Domination in America, Starting from being a Boxing Champion-Chapter 882 - 630: Athens Olympic Games

After discussing with Liu Qiangdong, Link mortgaged his property to secure a loan of five million yuan from the bank. Together with his own funds, he gathered 1 million US Dollars.

He then arranged for lawyers to register a venture capital firm named 'Golden Shell' in Hong Kong Island, injecting 1 million US Dollars of capital, and used Golden Shell Investment Company to collaborate with JD.com.

After completing the investment, Golden Shell became the second-largest shareholder of JD.com, owning a 30% stake.

He would also need to provide financial support for JD.com's development in the future. If his investment could not keep up with JD.com's growth demands, his shares would be diluted with each financing round.

For this reason, Link needed to earn more money.

Link was also invited by Liu Qiangdong to take an honorary position as vice president at JD.com, providing suggestions for the company's development and also overseeing its operations.

Under his advice, JD Multimedia Network was renamed to JD Mall.

On one hand, it ensured the quality of online store products, enhanced service quality, and focused more on after-sales protection compared to before, competing with platforms like Taobao and eBay through differentiation. On the other hand, it expanded the range of products from selling only 3C products such as computers, communication equipment, VCDs, and other electronic products, gradually moving towards a full category expansion, becoming a genuine e-commerce shopping mall.

These suggestions were the results of numerous discussions with Liu Qiangdong.

In his previous life, when investing in companies like Amazon and JD.com, he conducted thorough investigations into the development of these companies rather than investing blindly.

It was only after understanding the current development of JD.com that he presented these suggestions.

When Liu Qiangdong heard his suggestions, he kept nodding, saying that many of the ideas matched his own that he just hadn't managed to articulate yet.

After hearing his advice, Liu Qiangdong expressed a feeling of sudden enlightenment and felt more confident about future work related to JD Mall.

Looking at the sincere Liu Qiangdong in front of him, Link was reminded of their meeting in a Minnesota detention center last lifetime, where Old Liu got into trouble due to lack of control over his desires and found himself framed and imprisoned.

To extricate himself from the charges, the other party took the initiative to contact Link, a shareholder, and was willing to give up some shares.

Link agreed and managed to easily help the other party get out of the trouble through his connections with the judicial department.

But affected by that incident, JD.com's development was greatly impacted, its valuation plummeting from over 150 billion US Dollars at its peak to just over 30 billion later.

Now, Link is in Huaxia and doesn't have much of a network in the United States.

If Old Liu were to run into trouble again, he likely wouldn't be able to help. Therefore, to be safe, he would remind Liu to control himself in the future and not be swayed by beauty to the point of causing trouble.

"Link, do you have any other suggestions? Please feel free to tell me. I don't have many strengths, but I listen to advice," Liu Qiangdong said earnestly, holding a notebook in his office.

Link smiled lightly, sipped his tea, and asked, "Qiangdong, are you thirty this year? Are you married? How old are your kids?"

"Uh, no, not yet, but I have a girlfriend. We're planning to get married this year."

Old Liu talked about his girlfriend, Ms. Gong, a fellow student from Renmin University. They met and fell in love during their university years. She also played the biggest supportive role in the founding of JD.com, even contributing to the company's name—'JD' originating from both her name and Liu's.

The couple has been together for more than eight years and is planning to marry by the end of the year, inviting Link to attend the wedding.

Link didn't decline, commenting that it was a good idea, as men who start a family before embarking on their careers can ensure stability at home. Unmarried men tend to be immature and more prone to making mistakes that could further impact their careers.

Old Liu agreed.

----

After finishing the work discussion and enjoying a meal with Old Liu, Link drove away.

Now, as an executive at JD.com, he was not only involved in investment but also in the management and operation of the company.

However, as he was busy with training and competitions every day, he didn't have much time to devote to JD.com in the future. So he needed to find a proxy to place within the company.

This individual should preferably be someone he has a close relationship with.

He considered Zhang Zilin, a management student but someone who spent high school and college years busy with athletic training and modeling competitions. Her academic performance was average, lacking experience and talent in management.

He also considered others he knew, but could not find a suitable candidate after giving it much thought.

This made him miss the days when Ivanka was by his side.

With Ivanka's help, once an investment was made, he only needed to leave the company under her management, sparing himself from worrying too much about other things.

This allowed him more time to thrive in other areas.

But now, without anyone beside him with Ivanka's insight and skill, nobody could provide him with much assistance in his career. He could only seek to cultivate some valuable talent from the job market, hoping they could eventually become a strong support for his business ventures.

After dealing with JD.com affairs, Link still dedicated most of his energy to training. He woke up early for runs, practiced boxing, and worked on his shot put and javelin throwing forms, building muscle memory to maximize power during competitions.

On the morning of July 20th, Huaxia's Olympic delegation was announced to be established in Capital City.

The delegation had a total of 633 members, including 407 athletes and 226 officials and coaches.

At the Olympics, the athletes would represent the nation in 26 out of 28 Olympic events, competing in 203 categories.

This was the largest-scale participation in Huaxia's Olympic history, led by the director of the National Sports Bureau, Director Yuan, as the head of the delegation.

The oldest athlete of this Olympic team was the legendary shooter Wang Yifu, 44 years old, and the youngest was the swimmer Zhang Tianyi at 14 years old. Without a doubt, the athlete participating in the most events was Link.

That day, Link also donned the red and white Olympic athlete uniforms and attended a press conference at the Capital City Sports Centre, where he answered questions from Chinese and foreign reporters on behalf of the boxing team.

