Conquer America, Start with a Boxing Champion

"Phil, did you really fall down by accident before the 100-meter breaststroke final?"

On the plane, swimmer Ryan Lochte asked Phelps, who had a bandage on his knee.

Phelps wore headphones and leaned back in his seat, not wanting to talk. He stared at his teammate Link Baker, who was sitting in the front row of the business class. Several female athletes from the swimming team were surrounding the bastard, chatting with him, laughing and having a great time.

"Phil, tell us the truth. Were you worried about being defeated by Link in the 100-meter event, so you broke your leg on purpose? Tell me quietly, and I promise I won't tell anyone else."

Ryan Lochte took off his headphones and said.

Phelps looked back and saw Ryan and the other three teammates also gave him their ears, wanting to hear what he had to say.

Phelps looked at them unhappily and said, "You think I'm afraid of him? You're kidding. Link is just strong and fast. He performs well in freestyle. In technical events, his performance is very poor. If you don't believe me, let him compete with me in medley. I can't win him in five seconds."

"Hey, Link, Phil wants to compete with you in medley. Do you want to compete?"

Ryan Lochte shouted.

"Phil's medley is really good. Phil, how about teaching me when you have time?"

Link turned around and smiled.

Phelps pulled the corner of his mouth, "Okay!"

But he refused in his heart. After watching Link's competition in person, Phelps was shocked by the upper limb strength and speed he showed.

When Link swam in the water, he was fast and fierce, with excellent balance, like a shark.

This guy's shortcomings are also obvious. His movements are not standard and his skills are rough. He can only swim freestyle and breaststroke. In butterfly stroke, backstroke, medley and other technically demanding events, his performance is average.

But coach Bob Bowman is right. Link has great potential. If he can train for a few years under the guidance of a professional swimming coach, his swimming skills will make great progress.

By then, male swimmers all over the world will live in his shadow.

What's even more despairing is that this guy is only 21 years old.

Phelps was under a lot of pressure to be a teammate with such a strong opponent. For this reason, before the breaststroke final, he only stared at Link and accidentally fell to the ground and hurt his knee.

Because the place where he fell was relatively flat, the probability of falling was relatively small, and this scene happened to be captured by the camera.

After the video was exposed, many people teased him about this incident, saying that he was worried that he would be defeated by Link in the breaststroke final, so he deliberately fell to save face.

This is of course impossible. Although Link's breaststroke is not bad, it is much worse than freestyle. If he hadn't fallen and withdrawn from the 100/200m breaststroke competition, it would be difficult for Link to win the championship in those two events.

"Phil, it's settled. I'll go to Baltimore to train with you when I'm free."

"Okay!"

Phelps nodded reluctantly. With so many people, he would be too stingy if he didn't agree.

Link smiled gently. He didn't just talk about training with Phelps. He really wanted to practice with him.

At the University Games, he signed up for eight events and won the championship in all eight events.

But at the World Championships, the opponents were very strong and it was very difficult to win the championship.

He signed up for eight events, but only won seven. There was one 4x100 medley relay, but because Phelps was injured and the substitute was not good enough, he only won the team silver medal. The other seven events were only slightly ahead by a few seconds.

After seeing the swimming skills of top athletes, he also felt that his skills were a bit rough. If he wanted to win gold medals and break world records in butterfly, backstroke and medley events, he needed to take time out to practice.

But not now.

The plane landed at Los Angeles International Airport, and the swimming team held a press conference in front of Terminal T7, attended by more than 60 media reporters.

Because Link is famous and the athlete with the most gold medals in this World Championships, he was pushed to the front by the coaching team for an interview.

"Mr. Baker, congratulations on winning 7 championships in this World Championships and breaking two swimming world records. We all know that you are the world boxing champion, and boxing and swimming are different types of sports. Why can you achieve excellent results in both sports? What is the secret of your success?"

The host of the ABC TV news channel asked.

