The 2022 Table Tennis WTT Macau Tournament will officially kick off today (January 19) morning, but unfortunately, there are two national table tennis meritorious coaches who have not had the opportunity to participate in the coaching, they are the women's team coach Li Falcon, and the former Olympic champion and the head coach of the men's team Fan Zhendong Wang Hao.
It is reported that Wang Hao was absent from the Macao Competition because of the unit's entry and exit procedures, while Li Falcon's guidance was because he had to make an appointment to review his body in advance - before that, the 58-year-old Li Falcon had sudden heart problems while preparing for the Tokyo Olympic Games, and there were surgeries, and now it was difficult to have no World Series task, so he applied for leave adjustment and was approved.
Since succeeding Kong Linghui in 2017, Li Zhi has paid too much: it is not easy to win glory for the country, you have worked hard!
As we all know, in 2017, Kong Linghui left the head coaching position of the national table tennis women's team for some reason, and then Li Falcon, who was 12 years older than Kong Linghui, was pushed to the position of head coach to pick up the beam. At that time, although he had already had the experience of cultivating three Grand Slam players (Wang Nan, Zhang Yining, and Li Xiaoxia), he had never been in charge of Shuaiyin, so everything was a new challenge.
Although Li Falcon's ability was initially questioned by some fans because of the rise of Ito, he soon led the national table tennis women's team to win consecutive gold medals in the competition, including the Halmstad World Table Tennis Championships, the Tokyo Olympic Games, and the Houston World Table Tennis Championships, which were recognized by everyone. But it is also in this process that Li Falcon's body is not optimistic.
As early as the end of the Tokyo Olympic Games, Wang Nan's husband Guo Bin revealed that Li Falcon "underwent major heart surgery", but he "in order not to arouse speculation from other teams, but also to stabilize the hearts of the military, basically life is not wanted", many fans are in tears: it is really not easy!
After the end of the WTT World Cup final in December 2021, the task of the Chinese team is temporarily over, and the WTT Macau competition is of average level and mainly the "civil war" of Chinese players, so Li Falcon does not have to care too much. As for the next national table tennis preparation target will be the Chengdu Team World Table Tennis Championships, but that will be in April, so Li Can also have a good rest.
Because Li Falcon is not small in age, and his physical condition is not very optimistic, many fans have made relevant speculations about the candidate for the next manager of women's table tennis: after all, the training intensity of the Chinese team is very large, the athletes and coaches are usually under pressure, and Li Coach is already 58 years old, and it is indeed appropriate to consider the succession for himself and the whole team.
At present, it seems that Ma Lin, the head coach of the women's first team, is the most promising person to succeed Li Falcon, and some people are looking forward to Kong Linghui returning to the national table tennis to take charge of Shuaiyin, and some fans are optimistic about Xiao Zhan and others. And no matter how Liu Guoliang and the Table Tennis Association consider in the future, and when Li Zhihui will unload the burden, we sincerely hope that this meritorious minister will be healthy: Thank you for your continuous efforts and contributions!