Cynisca's Olympic Games (1)

The Olympic Games officially began on the second day. Unlike the tightly packed schedule of later Olympic Games, the Games were more relaxed because there were fewer events and a limited number of participants. For example, the main stadium only had preliminary rounds of the 100-meter and 200-meter races on the first day.

Because all the athletes were amateurs who paid their own way to participate, the number of foreign athletes was not large. However, France athletes, especially those from Paris, could simply travel by train to the competition and return home immediately afterward. Furthermore, the railway company offered free train tickets to the participants. Therefore, even some low-level workers were eligible to participate, as long as their factories approved their leave. Whether the factories would actually approve it was not an issue, because when a worker-athlete participated, according to the agreement reached when requesting leave from their factory, they had to wear clothing printed with the factory's advertisement.

To be honest, Napoleon did initially consider restoring the ancient Olympic Games tradition of all athletes competing naked. That was before Pauline made her own request. However, this idea was immediately met with a furious rebuke from Lucien. Lucien exclaimed, "Do you know why the expensive tickets, especially the box seats, sell so well? Because many people buy them in pairs! How much ticket revenue would we lose if we did this? And the athletes' clothing is also a business, you know? Pauline has been eyeing that for a while! And then there's the advertising on the clothing, that's more money... Good heavens, I can hardly even count how much money is involved! You actually want to let go of all these money-making opportunities for the sake of some tradition? It's unbelievable! Compared to this lovely little money, tradition? Tradition is nothing!"

In the past, Napoleon would certainly have retorted, but this time, after hearing Lucien's objection, he thought about it and actually admitted to himself that Lucien's words did make sense.

"Lucien, I was just mentioning it casually, just joking," Napoleon said.

"Luckily you didn't go and make that kind of joke with Joseph directly," Lucien said.

Upon hearing this, Napoleon couldn't help but shudder. "Damn it, Joseph is fine to joke about anything else, but when it comes to money, you can't joke about it at all!"

"Who said that?" Lucien retorted. "There's still math homework to do, and it's the same thing!" Although it had been a long time since he had done the math homework Joseph had given him, even after so much time had passed, Lucien still felt a chill run down his spine and couldn't help but shiver when he thought about it.

Of course, the advertising on the clothes worn during the competition has limited significance, after all, there was no television broadcasting or even photography technology at that time. (Some research had been done in a laboratory, and the first photo had even been taken, but this system required an exposure of about half an hour to produce a single photo, making it basically useless except for shooting landscapes.) However, once a winner was won and they stood on the podium, the advertisements on their clothes could be subtly inserted into newspaper reports. Exchanging a few days of vacation for such an opportunity is undeniably a great deal.

Therefore, the number of athletes from Paris was exceptionally large, almost two-thirds of the entire France delegation, and the number of athletes in the France delegation accounted for almost two-thirds of the total number of athletes.

Marie- Henri Bell signed up for the equestrian competition, but he didn't have enough money to buy an expensive thoroughbred and spend long hours practicing on the official competition track. Like most competitors, he could only use his own horse—because he had served in the cavalry, and his steed "Little Smarty" was old and about to retire, so he bought it. This gray horse was as clever as its name suggested, but it was old, and it wasn't a breed known for its speed. Marie- Henri Bell knew that he and his old horse wouldn't make it past the preliminaries. Even his classmate's mixed-breed Arabian horse, used for pulling a carriage, could easily outrun his "Little Smarty" in the speed race. So Marie- Henri Bell signed up for show jumping. "Little Smarty" was old and couldn't run fast, but it was more agile than before, so it should still be able to finish the show jumping race, which was enough for an amateur like Marie- Henri Bell.

However, the equestrian competition hadn't started yet, so Marie- Henri Bell still had time for his classmate, the one named Bauséant whose family had a mixed-race Arabian Marat -drawn carriage. This guy's dream was to be a journalist. Marie- Henri Bell joked with him, "My brother, your dream is certainly good, but journalists need to be incredibly fast, especially the kind you want to be, with lots of opportunities to interview the courtesans of the Moulin Rouge. You need to run as fast as Heracles. So, you need to train harder!"

As a result, Bauséant took his words seriously and practiced running diligently every day. This time, he signed up for all the running events at once and actually passed the 100-meter and 200-meter qualifying rounds. (There is no qualifying round for the Marat.) So today, Mary- Henri Bell has come to the main venue and is sitting in a seat near the track (he only managed to buy a ticket there) to watch his friend's race.

Today's event is the 100-meter preliminary round. Because a usable stopwatch hasn't been made yet, the rules for the preliminary round are slightly different from those in later generations. First, the participants are drawn into groups of eight, and then the top two from each group advance directly to the second round. Compared to the timing methods of later generations, in this method, luck plays a significant role in whether you advance to the next round.

Bauséant was ranked quite late today, so he hadn't started yet. Mari watched the others compete with a rather bored air. Running in this era was completely different from the Olympic Games of later times. First, all the runners were white, unlike in later times when you could hardly see any non-Black athletes on the track. Secondly, these athletes were very amateurish; many didn't Julien sportswear, and many even wore long-sleeved shirts and gaiters to participate. As they ran, Mari became increasingly confident in his own performance if he were in the race. He was sure Bauséant, watching from the athletes' rest area, had the same thought. Of course, that was assuming he wasn't foolish enough to compete in gaiters and even high heels.

After two laps, Mari finally heard his friend Bauséant's name on the radio. He raised his binoculars and looked towards the starting line, where he spotted his friend in lane three. He was also wearing long sleeves and trousers, but at least not the cumbersome kind of trousers, and certainly not high heels.

However, another contestant next to him clearly attracted more attention. This man was wearing a vest on one side, revealing the hard muscles on his arm. On the chest of the vest, there was a large sun printed on it—clearly, he was a reporter from the Sun. And his lower body was even more revealing, wearing only shorts, which exposed his thick thighs.

"Ah... how could he be completely naked?" A girl next to Mali exclaimed, covering her eyes with her hand. In her other hand, she was clutching a brass telescope.

Marley glanced at the girl; she wasn't particularly pretty, and her face was covered in freckles. So Marley immediately decided to focus his energy on cheering on his friend. At the same time, he couldn't help but think, "Judging by her voice, I'd think she was a princess."

The Sun guy was not only strangely dressed, but his preparation was equally strange. He knelt down on the track, and Mari thought he was going to make the sign of the cross or something. But instead, he stood up and started digging hard at the ground with his feet, quickly creating two small holes in the cinder track.

"What is he doing? What is he doing?" That pleasant voice rang out again. Mari glanced sideways and saw that the girl who had been covering her eyes just moments before had now raised her binoculars again.

The man knelt down again, putting both feet into the pit. This time, Mari noticed that the man's shoes seemed different from everyone else's. The soles appeared to be made of rubber.

In this era, rubber wheels were already widely used in France, and many people were using discarded tires to make shoe soles. However, these shoes were more exquisite than those homemade tire-soled shoes.

After exchanging flags at the start and finish lines, the race was about to begin. The referee blew the whistle, signaling the athletes to get ready. Everyone tensed up, striking all sorts of strange poses. The reporter, however, didn't stand up; he simply raised his body, his hands still on the ground, his buttocks sticking up high. He looked absolutely bizarre.

The referee raised the starting pistol, and then Mali saw a puff of smoke rise from the referee's hand. At the same time, everyone rushed out.

The Sun reporter was the fastest; he shot off like a bullet from a slingshot, leaving everyone around him a body length or two behind at the start.

"Truly a reporter from the Sun!" someone shouted, waving their fist.