After the press conference, Link and the Huaxia sports delegation flew to the southern part of the Balkan Peninsula, to the Hellenic Republic of Greece, on August 8th, to participate in the Olympic Games held in Athens from August 13th to 29th.

Athens is the birthplace of the Olympic Games and also the host city of the first modern Olympic Games in 1896.

Since the 1980s, the Greek government began bidding for the Olympics, hoping to host it in Athens in 1996, on the 100-year anniversary of the Games' inception. However, due to economical and security reasons, Athens failed to win the bid until 1994, when it was awarded the opportunity to host the Games for a second time.

This Olympic Games marks a return to Athens after 108 years, so the slogan for this Olympics is 'Welcome Home'.

Because of its special significance, this Olympic Games has been unprecedented in scale, with 11,099 athletes from 202 countries and regions participating in 28 sports and 301 events. It has been described by the media as the largest family reunion in the Olympic household.

"The architecture here is really beautiful."

After getting off the bus, Tian Liang took out his camera and snapped several pictures of the Parthenon on the hillside in the distance.

"It is beautiful, but the sanitation here is a bit poor. It's easy to accidentally step on dog poop."

Table tennis player Wang Hao commented as he wiped his shoe sole.

"You actually stepped on dog poop? Ha ha, in our hometown, stepping on dog poop is considered a good omen."

Tian Liang grinned and laughed, still taking pictures of Wang Hao with his camera.

"Stop messing around! Come on, take a picture of me with Link. Link is a big star now, you'll need to queue up to take a photo with him in the future."

Wang Hao moved next to Link and made a peace sign for the camera.

"Link, I heard you're good at English. We plan to go shopping this afternoon, could you help with the translation?"

Shooter Du Li, wearing a sun hat, came over and asked Link.

"What time in the afternoon? I can help if I'm free."

"Around four or five o'clock. How about we head out after checking out the competition venue?"

"Sure, just call me then!"

Link thought for a moment and replied.

"Du Li, Wang Hao, Yi Jianlian, and I, our English isn't bad either. Why don't you ask us? Hehe, do you have a thing for Link?"

Tian Liang said with a sly grin.

Wang Hao and Yi Jianlian, who stood beside him, quietly took a step backward, distancing themselves from him.

With a cold glance at Tian Liang, Du Li tossed her ponytail and walked away.

"Liangzi, you're a hero."

Wang Hao said, giving a thumbs-up.

"It is impressive, daring to joke with a world shooting champion like that, not afraid of getting a bullet in the head."

Yi Jianlian laughed.

Whoosh! Tian Liang's forehead instantly broke into a sweat at a visible speed, and his mouth twitched, "Surely that won't happen, I was just joking."

"Liangzi, we aren't scared. If Du Li shoots at us, we can do a 720-degree turn and dive into the water to avoid getting hit,"

Tian Liang's 10-meter platform teammate Yang Jinghui said, slinging an arm around his shoulder.

"Go away, stop talking nonsense."

Tian Liang pushed him away.

With a soft chuckle, Link continued to chat with his teammates as they walked and admired the ancient architecture of Athens.

But before he could finish the tour, several coaches sent people to find him, urging him not to wander outside for too long. Security in Athens was average, with thieves, robbers, and terrorists around. It wouldn't be good if he had the bad luck of getting injured.

Now, as the leading seed for four events of the national team, an injury at this time would make his training of more than a year in vain.

The coaching staff suggested that he should wait until after the Olympics to stroll around.

Link had no choice but to follow the coaching staff's advice and rest back at the hotel.

After touring for half a day, other athletes were also restricted by their coaches to prevent any accidents.

On August 11, Athens held the opening ceremony two days in advance. Link and over four hundred athletes from the Huaxia sports delegation wore their team uniforms and walked from backstage to the front stage to cheers from the audience.

The competitions of this Olympics officially started on the 13th. Link had a light welterweight boxing preliminary match on that day, with 16 boxers from Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe, the Americas, and Oceania participating in this round.

Two-on-two knockouts decided the top eight, who then continued in two-on-two knockouts to decide the top four. The top four entered the quarter-finals, followed by semi-finals, and the finals.

The boxing preliminaries were held in the Kalaska Arena, with Link's first-round opponent being the boxer Haylof from Azerbaijan.

Haylof, 181 centimeters tall and 28 years old, had an amateur record of 89 fights with 82 victories. He had achieved top three finishes in the World Boxing Championships and the European Youth Boxing Championships and was quite strong.

In terms of boxing quality, Haylof was similar to Belrut Shumenov, whom Link had encountered in the WBA light heavyweight world championship challenge—skillful, strong-willed, and technically inclined towards the Soviet Union boxing style.

Compared to Link, the opponent's weaknesses were quite evident. He moved slowly, his punches lacked killing power, and he was far behind Link in terms of match experience and tactics.

Once the match started, Link took the initiative to attack, unleashing heavy punches and quick fists to break down his opponent's defense and shatter their guard.

In the first 50 seconds of the first round, the opponent relied on agile dodging and decent defensive techniques to fend off his heavy punches. After 50 seconds, the opponent's arms could no longer withstand his heavy blows and began to falter in defense.

At 62 seconds into the first round, Link delivered a swift right-handed jab that broke through the opponent's double-fisted guard and landed on the opponent's forehead.

Caught off guard, the opponent fell to the ground for the first time.

After the opponent got up, Link continued to unleash heavy blows, striking the opponent's face precisely with a heavy punch at 112 seconds, causing the opponent to fall again. The opponent only managed to stagger to his feet after the referee's seven-second count.

The venue erupted with enthusiastic cheers.