King of Sports 227 Dirty News 4

"The Yanxing City, Yuecheng District Police Bureau conducted a DUI checkpoint on the main road of Beihai Street at 20:05 on April 1, 2012. During the routine inspection a stop was initiated on a driver by the name of Zhao Yun, who was suspected of being under the influence. The officers initiating the stop asked Mr. Zhao to comply with a breathalyzer test, Mr Zhao refused to comply and began to threaten the officers. He then began to act up and prevent the officers from doing their job.

To make the situation even worse, Mr Zhao then went on to summon more than a dozen thugs and ruffians who worked for him, to carry out a violent attack on the police officers, resulting in multiple officers being brutally beaten and injured.

But luckily before things could turn worse, possibly deadly, Tang Yan, a well-known Chinese athlete, who happened to be passing by seeing the devastating scene playing out, took it upon himself, like a hero and helped intervene. Subduing more than ten men with his own strength. 

Police backup arrived shortly after and took control of the scene and as part of proper police procedure Mr.Tang was asked to the police station to assist in the investigation. 

But it seems his act of heroism and assistance to the police officers that help keep our city and our families safe has been misconstrued. Something worth of praise and publicity instead has been twisted due to lack of research, willful neglect and greed. Causing serious damage to Tang Yan's personal image. The Bureau strongly urges the relevant media outlets to withdraw the false reports and to issue a follow-up apology."

The announcement had made all the ins and outs of what had happened last night open to the public.

It was undoubtedly a fatal blow to all the previous media reports.

With the announcement multiple fates were sealed.

Multiple news outlets had treated the report like a usual hit piece on a celebrity but they had failed to realise Tang Yan was different. He wasn't just another athlete at this point, Tang Yan probably didn't realise it either but he had become the golden boy of the General Administration of Sports, many saw him as their ticket to promotion and were pushing and grooming him to become the face of Chinese sports. 

So when the allegations came out, the agency had gone into overdrive and just as preparations were being made to bury Tang Yan's career and reduce the fall back on them, they had discovered the truth. Realising how things had played out they were fuming. Tang Yan's coaches and those above moved and struck down heavily.

The newspaper outlet Song Dahai and Zhan Mengyang worked for was fined ¥3.5 million yuan and the two were also fined ¥350,000 yuan individually for defamation, with the newpaper outlet also firing them. The newspaper also issued a public apology.

The other newspaper outlets that had helped in spreading the rumors by hopping on the story and publishing their own pieces also received fines but to lesser degrees.

The General Administration of Press and Publication even launched a perfunctory investigation as a show of their stance. 

The handling of the incident could be said to be inspiring, it was a great blow to the unhealthy trend of fake news.

Tang Yan walked towards the entrance of the channel among the cheers of the audience. The reporters over there swarmed, and the security personnel immediately followed.

"Tang Yan, why didn't you respond immediately after seeing the false report?"

"Tang Yan, are you going to sue for defamation on the newspapers who reported the fake story?"

"Tang Yan, is the announcement made by the Yuecheng District Police Station true? You really subdued ten people alone? How did you do it?" 

The reporter's questions were like artillery fire, they all hit him at once, it was all related to yesterday's affairs, no one even asked about the competition. 

"I have to go prepare for my next event, excuse me!" Tang Yan said and tried to make his way through the crowd.

"Tang Yan, are you not answering because of a guilty conscience?" a reporter called out with courage.

Tang Yan stopped and turned to look at the reporter coldly.

The reporter catching Tang Yan's gaze, took a step back unconsciously.

Tang Yan said nothing and turned directly into the player passage.

There were five groups for the 100m breaststroke so after his group, the rest of the groups came up.

But overall the performances couldn't compare, the best was Li Xiang, also from the Zhejiang Provincial Team. His final time was 1:01.35, but even with such a time, there was still a gap of more than 2 seconds between him and Tang Yan.

Compared with freestyle, Tang Yan's advantage seemed even more pronounced in the breaststroke.

After the breaststroke preliminaries, the butterfly stroke preliminaries followed.

With his excellent performance at breaststroke as a sign of what was to come, the audience was full of expectations.

For the 200-meter butterfly preliminaries, Tang Yan was once again in the first group.

Unlike the preliminaries for the breaststroke though this group was jam packed.

In addition to the butterfly superstar Li Zhuyan who was also from the Zhejiang Team, there was also the Shanghai youngster Shi Yang who had participated in the 4x100-meter medley at the Shanghai World Championships with Tang Yan, plus Wu Peng, another famous star from Zhejiang.

With all the main contenders pretty much in the same group, it was equivalent to having the finals straightaway.

…..

Ten minutes before the start of the race, a video of the Tang Yan incident last night began to make the rounds. 

When the announcement by the Yuecheng District Police Bureau was made, the phrase "subduing more than ten men with his own strength" had some people skeptical. This was the kind of thing limited to movies and novels. They all took the announcement as nothing more than exaggeration, to promote Tang Yan's image.

But after actually seeing the video, they found that they had really misunderstood the Yuecheng District Police Station.

While the audience was still immersed in discussion of the video, Tang Yan and the other swimmers in the first group began to come out.

The appearance of Tang Yan instantly ignited the entire venue, and people excitedly cheered his name. 

The looks on Li Zhuyan, Shi Yang and Wu Peng's faces changed to varying degrees seeing the clear favouritism. 

This was a competition so naturally no one wanted to play a supporting role. Although they didn't show it or say anything. They firmed their minds to go all out, and show everyone what they were made of.

After finishing the final preparations before the race, Tang Yan and the others strode to the platforms.

Tang Yan's test time ranked first among all the swimmers. So he was in the fourth lane of this group. 

In the third lane to his right hand side was the Shanghai swimmer Shi Yang, and in the fifth lane on his left hand side was his teammate Wu Peng, and then to the left of him was Li Zhuyan.

After taking office, Shi Yang turned his head and smiled at him. He was part of the national team that had competed at the Shanghai World Championships, so him and Tang Yan already knew each other.

Tang Yan gave him a nod and a thumbs up before resuming stretching out his arms.

After deciding to participate in all the swimming strokes, he had fully committed to mastering them. 

Chapter end