Chapter 1168: The referees get beaten up!

Translator: Legge Editor: Legge

Meanwhile.

Some countries were celebrating their victories.

Some countries were reflecting on their results.

But the Chinese delegation and the common folk of the country were all enraged by the Men's 62 kg weightlifting event. Even most of the media outlets in China were annoyed at the results!

"China ends first day of events without gold medal!"

"The Chinese delegation repeatedly misses out on gold!"

"An incorrect call in weightlifting?"

"Li Jiaxi painfully loses the gold medal!"

"Team China's gold medal stolen by referees!"

"A failed appeal? Did the refs go blind?"

"The Australian referee had already made an incorrect call against a Chinese athlete four years ago! "

"Four years ago, it was Ding Lei. This time, it's Li Jiaxi?"

"Just how has Team China offended this Australian referee?"

The weightlifting medal presentation had not even begun yet, but the news reports were already spreading everywhere!

Central TV's live coverage had switched from the venue to broadcasting the live coverage studio. The scene of the audience scolding "idiots" in unison at the venue was really unsuitable to continue being shown on live television.

The venue was very chaotic.

The weightlifting team's head coach had already gone to the Organizing Committee's officials to lodge a complaint. This Olympics was organized by them, but to have the foreign referees so blatantly and deliberately make such misjudgments on the first day of the events, who could bear it?

They were clearly smacking their faces!

They were clearly smacking China's face!

The first day events of the Olympics had ended. When the many coaches and athletes of the different sports for Team China heard about this incident, they all went to watch the replay of the weightlifting event. Then many of them started to step forward in anger!

The table tennis team's main players posted on Weibo: "Li Jiaxi deserved to be the champion!"

The badminton team's assistant head coach criticized sternly: "Li Jiaxi did not lose because of himself or his opponent, but because of the referees!"

The men's weightlifting team's coach: "Strongly questioning this decision!"

And celebrities from all over spoke up too!

Yao Jiancai's Weibo: "This is goddamn match fixing!"

Huo Dongfang's Weibo: "This corruption is too blatant, isn't it?"

Chen Guang's Weibo: "What the hell is this?"

Famous director, Li Ke: "This is the Beijing Olympics! Do you have any respect for us? Shouldn't they ban these types of referees?"

Grandma Zhang Xia: "Why couldn't they initiate an appeal against the decision?"

The Chinese athletes were all criticizing it!

The celebrities were all criticizing it!

The netizens were also criticizing it!

"Bastards!"

"How can they be such bullies!"

"Did they gang up on us?"

"I'm so angry! That was such a shocking and maddening decision!"

"Four years ago, there were already issues raised about some of the referees deliberately targeting our Chinese team. At that time, the relevant organization penalized them for their actions. So why is it that a portion of those people can still appear in the Olympics ref pool? How can they blatantly cheat the Chinese team of its chances like this? Who gave them the authority to do something like that? Who allowed this to happen and condoned their actions that have seriously damaged the spirit of sportsmanship? Such referees should be banned for life!"

"Fuck! This is really making me want to beat someone up now!"

"Even an idiot can see that we were the ones who should have won!"

"That last lift was a proper one! There was nothing wrong with it!"

"Well scolded, Zhang Ye! They're really a bunch of idiots!"

"I also saw Zhang Ye leading the scolding on the live broadcast!"

"What's the use of scolding them? The gold medal has already been lost! This is too difficult to stomach!"

"When Li Jiaxi cried on the live broadcast, my wife cried along! This is too depressing! My heart aches for him!"

This incorrect call was very controversial!

Whether it was the Chinese delegation or the citizens, none of them were having it!

Some foreign media outlets also gave a very objective assessment after watching the competition.

A British media outlet reported: "Unable to understand the decision behind the Men's 62 kg weightlifting event. It looked like the winner should have been the Chinese?"

In the Spanish media: "A huge controversy in the weightlifting event. After viewing the slow-motion replays, the North Korean athlete's lift at the end clearly ran afoul of the rules. Meanwhile, the Chinese athlete's lift was thought to be a good one after analysis by several professionals. All of them said that there were no issues with it and that it should not have been faulted."

The Portuguese media: "In the finals of the weightlifting event, the referees made a big mistake. However, the gold medal has already been awarded and won't be changed!"

The Russian media: "After four years, the Chinese weightlifting team has again fallen victim to the same Australian referee in the finals of a different weight class!"

A lot of the foreign media also expressed their shock and disbelief at the matter. This sort of a clear-cut incorrect call could only be committed by an amateur referee. How could something like this happen in the Olympics?

But the award ceremony was already over!

The gold medal winner could not be changed!

