World Records

World records can be set even if you are over 100 years old. Robert Marchand was born in 1911 in northern France. He enjoys riding a bicycle, and started cycling seriously when he was in his 60s. 【小题1】

On Wednesday, a crowd gathered at the Velodrome National, about 30 kilometers outside of Paris. 【小题2】 The record for one hour is held by Britain’s Bradley Wiggins, a former Tour de France winner. Wiggins covered 54.5 kilometers in 2015.Evelyn Stevens of the United States holds the women’s record. She went almost 48 kilometers in an hour last year. In 2012, Marchand set a record for riders over 100 years old when he traveled almost 27 kilometers in an hour. 【小题3】

Marchand set off on his record attempt as sports lovers cheered and photographers watched. He moved slowly, but steadily, around the cycling track.

Marchand is relatively small.【小题4】 When the hour ended, he completed 92 times around the track. That is just over 22.5 kilometers.【小题5】He did not see his trainers telling him he only had 10 minutes remaining.“I would have gone faster. I would have posted a better time,” he said.But the news was still good, as he did set a new record for riders 105-years-old or older.

“I’m now waiting for a rival,” he said.

When pro-golfer Umi Jai first started competing against men, she felt frightened. They didn't want to play with her, she says and they didn’t take her seriously. But then in her first match she won.

After that she had all the confidence she needed to keep playing and beating the boys. Now as the only professional female golfer in Senegal, she competes almost exclusively against men.

“Now I'm used to playing with men. I train in the morning, noon and night. I'm in the gym three or four times per week. So that also gives me more confidence.” She said. Jai turned professional seven years ago.

She’s placed in dozens of competitions around the world including in Thailand, Kenya and South Africa. Her accomplishments are particularly noteworthy considering Senegal is a conservative Muslim nation, where women are discouraged from participating in sports especially at the professional level. “When you're Muslim, we prefer to keep girls at home to find them a husband and make them a housewife.” She told journalist.

In 2020 the Senegalese Golf Federation agreed to help Jai establish a golf academy, in preparation for the 2026 summer youth Olympics in Dakar. It would be the first Olympic games to ever be held on African soil. The project was postponed due to Covid, but it's expected to restart this year.

Jai will be tasked with training Senegal’s first ever national team, with a specific focus on preparing the next generation of female golfers including her daughter.

“Girls will be part of it I mean on an equal basis like boys, and that would be something that I think we are prepared and committed to do. And Jai also has that vision and committed to promote a girl to give them opportunity, as a girl I mean, to help them get to the level that they can be.” Said the executive director of Senegalese Golf Federation.

Jai says she hopes to find a sponsor so she can continue to compete internationally, and bring the next generation of Senegalese female golfers into the fold.

The Return of the Champions

“The atmosphere here at Rio de Janeiro is electric! If China wins this point, they will walk out of the stadium with an Olympic gold medal. Zhang Changning serves. Over the net, Popovic dives for the ball. She only just reaches it...and it’s sent straight back to her by the Chinese spiker Hui Ruoqi. Popovic can’t get the ball back this time...and that’s it! It’s over! It’s gold for China! Look how the crowd has gone wild. You can see the joy and pride on the faces of the Chinese fans. And there we see the Chinese players embracing, with tears of happiness in their eyes...It’s a dream come true for China! The Chinese women’s volleyball team is Olympic champion once again!”

The Chinese women’s volleyball team holds a very special place in the nation’s heart. In the 1980s, the team burst onto the international volleyball scene with several major world titles, and an amazing three­set victory over the United States in the final of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. They became national heroes overnight. There was gold once more at Athens in 2004. But winning gold in Rio paints the most vivid portrait of the team’s competitive spirit.

In Rio, the Chinese women’s volleyball team needed all of its fighting spirit after it was assigned to the “group of death”，where it faced several strong opponents in the group stage matches.   Despite reaching the quarter­finals as the fourth team in the group, with just two wins in preliminary matches, they were not going to give up. Every single member of the team gave their all to the fight, including Hui Ruoqi who had had heart surgery less than five months previously.

Their perseverance paid off with an epic comeback against the defending champion Brazil in the quarter­finals. Next, the Chinese team defeated the Netherlands in the semi­final matches, having lost to them in the preliminaries. At last，showing a strong will and the steeliest nerves, they played a close match against Serbia to seize gold in the final.

But fighting spirit alone was not enough to guarantee victory. Strong team spirit also contributed greatly to their success. Cooperation between team members is essential. If each individual does her job and works well with others，then the end goal can be achieved. In fact, strong team spirit is more important than the skills of individual players. Zhu Ting, named Most Valuable Player at the Rio Olympics, also identified this as the special ingredient in the team’s success: “Teamwork is the key to China's victory. Thanks to my teammates’ hard efforts, I had the opportunity to show my spiking skills.”

Together, the Chinese women’s volleyball team has fought their way through ups and downs. Led by well­known Chinese volleyball player and coach Lang Ping, they have continued to aim high. Lang is only too aware that as soon as a team steps off the victory podium, they need to start from zero to prepare for new challenges ahead. In this way, the team begins its journey to the next Olympics.