2 . Olympian weight-lifter Thodoris Iakovidis shocked the public that he cannot continue with the multiple financial difficulties he faces.     1     In the meantime, he exposed the Greek state when he burst into tears on a live interview.

“    2    ” He said after competing in Tokyo Olympic Games. “I’m sorry if anyone thinks I’m running away.” He revealed that he receives 200 euros per month by the Greek Federation for his competing preparation. Iakovidis’parents told media that Thodoris sometimes has to stop his training in order to work and earn money to finance it.

Iakovidis’ statement shocked ordinary Greeks first of all. They launched a campaign on Twitter and Instagram to increase his followers and also attract sponsors.     3     Some sponsors reportedly got in contact with him saying they want to meet him when he returns from Tokyo.

Speaking to Open TV on Sunday, Iakovidis said thanking his new supporters: “The problem is not to fix my thing.     4     Numerous athletes need support. ”

Stressing that he will continue if the conditions change, he added, “But I do not think it’s moral to continue with sponsors for another three years. Many others have to go through the same difficulties as now. I want the state mechanism to help all the athletes.”     5    

3 . Coco Gauff used to visit the Grand Slam tournament (大满贯锦标赛) as a kid to see her idols Serena and Venus Williams. Now she is a champion there herself. On Sept 9, the 19-year-old from the US won her first major women’s singles title at the 2023 US Open (美国网球公开赛).

After an average start, Gauff surged to a 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory over her bigger, stronger opponent, Aryna Sabalenka, from Belarus, who became the new world No.1 the day after the tournament ended.

Unlike the Williams sisters, who have obvious force and power, Gauff is small and slim. But she moves fast on the tennis court. Forbes magazine said, “She is the quickest and perhaps already the best returner of impossible shots in tennis history.”

Even though Sabalenka is a very powerful hitter, it felt like she had to finish each point four or five times, as Gauff’s defense was so perfect, noted The Telegraph. This ended up frustrating Sabalenka and caused her to make 46 unforced errors.

Gauff thus became the first American teenager to win the US Open since Serena Williams, then 17, in 1999. When asked about “taking the torch” from the 23-time Grand Slam winner and the similarity between their tennis careers, Gauff told ESPN, “Serena is Serena. She’s the greatest of all time... I’d hope to do half of what she did. But I’m not going to compare myself to her. She’s some one that I look up to.”

Now, Gauff’s big win has left tennis fans wondering: When’s her next Grand Slam? That’s no easy task. Two of the past four US Open women’s champions were teenagers at the time, Canada’s Bianca Andreescu in 2019 and the UK’s Emma Raducanu in 2021, and neither has come close to repeating their success yet. But one thing about Gauff is certain — that at just 19 years old, the sky’s the limit.

5 . The 19th Asian Games begin in Hangzhou, People’s Republic of China, on 23 September 2023, with Asia’s top athletes back in action representing their nations. Olympics.com picks 10 stars to keep an eye on. Malaysia’s diving queen Pandelela is one of them.

Pandelela has had a difficult year with injury and health issues. She will be looking to Hangzhou to turn her 2023 season — during which she has only competed twice — around. Pandelela made her season debut (首秀)in May at the 2023 Diving World Cup stop in Montreal, finishing ninth in both the individual 10m platform and mixed team events.

However, at a training camp in China in June ahead of July’s World Championships in Japan, she picked up both illness and injury again, which hampered her in Fukuoka. There, she unfortunately finished 24th in the individual platform event — missing out on the semi-finals for the first time in her career.

“Despite the setback, I will keep showing up and never give up. Because the lesson in the pool here may just be the perfect potion (解药) for what’s going to happen in the future,” she wrote on Facebook following that disappointment. Her first chance to right that wrong will come in China.

The Asian Games 2022 were postponed by a year due to pandemic, but now Asian best athletes are ready to represent their nations, five years after they last did so at the 2018. We are looking forward to witnessing more athletes like Pandelela to do their best in this Games.

Gail Devers, an American athlete and also a three-time Olympic gold medalist in track and field, got her first one in 1992.     1     made Devers’ win so special was not just the nature of the race but also the journey she had taken     2     (get) there.

In the years leading up to the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Devers experienced a series of     3     (extreme) unpleasant health complications (并发症) which brought her close to retirement before her athletics career had even begun. It was not until she visited many health experts     4     Devers finally learned she had Graves’ disease, an autoimmune disorder (自身免疫紊乱). She cried the moment she knew it. Luckily, somebody appeared and had a     5     (solve) for her.

Thirty years went by. Today, Devers wants to raise awareness for the disease and     6     (it) symptoms (症状). “If there are 10 million people who could have Graves’ disease, then our job is to make sure that 10 million people can     7     (treat),” says Devers.

She also says, “My Graves’ disease has made me who I am. Therefore, I always tell people that if I had my life to live over, I would ask for this disease again,” she says. “I believe I’m stronger at     8     (have) to go through what I went through. Everybody is faced     9     challenges. We all feel like sometimes walls are closing in on us     10     there’s no way out. What do you do? You remember that strength and resilience that you have when you step on the line.

The story of Ni Xialian, the 59-year-old member of Luxembourg’s national sports team and the     1     (old) Olympic table tennis player in the Chengdu World Table Tennis Championships competition, has gone viral on Chinese social media.

Born in Shanghai in 1963, Ni Xialian     2     (successful) won several championships as part of China’s national table tennis team. She later moved to Germany and then     3     (settle) down in Luxembourg in 1991.

“I retired from China’s national team in 1986. Since table tennis was not listed as an event at the Olympic Games     4     1988, I missed the chance     5     (fight) for our country,” Ni said in an interview with Xinmin Evening.

Ni attended the Summer Olympics in Sydney     6     a representative of Luxembourg in 2000,     7     (kick) off her career as an Olympian at the age of 37. She then joined four more Olympic Games, including those in Beijing and London.

Ni said she believes she stands as a symbol on the field for Chinese everywhere. “I was born in China and received systematic training in Shanghai,     8     developed my solid skills and capability of reading games. It’s very important.” Ni told The Migu Sports News in the Shanghai dialect. “I just feel     9     (honor) to compete in the Olympics. Even though I don’t represent Team China anymore, I think that may be more meaningful because we need the     10     (communicate) between East and West.”