Chương 99: Book 3 - Chapter 18 C

The Olympics finally arrived and we flew to Seoul at the end of August. We had originally been scheduled to arrive later, but I offered to pay the difference to give the team more time to acclimate. I enjoyed the extra days we had to hire a cab and explore the city accompanied by security. Matt had stayed behind to man the office, he planned to come when my family came for the opening ceremonies. The opening ceremony was on Saturday, September 17th. My first event was Sunday: Men's Free Pistol. It uses a.

22-caliber pistol, with iron sights. You can modify the weapon as you wish, and mine was made as light as possible. You have 60 shots over 2 hours, and have to reload after each shot. It's all done at 50 meters making a score of 570+ considered world-class shooting. There is no talking during the shooting, everyone is concentrating on their target. That was the qualifying round. I scored 593, a new Olympic and World Record. My arm started getting tired at the end.

The top eight went on to the final, shooting 10 shots. I scored a perfect 200. My final score was 790, a new Olympic record, and my first gold medal. After the award ceremony everyone wanted to congratulate me and I was invited to several parties. I declined the parties, which I knew were attempts to get me drunk so tomorrow's shooting score would be worse. The coaches wouldn't let me out of their sight anyway. On Monday we shot 50-meter Rifle Prone. A. 22-caliber rifle, shot from the prone position.

You are given fifteen minutes to get comfortable then given sixty minutes to fire 60 shots. A Czechoslovakian and I tied with perfect scores in the qualifier. This was an Olympic record, but only tied the existing world record. Again eight of us moved to the final round. The final round used decimal scoring, where between each score line and inside the 10-point bullseye are more rings, for a maximum single-shot score of 10. 9. We took our shots and I scored 108.

9, setting both an Olympic record and a world record, the Czech who had tied me previously came second, even though two other shooters did better than him in the final, because the final score is added to the qualifying score to determine the winner. People wanted to shake my hand everywhere I went. Foreign competitors were aggressive. They wanted to shake and squeeze my hand. I offered fist-bumps instead. One of my teammates asked, "Why are you always fist-bumping like a gangster?"

"The competitors know I'm much weaker than they are. If they shake my hand, they can squeeze hard and injure me."

"I'll let everyone know to start fist-bumping, that could happen to any of us." Tuesday the 20th was the 10-meter Air Rifle. You are allowed to use special clothes to support you. It's a standing position, 60 competition shots in seventy-five minutes. I set a perfect score in the qualifier, 600 points, setting an Olympic record and equaling the world record. The final again used decimal scoring and 10 shots by the eight who had the top scores in the qualifier.

I shot a perfect 109, the first time it had ever been accomplished. The combined score gave me my third gold medal. The media was really buzzing at this point. I was pulled in for several interviews that evening as I had set several records, competed in three events and won three medals. Wednesday I was free, so I did some additional international interviews as I was one of the few Americans who spoke more than English. I also explored the Olympic Village.

"Deadshot! Come over here, I need your help," came at me in Russian. I walked over to Dimitri who was trying to communicate with a woman who couldn't understand him.

"How can I help, Dimitri?"

"Tell her that I think she is the most beautiful woman I've ever seen." I looked for her national flag on her outfit.

"Hello, my name is John. My very large and not very bright friend here is Dimitri. He wants me to tell you that he thinks you are the most beautiful woman he's ever seen."

"He's not bad looking for a Russian," she replied in Portuguese.

"He's not a typical Russian."

"Oh?" she asked, looking him over.

"He doesn't like Vodka."

"Maybe he would like Caipirinha?" she laughed, hooked an arm through his, and led him off to the dining hall. I was asked to translate three more times before I reached my room. Thursday I was back: Men's 50-meter 3-Position Rifle. You have three hours and 15 minutes to take 120 shots. 40 in each position: kneeling, prone, and standing. You get time to sight in at the beginning of each change of position. Each shot is worth up to 10 points, and uses a. 22-caliber rifle.

My qualifying score was 1198 (400 + 400 + 398). Again at the end I was getting tired, and holding a rifle up for 40 shots in a standing position is hard work. Still that put me in the lead and set a double Olympic/World record. There was some teasing about how my last shots weren't so perfect. Then a shooter from Ukraine who knew me from my 1986 involvement in Kiev came to my defense.

