"Mr. Jas, I wonder if you have any ti to talk about the sponsorship and endorsent. Yes, we talked about that last ti."
"Suspend? Mr. Jas, as for the endorsent fee, we could discuss it again..."
"You’ve found a new cooperation partner? Mr. Jas, I hope you will reconsider Phillip. He has a very good image in the public, and he is an inspirational role model."
"Well, I hope we can cooperate next ti."
Putting down the phone, Steven’s face beca serious. This was the third sponsor who’d refused him recently.
Venality of secular people! Steven cursed in his mind.
However, Steven knew that the sponsors were not to bla. It was Phillip who perford badly recently. No, his performance had not been bad, it had been terrible. Without good results, Phillip would naturally lose the sponsors’ favor.
Phillip, when will you get back to where you were? If you go on like this, our sponsors will all be gone! Steven sighed, then he seed to suddenly think of sothing. He picked up the phone again.
"Hello, is this the organizing committee of the New York Athletics Invitational? This is the agent of Barron Phillip. I would like to know if your invitation letter has been issued?" Steven asked.
"We sent out the invitation letter three days ago!" a lady’s voice said.
"Three days ago? I checked my email and I didn’t see it." As he said this, Steven felt a terrible foreboding.
"Just a mont please. I’ll check for you. Barron Phillip? I’m sorry. Barron Phillip wasn’t on our invitation list!" The woman’s response confird Steven’s foreboding.
Steven kept silent. He didn’t even ask why. He didn’t need to.
For an invitational tournant, the organizer’s three standards were that the athlete must be strong enough, famous enough, or local enough to warrant special treatnt.
In the eyes of the organizer, Phillip clearly didn’t et the three standards.
The woman on the other end of the phone seed to feel Steven’s bad mood, so she gave him a humane consolation prize.
She said, "We also have gas for the disabled after the end of the regular competition. Although it’s a performance, we’re also sponsored by the New York Disability Foundation. Therefore, any disabled athlete who participates in the ga will get one year of dental insurance as a prize."
"One year of dental insurance?" Steven’s voice was full of contempt.
Seeing a dentist was really expensive. Besides, dental insurance and dical insurance were separated. Whether it was an ordinary person buying comrcial insurance, or an employer-made offer of treatnt, the dental insurance was listed separately. Employers who offered dental plans would be considered quite generous.
For ordinary Aricans, a dental insurance plan was really a good prize, which could not only assure dental health, but also save a lot of money. The disabled, who didn’t have high incos, would pay more attention to this kind of security.
But Phillip was not an ordinary athlete. How could he care about a dental insurance plan when he had won more than ten million dollars in two years? Therefore, it sounded more like a humiliation than a prize.
But the woman on the other side didn’t know it, so she continued, "But the foundation just sponsors the prize, not including the transportation and accommodation, and we the organizer will not provide this either. So, Mr. Phillip has to co to New York on his own expense."
"His own expense?" Phillip’s voice beca more contemptuous.
The tickets for the round trip were not cheap, not to ntion the cost of accommodation in New York. The prize was just dental insurance, not even enough to cover the cost!
...
What Brought the Blade Warrior down from the Pedestal?
"During the last two years, the hottest athlete in the US has undoubtedly been the Blade Warrior, Barron Phillip, who beca an inspirational model after losing his legs in Iraq as a soldier. As a disabled athlete, he competes with world-class able-bodied athletes in world championships, and is even considered a very strong contender. There is no doubt that the Blade Warrior Phillip is a great athlete."
"However, during the last few months, the Blade Warrior has seed to be in trouble. His performance was much worse than his previous record. He could compete with the best athletes before, but now he has lost races to second-rate runners. Although it is still a miracle for him to be able to compete with able-bodied athletes, he has really stepped back from his previous achievents."
"So, the question is, what has brought down Phillip?"
"There is no doubt about Phillip’s talent. What diocre athlete could have reached the world championship?"
"And he is right at the pri age for track and field athletes, so age is not the reason for the decline, or at least not such a sudden decline."
"The only reason the author can think of is attitude. Phillip must be in a bad state, so he can’t perform as well as he used to in matches, which has led to a sudden drop in his performance."
"As an athlete, it is quite normal to have ups and downs. Many factors, whether on the field or personal, may lead to changes in the athlete’s state of mind. Experienced professional athletes are also good at adjusting themselves, and Phillip is obviously experienced. He should be able to gradually adjust himself."
"But the truth is, his performance is becoming worse and worse, showing no sign of becoming better, which clearly shows that he is losing his state gradually."
"According to our investigation, Phillip changed his coach not long before. He left the coach he had cooperated with for two years and turned to the AP Training Center. However, the previous coach was the very coach that found Phillip and trained him as the Blade Warrior."
"Surely we can’t bla Phillip’s declining performance on his coach completely, but as for his recent performance, changing his coach was not a brilliant choice. But what’s more surprising to is that the famous AP Training Center suffered such a failure!"
This was an article written by the famous sports comntator, Fox, in the Arican Journal of Athletics.
This magazine was very influential and many professional track and field workers paid attention to it, not just in North Arica, but also in Europe and Asia. Especially before the Olympic Gas or the World Championship, the predictions about the winners of each track and field event were considered as the weather vane of the competition.
Fox was a very famous sports comntator and his articles were often published in well-known sports magazines. Outsiders might not know him, but almost all insiders knew his na.
The combination of a famous sports comntator and an influential magazine always could make so waves.
...
Although most people read the news on mobile phones these days, Dai Li’s training center still subscribed to dozens of sports magazines for the coaches and mbers.
When Randy Blake handed the article, What Brought the Blade Warrior down from the Pedestal? in the latest Arican Journal of Athletics to Dai Li, Dai Li knew that Blake had made it happen.
"Was this written by soone you asked?" Dai Li asked without finishing it.
"I was a sports comntator before, and Fox is an old friend," Blake said, not trying to conceal it.
"The AP Training Center might blacklist us for this article," Dai Li said, but his face looked like he didn’t care.
"You told that the best way to beco a new leader is to step over the body of the old one!" Blake leaned comfortably in the sofa and went on, "But the AP Training Center really depressed . Phillip has been trained for months there, but his performance is becoming worse and worse. It seems that the most famous fitness training center in Arica doesn’t know how to train disabled athletes."
"Several years ago, I t with the manager of the AP Training Center in Los Angeles. His na was David Mills. I don’t know whether he is still in charge." Dai Li wore a wistful look.
"He is still in charge. I think he must be enraged!" Blake answered.
...
David Mills had no ti to be angry, and he was answering another call from headquarters.
"Mills, several months ago, I told you soone would be responsible for the training of the Blade Warrior if sothing went wrong. Do you rember that?" The voice on the phone was still harsh.
"Yes. But since then, I have arranged for Phillip to have the best—"
"I don’t need an explanation!" The voice on the phone interrupted Mills and went on, "You’d better co to headquarters and explain to the board!"
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