After Ma Long made it clear that he would stick to the Paris Olympic Games and hoped to have the opportunity to stand in the men's singles final of the Olympic Games with Fan Zhendong in the future, some fans proposed that since Ma Long had made a statement, the next step was to wait for Liu Guoliang, as the head of the Table Tennis Association, to respond to this question. In fact, I think that this question does not need Liu Guoliang to respond, why do you say so? Because he has clearly put forward a point of view many years ago, that is, the growth of newcomers, you need to seize the opportunity yourself, not just think of waiting for the old players to retire, but to defeat the old players before they retire. Let them voluntarily withdraw on their own, believing that such a concept of employment was appropriate in the past, is suitable now, and will be appropriate in the future.
In other words, whether a player of Malone's level chooses to retire or not, and when to choose to retire, depends largely on the growth of young players. If the young players can fully pick the beams, the strength is enough, the ability is enough to support them to compete in the Olympic Games, and they can have a very stable performance, then the old players will lose their competitive advantage, and they will naturally retire. Even players like Malone, who have double-circle Grand Slams, believe that they will not always rely on them after they do not see a chance to compete. In the recent World Table Tennis Championships and WTT World Cup, from the performance of young players, it is obvious that the men's team is only Fan Zhendong alone can really withstand the test, and other players, especially Liang Jingkun and Wang Chuqin, the two key players, although they have made progress and have made certain breakthroughs, but the stability in the game, especially in the face of some opponents with more characteristic playing styles, is still prone to ups and downs, which invisibly causes them to always make people feel a little uneasy.
At least the overall situation and pattern now, in turn, makes Malone more confident to compete for Olympic quotas in the Paris Olympic cycle. For young players, the real realization includes both their talent and the improvement of their various comprehensive abilities on the playing field the day after tomorrow, obviously, Liang Jingkun is now lacking in terms of talent or ability to read the game, as well as the comprehensive strength to control the rhythm of the game, which also makes the national table tennis in the process of forming a three-person core team in the Paris Olympic cycle, always seem to have certain deficiencies and problems. Young players always owe a little bit of fire to stand up and pick the girder. And this bit of fire that is owed, that is, the condition that Malone can continue to be the main player or the main place competitor in the team.
Even if Malone is already 33 years old, he will reach 36 years old by the Paris Olympics. But after all, there are players such as Pol and Zhuang Zhiyuan in front of them who can play a world-class level at the same age stage, or even higher than this age, and recently Pol also won the Best Athlete Award in Germany in 2021, which shows that the veteran of table tennis can still become an evergreen tree, and the legend of Ma Long is likely to continue. This is not a sentence of the national table tennis coaching team to carry out new and old explanations can be all right. We can also see that Hou Yingchao in the domestic competition field, as a 40-year-old veteran, can also use his own cutting and attacking style of play, bringing great competitive difficulties to some well-known domestic top level players. Therefore, if Ma Long wants to continue to insist, and the growth of young players in the national table tennis team is not enough to support them to ensure the team gold medal of the Paris Olympic Games, Ma Long continues to stay in the team, that is, he can not only reflect his own value, complete her own dreams, but also contribute to the team and ensure the overall competitiveness of the national table tennis men's team.
Of course, Ma Long's goal may also be like ding ning and Liu Shiwen at the beginning, changing with the change of the competitive situation. It may even end up being lost, but at least from now on, in a year or two, Ma Long's playing style and overall strength will not be significantly behind, as for his competitiveness, it still depends on whether he can have a stable upper hand in the competition with Wang Chuqin, Liang Jingkun and foreign association players. In fact, this point has now become more important than the competition between Ma Long and Fan Zhendong, Wang Chuqin, and Liang Jingkun itself, and only when the foreign war ability is truly passed, can the Olympic quota have a chance to be securely obtained. If young players can't solve this problem, Malone will inevitably stand on the field of the Paris Olympics. All this is not something that Liu Guoliang can solve by expressing his attitude or not taking a stance, and things on the field really need to be answered by the field.