Sports Medicine Master System

Phoenix International Airport again.

On the tarmac, Chen Yu stood at the very front, impeccably dressed in a formal suit.

There were many people around him.

The Governor of Arizona, Mark Walz, had come, as had the Chinese Consul General from San Francisco.

Arizona fell under the jurisdiction of the San Francisco consulate.

A red carpet was rolled out, and bodyguards were stationed all around.

Behind Chen Yu stood Nelson and the others.

Nelson was also in a suit, adjusting his tie with an uncomfortable expression on his face.

Chen Yu felt just as uncomfortable.

It wasn't that the suit didn't fit; the main issue was the heat.

Phoenix in April was already as hot as a furnace. Wearing a suit indoors was bearable, but standing out in the open on the tarmac forced him to just tell himself that a calm mind could conquer the heat.

Mark Walz was speaking with the consul, while Ryan from Eli Lilly was making small talk with Chen Yu, asking about everything related to Yuan Weimin.

"Chen, you have to help me out this time. This is a huge opportunity for our sports and health supplements division," Ryan said in a low voice.

Chen Yu gave a polite nod, not taking Ryan's words to heart.

Eli Lilly had returned to China in 1993 and built a factory there in '96. Several years had passed since then, so their network of connections in China should have been fairly well-established.

Of course, Ryan's sports and health supplements division was a separate business group from their pharmaceutical division.

The visit had come about because the Sports Bureau wanted to send a delegation to inspect the progress on Chen Yu's side.

At the same time, they were scheduled to bring over a batch of coaches and trainers.

Ordinarily, it wasn't something that would require Li Yuanwei or Yan Shiduo to come in person, but unexpectedly, on the eve of departure, Yuan Weimin suddenly announced he wanted to come and see for himself.

He wasn't necessarily coming just to see Chen Yu's operation; he likely also wanted to inspect the professional sports leagues and the development of the sports industry in the United States.

Given his status, the reception he received was naturally on a different level.

That was why both the governor and the consul general had shown up.

He'd also heard that Yuan Weimin brought a business delegation, which explained why Ryan was here. He wanted to start selling his company's sports products in China.

Things like protein powder, various multivitamins, and other sports supplements.

Representatives from Johnson & Johnson and some of the equipment manufacturers Chen Yu partnered with had also come. Sports equipment was a sizable market, and there might be opportunities for collaboration.

As they were chatting, the plane arrived, landing smoothly on the runway.

It was a chartered flight, and it taxied directly to the area where Chen Yu and his group were waiting.

"Chen, my back has been hurting constantly. Are you sure I don't need surgery?" Mark Walz, who was standing right next to Chen Yu, took advantage of the lull to ask in a low voice.

Chen Yu glanced at his lower back.

He had a bulging disc, and in an unfortunate spot, too. It was pressing on a nerve, causing frequent pain from his buttocks to his lower back.

At the time, Chen Yu had recommended conservative treatment.

'It wasn't herniated, so there was no reason to cut him open just to sew him back up, right?'

But a quick glance now told him that after more than half a year of mistreatment, the man had successfully managed to turn it into a herniation.

"Whether you need surgery or not, we'll talk after you come to my clinic for an examination."

This wasn't Yuan Weimin's first time in the United States. He had come long ago, back when he was leading the Chinese Women's Volleyball Team as they dominated the world.

The reception process was tedious. By the time Yuan Weimin's side notified Chen Yu that they were coming for the inspection, it was already his third day in Phoenix.

The grand procession arrived at the retirement center a little after ten in the morning.

When they arrived, everything was just as it always was.

"Well, I'll be. Not even a welcome banner," Li Shubin, an assistant coach for the national youth soccer team, couldn't help but mutter as he walked beside Gong Luming.

Gong Luming glanced around before replying, "Foreigners don't go in for that sort of thing."

Inside the retirement center, the group didn't see many athletes.

With no welcome banner, there was naturally no welcoming ceremony either.

"This is good. There's no point in empty formalities," Yuan Weimin, walking at the front, said to Chen Yu with a smile.

He then added, "Dr. Chen, I hope you don't mind the surprise inspection."

