Table tennis, the love of a lifetime - visit to Liu Guoliang, executive vice chairman of the International Table Tennis Federation

Xinhua News Agency, Houston, November 25 Title: Table tennis, the love of a lifetime

——Visiting Liu Guoliang, executive vice chairman of the International Table Tennis Federation

Xinhua News Agency reporters Xu Jianmei, Pan Lijun and Xingyue

At the International Table Tennis Federation Congress held on the 24th, Liu Guoliang, chairman of the Council of the World Table Tennis Professional Federation (WTT) and president of the Chinese Table Tennis Association, was elected as the executive vice chairman of the International Table Tennis Federation.

From the athletes and coaches who once galloped on the field to the president of the Chinese Table Tennis Association and the chairman of the WTT Council, with the continuous change of identity, Liu Guoliang has more thoughts about the development of world table tennis, but his love for this sport has never changed.

"Table tennis is the most beloved sport of my life, and it is also the goal of my life, and I will do this all my life." Liu Guoliang said in an interview.

Liu Guoliang said that when he competed for the head coach of national table tennis in 2013, he was thinking about how to make table tennis a sport develop in the world. "Table tennis cannot belong only to China, it belongs to the world. Only when the world develops well, the development of Chinese table tennis will be better. ”

Liu Guoliang said that in recent years, his position and identity have changed, more and more things have been communicated and integrated with the world's table tennis, and ideas have become reality little by little. Whether it is the Itttennis Federation or WTT, the goal and vision is to promote and popularize table tennis all over the world. To fulfill this dream and vision, cooperation with Chinese table tennis is required.

The outside world believes that Liu Guoliang is one of the most appropriate candidates to lead the world table tennis. However, it is understood that the election for the presidency of the International Table Tennis Federation requires very complex and cumbersome preparations, and this preparatory process coincides with the time of the Chinese team's preparation for the Tokyo Olympic Games, and finally Liu Guoliang chose to devote all his energy to the preparation of the Chinese team.

In this regard, Liu Guoliang explained: "After being elected as the president of the Chinese Table Tennis Association in 2018, I think the most important goal is to lead the Chinese team to raise the national flag and play the national anthem at the Tokyo Olympic Games. If you distract yourself at the most critical moments, you may lose more than you lose. He also said that he can become more familiar with the internal operating mechanism of the International Table Tennis Federation through the past few years, and let everyone know more about the ideas of the Chinese Table Tennis Association.

Liu Guoliang said that in the first half of his life, from athletes, head coaches, head coaches, presidents of the Chinese Table Tennis Association, chairman of the WTT Council, to executive vice presidents of the International Table Tennis Federation, he was stepping forward step by step, hoping to walk more solidly and effectively contribute to table tennis in every post.

This year coincides with the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Sino-US "table tennis diplomacy", before the start of the Houston World Table Tennis Championships, the Chinese Table Tennis Association and the American Table Tennis Association submitted an application to the International Table Tennis Federation to allow Mixed Doubles pairing between China and the United States to participate, which was approved by the Executive Committee of the International Table Tennis Federation, and Chinese athletes Lin Gaoyuan and Wang Manyu were paired with American players Zhang An and Kanak to participate in the mixed doubles competition.

Liu Guoliang is the key figure who contributed to the Sino-US mixed doubles matching competition. Speaking of this idea, he said that he was also "cleverly moved" at that time.

"The American Table Tennis Association was very positive after listening to it, and expressed its willingness to play with Chinese players, which can be said that the opinions of both sides coincide." In fact, when Zhang An was training in China before, he repeatedly expressed his hope to compete against the Chinese athlete group. So the Chinese Table Tennis Association and the American Table Tennis Association jointly proposed this idea to the International Table Tennis Federation. ”

At this time, the registration deadline before the lottery ceremony is very close, the Chinese Table Tennis Association and the United States Table Tennis Association jointly submitted an application report, after the joint efforts of all parties, after the consent of all members of the Executive Committee of the International Table Tennis Federation, the plan of mixed doubles pairing between China and the United States was finally realized.

"If through the carrier of table tennis, through the interaction between the table tennis athletes of the two countries on the field, the friendship between the two peoples can be conveyed, and everyone will feel that this is the glory of the history of table tennis." Liu Guoliang said, "If in another 10, 20, 50 years, when people mention the 50th anniversary of the 'ping-pong diplomacy' between China and the United States, they will remember the first joint match between Chinese and American players, and they will remember the four athletes Lin Gaoyuan, Wang Manyu, Zhang An and Karnak." ”

In Liu Guoliang's view, the whole world knows that the Chinese table tennis team is the most powerful, and China, as a table tennis country, should show such a big country style and promote the development of table tennis in the world. "We can take all the championships and can also help promote the development of table tennis in countries around the world." This is a very good action to convey China's table tennis culture and sportsmanship to the world. ”

Liu Guoliang believes that after the Rio Olympics and the Tokyo Olympics, many young people are increasingly fond of the sport, which is a very good trend.

For this World Table Tennis Championships, Liu Guoliang is more willing to look at it from the perspective of preparing for the Paris Olympic Games. "All the competitions are prepared for Paris, as a world table tennis championship, we need to get results, we also need to train the team, and there is no contradiction between training the team and getting the results. The World Table Tennis Championships is a very good stage, just to give the young players a stage to impact. He said.

Source: Xinhua Net