was to see the match with my reliable stamina.

Finally, the gong rang and the third round began.
I ran quickly and hit the opponent fast with a mix of jabs and big fists to keep him from escaping.

The opponent also fixed their stance on my fast fist and started to strike back.
I tightened my stomach and swung my fists with all my might, following the combination I had practiced.

As the number of combinations increased, I felt that I was moving forward little by little.
That meant that the opponent was getting pushed behind by the speed of my fist.

My breathing was getting more and more difficult as I was hitting combinations almost breathlessly.
It felt as if my lungs were being ripped apart from the lack of oxygen.

But now I’m starting to push and I can’t stop here.
Grinding his teeth even more, he shook his body non-stop and threw his fists, following the instructions engraved on his body.

I don’t know how many times I punched.

I was also in a situation where my eyes went white due to lack of oxygen and I entered a trance.

Now my body, not my consciousness, was mechanically punching as I had practiced.
If my consciousness does not return, my body will probably continue to swing its fists until my stamina runs out.

Then I felt someone grip my fists tightly and push my body hard.
Only then did I slowly regain consciousness and see the referee holding both of my wrists.

As he moved his head to the side and looked ahead, he saw the American was sitting against his ring post with his face disfigured.

It was only now that the situation was recognized.

I won.
I had finally won the gold medal.

I saw the manager running into the ring, hugging me and screaming.
I also hugged the director, raised one hand, and screamed in joy at winning the gold medal.

It was a really tough game.
However, after winning the tough game and eventually winning the gold medal, joy and excitement rushed like crazy.

The sound of applause came from all directions like thunder.

As the director and I were screaming and frenzied in the ring, an official came up and warned us to go down and prepare for the awards ceremony.
Only then did we come to our senses, and the director showed an awkward smile as we descended the ring.

The team captain and Michael Jordan came up to me and shook my hand to congratulate me.

I felt so good that I thought I would fly away, but when I went to the bathroom and saw my face, I was at a loss for words.

Have you ever been beaten so miserably?
His face was flushed red, and his left eye was swollen.
When I thought that this face would be broadcast nationwide at the awards ceremony, it was so serious that I thought about whether or not to go to the awards ceremony.

I tried to calm my face as much as possible by talking to the director, applying the medicine, and applying ice packs, but there was no way it could be done in a short time.
I sighed at the thought that her mother would cry when I called home later.

Finally, the awards ceremony was held.
I climbed up to the highest podium, hung a gold medal around my neck, and as the national anthem rang out, I felt like tears would come out without my knowledge.
As I remembered the things I had been exercising for, it was definitely a new feeling.

After the awards ceremony, we had a brief interview and returned to the dorm to prepare for the closing ceremony in the evening.
Fortunately, at the closing ceremony, I didn’t have to wear a suit like the opening ceremony, and I was able to wear the Korean team’s gym uniform, so I was able to afford it.

After returning to the dorm and washing up, I called my mother with a trembling heart.
As expected, my mother was waiting for my call even though she was in the middle of the night, and she started by asking if my health was okay.

The trembling in her mother’s voice made her feel like crying at any moment, but she could feel that she was enduring herself, as if she couldn’t show weakness to her son-husband who had won from afar.
I thanked my mother for that, told her I loved her and hung up on her.

The closing ceremony was also spectacular.
The players all became one and enjoyed the festival of the closing ceremony with excitement.

The peculiarity of this Olympics is that Korea brought home the first and last gold medals.
The first gold medal was won in shooting, and the hero of Montjuic, Hwang Yeong-jo, won the last gold medal in the marathon.

With a score of 7th overall, Korea proved that the 4th overall result of the 1988 Olympics was not achieved by accident.

After spending an extra day in Spain, the Korean team made a proud return to Gimpo Airport the next day, and numerous reporters and people greeted us at Gimpo Airport.

Kim Hyun-sam also came to Gimpo Airport to meet the athletes, and in particular, he greeted me and received photos from the reporters.

The Korean team held what would be the last car parade in history at Gwanghwamun, and was warmly welcomed by the people.

That’s how I won a gold medal at the Olympics, and of course I was exempted from military service.