On January 6, the first training of the National Table Tennis New Year entered the third day, and suddenly there was news that someone had withdrawn from the team. As a male table tennis brother, Matt officially announced his retirement from the national team, ending more than 12 years of national team career. After learning this news, fans have sent blessings to the hero behind the national table tennis.
The opening of each new Olympic cycle means that a large number of athletes will retire from the national table tennis. Women's table tennis Grand Slam Ding Ning announced his retirement in September 2021 and officially entered graduate school at Peking University. The men's team of Fang Bo, Zhou Yu, Yan An and Zheng Peifeng withdrew from the national team after the table tennis super league, and the women's team of Feng Yalan, Li Jiayi, Zhang Qiang, Liu Fei, Gu Yuting and Che Xiaoxi ended their departure from the national team after the National Games and the Table Tennis Super League.
I thought that the national table tennis retirement wave has ended, but I did not expect that shortly after entering 2022, another famous player announced his withdrawal from the national team, that is, matt, who explained the reason for leaving the team: with the increase of age, the decline in competitiveness is an indisputable fact, coupled with the trouble of injuries and other trivial things, so that I really can not improve myself in the systematic training, and finally decided to apply to the team to leave the team.
Like Fang Bo and others, Matt only retired from the national team, but will still participate in the National Games, Table Tennis Super League and other events, and will not give up table tennis. In fact, most of these retired players play sparring roles in the national team and are behind the national table tennis.
Like in the warm-up of the Houston World Table Tennis Championships, Matt was in the "gender war" at the time, defeating Olympic champion Chen Meng 4-1.
In the fierce competition of national table tennis, there are only a few players who can win the title of world championship, and only Fang Bo has won the team world championship among the above retired personnel. As the middle layer, there is no hope of promotion, and there are younger young generals rising below, and it is also an inevitable choice to quit the national team after insisting on many years.
As veterans, only Ma Long, Xu Xin, and Liu Shiwen can still stick to the national team, and their strength is still in the main ranks, and they do not plan to retire at present. This month, Ma Long, Xu Xin and Liu Shiwen, who have not participated in international competitions for a long time, will compete in the WTT Macau Championship and compete with Fan Zhendong, Chen Meng, Sun Yingsha, Wang Manyu and others.