That was this world's rules for the sport of weightlifting!

Yet at this time, the Australian media continued adding fuel to fire!

An Australian media outlet said openly: "The Chinese audience is making a spectacle of themselves in the stadium by verbally abusing the referees. Such behavior makes us very worried about this year's Beijing Olympics. The outcome of the competition cannot be changed, and this is what it means to compete in a sporting event. The results are unpredictable, so why don't they try to accept it and learn from their mistakes?"

After the competition.

An Australian reporter interviewed the Australian athlete who won the bronze medal.

The athlete shook his head and expressed, "I'm very disappointed with the behavior of the Chinese today. They delayed the proceedings of the competition for so long just because they couldn't take a loss. I think we should be the ones protesting instead!"

That made a lot of people even more furious!

On Weibo, there were wave after wave of criticism!

"They even want us to just accept it?"

"Fuck your grandpa!"

"The Australian ref deliberately made a bad call against us and they're asking us to learn from our mistakes?"

"Fuck your grandpa!"

"Ptui!"'

"What dogshit is this!"

"Ahhh! I'm so mad!"

"I'm gonna blow my top!"

"They're being way too arrogant!"

The incident blew up!

But other than cursing and swearing, the athletes, coaches, and citizens could do nothing about it. They were all full of pent-up anger that could not be released anywhere!

A similar scene had happened four years ago. At that time, after the gold medal was lost, the incident died down after some time. Could the same thing happen again at this year's Beijing Olympics? The referees would just be let off with a pointless warning and punishment before everything went back to how it was?

Of course, this affair was not over yet!

Even if everyone else agreed to it, Zhang Ye wouldn't!

…

Night had fallen.

But the lights were still shining brightly within the Olympic stadium.

Zhang Ye used his special staff pass that was issued to him for yesterday's opening ceremony to gain access to the place through the staff entrance. He strode into the area where the crowds were not allowed to enter. Even though the competition events for the day were over, this place was still restricted!

Across from him at the exit of the stadiums, five referees were walking out.

The leader of the group was that Australian referee who took charge of the weightlifting event earlier. Beside him were the other foreign referees involved in today's event!

"#$%^&*()."

"...%$^&*()!"

They were saying something, probably in English, but Zhang Ye could not understand them as they spoke very fast. Well, with that English of his, he probably would not understand even if they spoke slowly.

The Australia referee was beaming.

The South Korean referee had a calm look on his face.

Beside them, there was a referee who looked a little worried.

All of them wore different expressions and were heading out of the stadium toward Zhang Ye.

Zhang Ye did not even look at them as he slowly strode in their direction swinging his arms. He was even humming and singing the song "Beijing Welcomes You."

The atmosphere felt really normal.

The workers and volunteers who were passing by did not sense anything peculiar either. It was the same for those weightlifting referees. The Australian referee suddenly took a look at his watch before saying something in English to the others. The five of them nodded and quickly picked up their pace. They probably had to rush off somewhere as there was still a lot of work to be done post-competition.

But right as they were passing Zhang Ye!

They were passing him but did not make it past him!

Zhang Ye was still humming the tune when he suddenly stuck his leg out. The Australian referee, who was walking very quickly, didn't even have time to react and tripped. He lost his balance and felt like his body's weight was arrested as he fell forward! He yelled while flailing about, hoping to grab onto something. As a result, he grabbed onto the South Korean referee beside him and pulled him down as well! Then another referee, who was behind them, knocked into Zhang Ye's shoulder "accidentally." He felt a very strong impact collide with his shoulder as he fell over with a horrified look and landed on top of the other two referees without warning!

The Australian referee's face smashed against the ground. His nose instantly started bleeding!

The South Korean referee fell over as well and his arm snapped against the ground. He clutched it and shrieked in pain!

The third referee fell onto his back!

The fourth referee was knocked into a table next to him!

After the fifth referee fell down, he even got crushed under two other referees who were clearly heavier than 80 kg. His eyes rolled back as he nearly fainted from the pain!

One second!

In just a mere second!

As they passed each other, only Zhang Ye made it past them while the five referees cried out loudly as they found themselves sprawled out on the ground. None of them stood back up!

It was too fast!

It was really did happen in just the blink of an eye!

It was so strange it was scary!

When many of the volunteers and workers, as well as some of the other foreign referees and athletes around them, heard their screams, many of them either looked over to see what was going on or rushed over!

"Damn!"

"What happened here?"

"The weightlifting referees got beaten up!?"

Several female volunteers screamed!

Meanwhile, Zhang Ye's figure had drifted away. All that was left of the incident was a chaotic crowd that had gathered around the five weightlifting referees wailing in agony!

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