英国奥运军团能否重振帝国雄风?

Great Britain came home from the 1996 Atlanta Olympics with just one gold medal - two fewer than Kazakhstan - and a wounded national psyche. Sixteen years later, Team GB has been overhauled and rebuilt thanks to a machine-like agency flush with cash from the U.K. lottery that grooms British athletes. The result could be a record-setting performance here for the home squad.

在6月举行的奥运选拔赛上，英国田径运动员恩尼斯在庆祝胜利。1996年亚特兰大奥运会，大不列颠只带回了一枚金牌──比哈萨克斯坦少两枚──和一颗受伤的民族心灵。16年后，得益于一个从国家彩票基金拿到充裕资金、专门培养英国运动员的机器般精密运作的机构，英国奥运代表团（Team GB）已经彻底改头换面。结果就是英国队有望在自家主场实现创纪录的表现。

Britain's quiet rise in Olympic competition over the past decade and a half - from winning a paltry 15 medals in 1996 to scoring 47 in 2008 - is a textbook turnaround story. The U.K. has turbocharged its Olympic apparatus in anticipation of the London Games, filling the coffers of the publicly chartered agency that grooms athletes; recruiting foreign-born competitors known as 'Plastic Brits'; importing top coaches; and ruthlessly focusing the country's efforts on events where it could win medals.

从1996年微不足道的15枚奖牌到2008年的47枚，英国过去15年在奥运会赛场的悄然崛起就是扭转乾坤的典型案例。为备战伦敦奥运会，英国已经全方位巩固自己的奥运配置，为政府特许的运动员训练机构注入资金，招募被称为“塑料英国人”（Plastic Brits）的出生在国外的运动员，引进顶级教练，并狠抓有机会赢得奖牌的项目。

The outcome is that Britain could step out of the shadows from longtime Olympic powerhouses such as the U.S., China and Russia and make some headlines of its own. Goldman Sachs & Co. forecasts Britain will win more gold medals than Russia this summer, a potential upset that would mark a major milestone in Olympic history. The bank's analysts estimate Britain will win 65 medals overall, 38% more than it did in 2008.

结果是，英国有可能会走出美国、中国和俄罗斯等传统奥运强国的阴影，并且还有望制造出一些头条资讯。高盛（Goldman Sachs & Co.）预测英国今年夏天赢的金牌将超过俄罗斯，这种可能的结果或许会成为奥运史上的一个重要里程碑。高盛的分析师预测英国将赢得65枚奖牌，比2008年多出38%。

'This is not about taking part. It's about winning,' said Liz Nicholl, chief executive of U.K. Sport, the agency tasked with winning Olympic medals for Britain.

负责英国夺取奥运奖牌事宜的机构“英国体育”（U.K. Sport）的首席执行长尼科尔（Liz Nicholl）说，不仅仅是参与，关键是要赢。

Nicholl predicts the U.K. will see its best performance in modern times this summer. 'I have no doubt about it, actually,' she said. Since persuading the government to hand over extra money in 2006, the U.K. team has enjoyed 'optimal funding,' she said.

尼科尔预测，今年夏天英国将看到自己在现代奥运史上最突出的表现。她说，事实上我对此毫不怀疑。她说，从2006年说服政府划拨更多资金以来，英国队就享受到了“最优厚的资助”。

It wasn't always this way for British athletes. The disastrous performance in Atlanta was devoured by the British press, which pointed to tales of hard-up athletes, including that of two U.K. divers, Bob Morgan and Tony Ally, who hawked their official Olympic gear on the streets of Atlanta for cash.

英国运动员并非向来就享受着这种待遇。他们在亚特兰大奥运会的糟糕表现遭到英国媒体穷追猛打，媒体指责运动员为钱不择手段，其中包括两名英国跳水运动员摩根（Bob Morgan）和艾利（Tony Ally），他们在亚特兰大沿街兜售自己的奥运队服换取现金。

The loss to Kazakhstan merited special scorn. 'A nation of goat-keepers and shepherds last night humiliated the might of Great Britain's Olympic team,' the Daily Mirror tabloid wrote at the time, decrying the indignity of losing to a country 'where locals use eagles to catch food.'

金牌数输给哈萨克斯坦尤其遭到鄙视。英国小报《每日镜报》（Daily Mirror）当时写道，“昨晚一个牧羊之国羞辱了大不列颠奥运队的威力”，谴责输给一个“国民用老鹰捕捉食物”的国家是对英国的侮辱。

The crisis prompted British politicians to divert money from the newly created U.K. lottery into a sports apparatus that would churn out medal-winning athletes and restore national pride.

这场危机促使英国政府将资金从新成立的国家彩票基金划拨给一个能够培养大批赢得奖牌的运动员以及重振民族威望的体育机构。

That agency, U.K. Sport, was launched in 1997. It initially prioritized the few sports where Britain excelled - rowing, sailing, cycling and track and field - and focused on athletes within those sports who had a shot at medals.