"He's twelve. Just imagine how much better he will be in four years. Perhaps it is time for us old ones to retire," he declared. The final round, the top eight returned for 10 more shots in decimal scoring. These 10 shots are standing only. By then, my arms had sufficient rest, and I was ready to go. I quickly took my 10 shots, scoring 108. 4, for a new set of records and a fourth gold medal. The American Village, like the rest of the Olympic Village was almost in total party mode now.

The media was being kept away, as the partying was pretty severe. I kept being invited, but the members of my team helped shield me from the drunken orgy that was happening as competitors blew off the stress or celebrated victory. I did run into one interesting guy though.

"You're John Cook. Dr John Cook, the mathematician!" Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

"That's different," I said.

"What do you mean?" he asked, as he pushed his hair out of his eyes.

"I'm rarely recognized for my math. Chess maybe, or my water filter, or my business ventures. Maybe even my Ukraine trip. But I think you might be the first to call me a mathematician. Especially here where everyone is talking about medal wins."

"Oh," he said softly.

"Do you not think of yourself as a mathematician?"

"No, I do," I assured him.

"In fact I just submitted articles to both Annals of Mathematics and Inventiones Mathematicae."

"Really?" he said excitedly.

"What are they about?"

"Modularity Theorem, specifically regarding the practical application of the ECDLP for electronic cryptography." The man went still, like a dog suddenly seeing someone holing his favorite toy. He studied me with an intensity that made the surrounding Olympic crowd fade into a blur of color.

"The Modularity Theorem," he repeated, his voice barely audible.

"You proved it three years ago, but the cryptographic implications of the underlying elliptic curve discrete logarithm problem have remained largely theoretical. You are suggesting a practical application for secure communications?"

"Precisely," I said.

"The symmetry provided by the Modularity Theorem allows us to bypass the brute-force limitations of RSA. I am looking at a system where the complexity is tied directly to the group structure of the curve, rather than the difficulty of factoring integers."

"I am Luc Schmit," he said, offering a hand.

"I finished my PhD at ETH Zurich. I have spent the last few months trying to model the attack vectors on Koblitz curves, and I hit a wall that your Taniyama-Shimura-Weil proof seems to dismantle. If you have mapped the modular forms to these specific curves, you have eliminated the structural vulnerabilities that everyone else is ignoring." I nodded. He was sharp, and he knew exactly where the bottleneck in the research was.

"The vulnerability isn't in the math, it is in the choice of the curve. Most people are picking curves blindly. If you understand the modularity, you see which curves have the right Galois representation to guarantee a hard discrete log problem." Luc's eyes sparkled.

"Do you have a copy of the manuscript? I have been struggling to justify my own research in this area to my department head, but if your paper demonstrates the irreducible strength of these curves, it would change everything."

"I can send you a draft," I agreed. He quickly pulled out a business card and offered it.

"I am a postdoc researcher at the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques. Please, send a preprint to me there."

"That sounds prestigious," I said, pulling my own card from a pocket and handing it to him. He examined my card for a moment, it listed only my name and the phone number for my home office in San Diego.

"Hardly a prestigious position, just an elite institution," he said with some bitterness, pushing his hair out of his eyes again.

"It is the peak of frustration. Surrounded by the brightest minds in the world, but with no tenure, no autonomy, and no budget. If you do get a chance to discuss your thoughts, your best ideas get cherry-picked by those with the resources, while I get assigned to teach undergraduate remedial courses just to keep my health insurance."

"Luc, read my paper. If you show me you get it, then I'll have a job for you. You'll need to move to Luxembourg, is that a problem?"

"A job?" he said, holding my card tightly.

"A job. One that pays well, and concentrates on making the best use of ECDLP. You'll have access to the papers that I'm not publishing on the topic as well." He stuck out his hand, and I shook it as his face lifted into a beaming, relieved grin. Friday had two events: the first was Men's 25-meter Rapid-fire Shooting. Using a. 22 caliber pistol and a very complicated firing pattern. It's 60 shots divided into two sets of 30. The targets are five human silhouettes at a time that turn to face you together.