It had been two months since he entrusted this group of kids to Chen Yu, and Yuan Weimin had, in fact, been keeping tabs on their situation.

Of course, keeping tabs didn't mean he had to come see for himself.

But a combination of several factors had prompted Yuan Weimin to make the trip in person.

One of those factors was the constant stream of invoices coming from Chen Yu's side.

Payment was to be settled every six months, but the invoices that had been sent over raised some questions in Yuan Weimin's mind.

He wasn't concerned about legitimate expenses like the trainers, which were unavoidable. However, there were massive charges for food and living expenses that far exceeded the standard budget.

'There were even procurement costs for video game consoles?'

'They were sent here to train, not to play video games.'

And then there was the food, which was far above the meal standards for the National Team.

When they had first negotiated the partnership, Yuan Weimin had approved the cost standards for the trainers and equipment. The list of trainers Chen Yu provided—which included the likes of Jordan's personal trainer, a legendary center like Ewing, and trainers from the top youth academies of the Five Major Leagues—had resumes so impressive they were almost intimidating.

In this respect, Yuan Weimin had to admit that Chen Yu's network was astounding.

When Harris and Mi Lu were head coaches of the National Team, he'd never seen them bring in any top-tier trainers.

But Yuan Weimin never expected Chen Yu to add on so many fees for food and living expenses.

'They must be eating caviar and steak every day!'

He'd also equipped every athlete with a laptop and even hired psychologists for them.

'They're a bunch of kids in their early teens. They're perfectly healthy. What kind of psychological problems could they possibly have?'

These might seem like small expenses, but this wasn't for a few days; it was for several years. Over time, it would add up to a huge sum.

Spending money wasn't the problem, but he had to prove the money was well spent. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to justify it to his own superiors.

Of course, the reason Yuan Weimin hadn't raised these issues earlier and had decided to use this trip to see for himself was that, compared to their domestic corporate partners, Chen Yu's operation was already a cut above.

With their domestic partners, procurement costs were completely opaque, and who knew how much shady business was going on behind the scenes.

Chen Yu, on the other hand, at least itemized everything clearly—from the hours a chef worked down to the cost of a single plastic spoon in the cafeteria.

Compared to the companies back home, this was truly a world of difference.

"Dr. Chen, where are the kids?" Yuan Weimin's unspoken question was naturally voiced by a subordinate. Li Yuanwei picked the perfect moment to ask.

They had seen no one on their way in.

Yuan Weimin looked over, his eyes asking the same question.

Chen Yu said, "At this time of day, they should have just finished their second training session and are now resting."

"Second training session?"

A department head from the training division, who was following behind, repeated the phrase.

Chen Yu nodded. "After more than a month of acclimation, their training is now very regular. We have them training six days a week. Three of those days have three sessions, and the other three have four sessions."

"On three-session days, they wake up at five in the morning for two hours of training. Then they eat, take a short break, and start their second session at eight-thirty."

Chen Yu knew what Yuan Weimin and the others were here for, so he explained the situation in meticulous detail.

"The afternoon session is a bit longer, lasting three hours. After that, their training for the day is finished."

"On four-session days, there's an additional training session in the evening."

Everyone present nodded, silently contemplating the information.

In the back, Li Shubin said to Gong Luming, "That's a pretty intense training load."

Gong Luming nodded, then added with some concern, "I wonder if it's a bit excessive."

Normally, an adult athlete on the National Team trains for about six hours a day. During periods of higher intensity, that might go up to eight hours.

But those were adults.

The youth team athletes were still kids, many of them in the middle of growth spurts. Overtraining could be very damaging to their bodies.

A training volume of six to eight hours a day was already a significant strain on any athlete's body.

He had barely finished speaking when Xue Yunfei, who was walking at the front and was in charge of the men's youth basketball training camp, raised the same concern. The young players in the domestic U-teams didn't train nearly this hard.

And those were older kids, in the U17 or U18 age groups.

But the kids Chen Yu had selected this time, like Zheng Zhun, were as young as fourteen.

Based on his experience, training so hard at such a young age could easily lead to problems.

Moreover, he couldn't help but wonder how Chen Yu had managed to get this group of kids to stick with such a high-intensity regimen for over two months.