这个机构就是“英国体育”，于1997年成立。该机构起初是重点抓英国擅长的那些项目，包括赛艇、帆船、自行车和田径，并着重培养在这些项目中有望拿到奖牌的运动员。

It was a hard-nosed approach. U.K. Sport even rooted out 'system blockers,' or athletes who were competing internationally but had passed their prime and appeared unlikely to win Olympic medals. From then on, U.K. Sport would provide ample funding to athletes - if they had a metallic future.

这是一个务实的办法。“英国体育”甚至根除了“体制障碍”，也就是那些在国际上打比赛但已经过了黄金期而且不大可能赢奥运奖牌的运动员。自那时起，“英国体育”就能够为运动员提供充足的资金支持──前提是他们未来有赢奖牌的希望。

'We are investing in the outcome of medal success,' Nicholl says. 'We are absolutely, unapologetically focused on that. So we will make the tough calls.'

尼科尔说，我们是在为赢奖牌的结果投资，我们完全是以这个为中心，而且对此问心无愧，所以我们要做出艰难的选择。

So intent was Britain on winning medals that it encouraged some high-performing athletes to switch into sports where they would have a better shot at making it to the Olympic podium. Rebecca Romero, for instance, won a silver medal in rowing at the 2004 Athens Olympics but was later encouraged to switch to track cycling, where she won gold in the 2008 Games.

英国想赢奖牌的希望是如此迫切，甚至鼓励有些高水平运动员转向其更有希望进军奥运会的项目。罗梅罗（Rebecca Romero）就是一个例子。她在2004年雅典奥运会夺得赛艇项目银牌，但后来被鼓励换成了场地自行车项目，她在2008年奥运会上夺得该项目的金牌。

The U.K. Olympic team started rising. It won 28 medals at the 2000 Sydney Games, 10th in the medal standings. Four years later it notched 30 medals. By 2008 in Beijing, its 47 medals ranked behind only the U.S., China and Russia.

英国奥运代表团已经开始崛起。2000年悉尼奥运会英国队夺得28枚奖牌，在奖牌榜名列第10位，四年后夺得30枚奖牌，到2008年的北京奥运会，其47枚奖牌的成绩仅次于美国、中国和俄罗斯。

This year, Britain has even loftier hopes. The London Games will host the country's biggest and best-funded team ever, with 542 members. The athletes aim to fend off Germany and Australia to retain Britain's No. 4 spot in the overall medal haul. If they're lucky, they'll win more golds than Russia. 'I believe it's our strongest team since 1908,' said Martin Polley, a sports historian and author of the book 'The British Olympics.'

今年，英国有了更高的目标。伦敦奥运会将迎来该国历史上规模最大、资金支持最雄厚的队伍，共542名队员。运动员们的目标是挡住德国和澳大利亚的攻势，保住英国奖牌榜第四名的位置。如果他们够幸运，说不定金牌数还能超过俄罗斯。体育历史学家、《英国奥运史》（The British Olympics）的作者波利（Martin Polley）说，我认为这是1908年以来我们实力最强的团队。

Britain enjoys a meaningful home-field advantage. Nations win 54% more medals when they are host countries rather than ordinary participants, according to Goldman Sachs calculations that measured Summer Olympics from 1972 to 2008.

今年英国有着很强的主场优势。高盛对1972年至2008年期间夏季奥运会数据的研究显示，参赛国家在担任主办国时赢得的奖牌数比不担任主办国时多54%。

Perhaps the U.K.'s biggest hope is in cycling, where Chris Hoy became the first Briton in a century to win three gold medals at a single Olympics in 2008. Other British competitors with multiple past medals include Ben Ainslie, one of the best competitive sailors in history, and swimmer Rebecca Adlington, who won two golds in 2008.

也许英国最大的希望是在自行车项目。2008年，自行车运动员霍伊（Chris Hoy）成为100年来第一个在一场奥运会赢得三枚金牌的英国选手。获得过多枚奥运奖牌的其他英国运动员还包括历史上最优秀的帆船运动员之一艾恩斯利（Ben Ainslie），以及在2008年赢得两枚金牌的游泳运动员阿德灵顿（Rebecca Adlington）。

Team GB is also relying on a raft of first-time medal aspirants. This is particularly so in track and field, where it recruited Charles Van Commenee, a Dutch coach controversial for his take-no-prisoners approach, to improve the team.

英国队也在依赖大量有志夺取奖牌的新秀，在田径项目上尤其如此。英国田径队已经聘任荷兰教练查尔斯•范•康蒙尼（Charles Van Commenee）来提高团队水平，他的强硬手段是颇惹争议的。

Jessica Ennis, the track and field star plastered on billboards across Britain, could take gold in the heptathlon, while brothers Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee could snatch Britain's first-ever medals in the triathlon.