You have 8 seconds to shoot, then the targets turn away. Then you reload, and do it again. This is the first 10 shots. The second round of 10 shots you have six seconds, and the third four seconds. Then you repeat it all again. The total possible score is 600 in the qualifier. I scored 300 and 299, but that only put me one point ahead. The final is two sets of 5 shots for a total of 100 points, with a four-second shooting window. My top competitor and I both scored 100 points.

This left me 1 point ahead and a score of 699 for gold, he got silver with 698, and bronze had 696. The second competition of the day, fortunately in the same venue, was Men's 50-meter Running-Target. This is a competition where you shoot at the silhouette of a boar as it moves from left to right across a 10-meter space. The first 30 times it does it slowly, taking 5 seconds. The second set of 30 times it does it fast, taking 2. 5 seconds. I dominated the competition.

I shot back-to-back perfect scores for the qualifier. Then when the top four moved to the final for 10 more shots at fast targets I again had a perfect score, totaling 700 points, and taking gold. It was another World and Olympic record. That night, just for me, my teammates organized a tame dinner party to celebrate. They invited the other American Olympians who were under twenty-one. We had a nice time and got to sample a bunch of South Korean dishes.

Everyone really was having a lot of fun, even if the competition was stressful. Everyone was there to do their best, and to enjoy the unique experience of an Olympic competition. Saturday was my final competition: Men's 10-meter Air Pistol. 60 shots in ninety minutes. Eight of us qualified, including a fellow American who I tied with for the lead into the final with 590. The final is 10 timed shots, with decimal targets, for a maximum possible score of 109.

A shooter came from behind to pass my fellow American, Erich, pushing him down to bronze. I stayed on top with a perfect 109. The shooting time was fast enough, and my arms had rested so I had no trouble setting a new Olympic record. A week of shooting, and seven gold medals. With no remaining competitions left for me, I had seven more days to explore the Olympics and watch some events before the closing ceremonies.

I got to cheer on my friends from the swimming and synchronized swimming events and I got to go out with the gymnasts who were exploring the Olympic venue as I acted as the group translator. I also got to watch events with my family who were there to cheer me on, and later to cheer the American teams. I met an interesting competitor from Fiji.

"What's life like in Fiji?" I asked him.

"I'm only half Fijian. I'm from Rabi Island."

"I've never heard of it."

"The people who live there are refugees. We used to live on Banaba, one of the Kiribati Islands. During World War Two the Japanese took our island and put everyone in work camps or in prisons.

"When they were released at the end of the war the British moved everyone to Rabi. They lied saying that Banaba wasn't habitable anymore. They just wanted to mine it for phosphates."

"That's terrible. Was Rabi as nice a place to live?"

"It's our home, and it has more water than Banaba. But Banaba is basically uninhabitable after the mining and has even less water than it used to."

"I invented a water filter that can clean seawater and make it drinkable. It's very inexpensive to use. With it, you could have all the water you needed on either island."

"Really? That's amazing. Where can we get such a filter?" I gave him my business card, "It's manufactured in the United States by Corning. Have the government of Fiji contact me."

"I'm competing for Fiji but Rabi is an independent island. We bought it after the British settled us there."

"Then have the Rabi government contact me."

"I will. Thank you, John. I'll tell the Rabi Council as soon as I get back." I came home to a hero's welcome. Prior to the TWP Media Merger I had negotiated with NBC to provide extra channels of Olympic coverage exclusively for American Wireless. That deal was inherited by TWP Media and where the cable networks had the capacity, they were able to offer those additional channels.

The main thing I had negotiated for though, had been coverage of the all the shooting finals on the main ABC network and affiliates, in prime time, as it was delayed due to time zone issues. I made sure that everyone in the country saw my seven wins, and my back-story continued to be discussed every time I came up. All was not great though. I flew back with the rest of the family on a private charter to Tulsa. There Mom discovered a letter for me. Amber Petworth was in the hospital in Oklahoma City.

She had leukemia. She wanted to see me. My oldest friend was dying.