Link thought for a while and said, "Talent and hard work. If you have read my personal information, you will know that before I participated in the boxing competition, I was a professional diving coach and lived by the sea. My swimming skills and diving skills were also trained in the Atlantic Ocean. These can be attributed to talent. What is more important than talent is acquired hard work. Through persistent fitness training, my boxing skills and swimming skills have been greatly improved."

"Mr. Baker, after becoming a world boxing champion and a famous singer, will you continue to be a diving coach?"

The reporter of "American Express" asked.

Link smiled softly, "Yes, I have this idea, but I'm too busy with work recently and don't have time to go back to Miami. When I have free time in the future, I will continue to be a diving instructor. Welcome everyone to come to Miami to dive."

"Mr. Baker!"

The "Los Angeles Times" reporter held his cell phone and suddenly shouted from behind, "I just received the information that your second album "Keep On Movin'" won the first place on this week's Billboard 200 album chart. May I ask where you are now? How are you feeling?"

Link looked at the other party in surprise, "Mr. Reporter, is this news reliable?"

"Yes, the data just released by "Billboard" shows that "Keep On Movin'" sold 518,000 copies in its second week, 12,000 more than the runner-up "The Blueprint 3"." The reporter shouted.

Link shook his fist at the TV camera and said with a smile: "What a great news. I won another championship. Last week I won eight championships. Thank you for your support, thank you to all my colleagues, thank you to all fans."

Link picked up the seven gold medals on his chest and said: "In order to thank the fans, on the 1st of next month, I will randomly select 15 lucky fans from the sold albums and give them all the gold medals, including these seven and Eight at the University Games.”

"Mr. Baker, is this true?"

Hearing what he said, the reporters suddenly became excited. It was another valuable news.

"certainly!"

"Mr. Baker, will you take the Olympic gold medal out for a raffle?"

A reporter from USA Today asked loudly.

Link thought for a moment, and since he wanted to give it away, he might as well give it away, since he would still have a chance to get it in the future. He looked at Phelps, "Phil, can I give away your gold medal?"

"It's yours, do as you wish!"

Phelps shrugged nonchalantly.

Just now, he was worried that Link would ask him to take back the boxing gold medal. If asked, he would be reluctant to give it to him.

Because professional boxers cannot participate in the Olympics, Link can only win one boxing Olympic gold medal in his lifetime, and that gold medal is worth ten swimming gold medals.

Many collection institutions have expressed their desire to collect Link's gold medal, with the highest price quoted being US$100,000. As Link's fame increases, the value of the gold medal will only become higher.

"Yes, Olympic gold medals will also be given away randomly, but lucky fans will be drawn from around the world in the middle of next month."

"Oh! Great!"

"Link fans are going to go crazy with joy."

The reporters became excited again, feeling that Link was the best interview subject in the world, and important news was sent in batches.

"Mr. Baker, the media broke the news that you and Miss Ivaca are secretly engaged. Is this true?"

The reporter from "The Sun" shouted that he felt that Link's boldness might break a bigger news here.

Link glanced at him helplessly. He had been chatting happily with reporters just now. When a reporter from "The Sun" suddenly asked this question, he suddenly lost all interest. He waved his hand and said, "Today is the swimming team's press conference." , you must have a lot of questions to interview other team members, I won’t take up your time.”

Link took the initiative to retreat behind Phelps and Ryan Lochte.

Many reporters looked at the reporter from "The Sun" unhappily. They could have taken advantage of Link's excitement to ask more questions and earn more royalties, but because he asked a bad question, Link ended the interview early.

It's so unprofessional.

However, everyone's eyes lit up again when they saw 'Flying Fish' Phelps on crutches. Because of Phelps' injury, the swimming team unfortunately lost the gold medal in the 1x400m medley event. Rumors also said that Feiyu was worried about being beaten by Lin. Defeated, intentionally injured.

These are big news that the public is interested in and are of great interview value.

When Phelps saw the reporters' wolf-like looks, he couldn't help but feel chills running down his back. He wanted to take a step back to avoid the sharp attack, but Link held his shoulders down and made him unable to move. He could only bite the bullet. , in response to reporters’ verbal jousts.