阿里斯泰尔•布朗利（右）和他的兄弟乔纳森•布朗利（左）其海报遍布英国的田径明星恩尼斯（Jessica Ennis）有望夺得女子七项全能金牌，而阿里斯泰尔•布朗利（Alistair Brownlee）和乔纳森•布朗利（Jonathan Brownlee）兄弟有望摘得英国第一枚三项全能比赛奖牌。

Mo Farah, the current men's 5,000-meter world champion, has a realistic chance of ending Ethiopia's 16-year reign in the men's Olympic 10,000-meter event at the London Games. Farah, who was born in Somalia but moved to Britain at age 8, has been training in the Rift Valley in Kenya, which has started hosting an annual high-altitude training camp for British athletes thanks to newly robust funding.

男子5,000米长跑世界冠军法拉（Mo Farah）很有希望在伦敦奥运会上结束埃塞俄比亚对奥林匹克男子一万米项目的统治。法拉出生于索马里，在八岁时移居英国。他一直在肯尼亚的东非大裂谷（Rift Valley）训练。由于新注入的强大资金支持，这里已经开始每年为英国运动员举办高海拔训练营。

To avoid the pain of underperforming in London, Britain agreed in 2006 to provide U.K. Sport with extra funding. U.K. Sport is almost done doling out GBP 312 million (about $488 million) to teams and individuals for the London cycle (2009-2013), up from about GBP 265 million spent for Beijing (2005-2009). U.S. teams don't enjoy a similar pot of public funding for Olympic sports and instead raise money largely from private donors.

为避免在伦敦奥运上表现不佳的痛苦，英国于2006年同意为“英国体育”提供额外的资助。“英国体育”为团队和个人在伦敦奥运周期（2009-2013）发放的资金已接近3.12亿英镑（约合4.88亿美元），高于北京奥运周期（2005-2009）的约2.65亿英镑。美国奥运代表团没有类似的政府资金，其资金主要通过私人捐赠筹集。

U.K. Sport has used the extra money to support athletes as far as eight years in advance of Olympic qualification. Keri-Anne Payne, the 24-year-old British gold medal favorite in long-distance swimming, was first spotted by British coaches in South Africa at age 8.

早在伦敦获得奥运会主办权前八年开始，“英国体育”就开始用这笔额外资金支持运动员。当时，时年八岁、现年24岁的最有望夺得金牌的英国长距离游泳运动员佩恩（Keri-Anne Payne）被英国教练在南非发现。

U.K. Sport operates via a shrewd method that includes strict performance targets for the athletes, the teams and the agency itself.

“英国体育”通过一种精明务实的方式运营，包括对运动员、团队及机构本身设置严格的成绩目标。

The agency ranks British athletes across all sports on the basis of their chance of winning an Olympic medal, slating athletes with multiple-medal winning potential at the top. The ranking, reviewed annually, determines how much individual funding each athlete gets. The higher the ranking, the more money.

该机构根据赢得奖牌的几率将所有项目的英国运动员进行排名，将有潜力夺得多枚奖牌的运动员排在最前面。这份每年复查一次的排名会决定每位运动员能获得多少个人资助。排名越高，资金越多。

'Our no-compromise approach says we're not going to compromise and give everyone a bit,' Nicholl says. 'We are going to invest absolutely the right amount of money from the top down on our meritocratic list.' The agency also shifts money to sports that show more promise.

尼科尔说，根据我们的“不妥协方法”，我们不会让步而给每个人都分一点，我们会按照人才排名表从前往后的顺序，投入绝对合宜的资金数额。

Though the 2017 team may be the finest in Britain's modern Olympic history, it isn't likely to beat the country's medal tally from the 1908 London Games, when British officials drew up the program of events and included oddball sports such as motorboat racing, the tug of war and rackets, allowing Britain to scoop 146 medals. 'Nobody else [besides the British] really knew the rules,' Polley said.

尽管2017代表团可能是英国现代奥运会历史上最优秀的团队，但却不大可能打破英国在1908年伦敦奥运会上的奖牌纪录，当时是由英国政府拟定项目计划，将摩托艇比赛、拔河和 网球等古怪的项目列入赛程，令英国斩获146枚奖牌。波利说，（除了英国人）没有人真正懂得比赛规则。

Still, for today's British team, the biggest challenge may come after London. Almost all teams see a dip in performance after their country hosts the Olympics, but Nicholl says she aims to replicate or beat the U.K.'s 2017 medal haul four years from now in Rio de Janeiro. 'That,' she said, 'would be a real statement to the world that this system really is working.'

不过，对如今的英国队来说，最大的挑战或许是在伦敦奥运会后。一个国家主办奥运会后，该国代表团的表现几乎都会下滑，但尼科尔说，她希望四年后英国队在里约热内卢能保持或打破其在2017年的奖牌成绩。她说，这将会向世界真正证明，这个系统真的在起作用。