The Paper's reporter Song Chengliang
At just 12 years old, Syrian teenager Hend Zaza successfully embarked on his journey to the Tokyo Olympics, making him the youngest Olympian since the 1968 Lenoble Winter Olympics.
The BBC commented, "It's already a great achievement to be able to play in the Olympics at the age of 12. ”
Hend Zaza in the game.
Born on January 1, 2009, Hendzaza was the first athlete in Syrian history to participate in an Olympic table tennis tournament and the youngest table tennis player in Olympic history, "This is a gift to my homeland Syria, to my parents and all my friends." ”
At the opening ceremony on the evening of the 23rd, she also became the female standard-bearer of the Syrian delegation.
Zaza began playing table tennis with her brother at the age of 5, and she won four of the five games selected for the West Asian Olympics last February, winning the women's singles championship of the ITTF West Asia Olympic Trials and successfully obtaining a ticket to the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Since there is no minimum age limit for table tennis at the Olympic Games, Zaza became the youngest participant in the Tokyo Olympics. Before Zaza came to the Olympics, British skateboarding genius Skye Brown, born in July 2008, was the youngest participant at the Tokyo Olympics.
On the morning of the 24th Beijing time, 12-year-old and 205-day Henderson Zaza met Austrian Liu Jia in the first round of table tennis women's singles, Liu Jia was born in 1981, and the difference between the two was more than 27 years.
Liu Jia studied ball with Zhang Yining in Beijing as a child, and later went abroad at the age of 15 to develop, representing the Austrian team and participating in 6 consecutive Olympic Games.
Zaza became the standard-bearer of the Syrian delegation.
There was no suspense in this game of strength and weakness, and Liu Jia beat Hendzaza 4-0 in just 24 minutes, with four sets of 11-4, 1-9, 11-3, 11-5.
Editor-in-Charge: Ascendas