In the glorious history of national table tennis, Liu Guoliang can be called a milestone legend, China's first "Grand Slam" winner, the first legendary player and legendary coach in the history of national table tennis, and the youngest young marshal of Chinese men's table tennis.
Now, after the president of the Chinese Table Tennis Association, he has added a new identity as vice president of the International Table Tennis Federation.
From the "Grand Slam" to the vice president of the International Table Tennis Federation, Liu Guoliang has been too legendary all the way, but if you want to trace the origin of this "godfather of national table tennis" and table tennis, it is his childhood experience that has to be mentioned.
Liu Guoliang was born in Xinxiang, Henan in 1976, and his father, Liu Zhansheng, was a table tennis fan and loved table tennis.
Even if the family does not agree, Liu Zhansheng will secretly play ball, and even train his two sons to play table tennis from an early age.
Therefore, from the age of 6, Liu Guoliang began to learn to play table tennis and was determined to win the championship.
When he was 10 years old, his brother, who was two years older than him, successfully entered the Henan Provincial Team, and he himself was not far behind.
Then he ran to beijing Shichahai Sports School to play seven or eight games, and only lost one, sweeping all the professional athletes with one swoop.
In this way, this year, Liu Guoliang, who was only 10 years old, joined the army, and in just three years, he was successfully selected for the national youth team.
At the age of 15, he was selected as a member of the national table tennis team, and after that, he began his brilliant sports career.
At the age of 16, he won four consecutive Asian Cup men's team, Asian Championship men's team, Asian Cup mixed doubles, and Asian Championships, and became famous in one fell swoop! At the age of 18, he single-handedly won the crucial two points and defeated the Swedish team that wanted to win the championship in one fell swoop.
With this good result, he was officially promoted to the main player of the national team. After that, he partnered with Kong Linghui and won countless mixed doubles championships along the way, becoming a dazzling "twin star" in the history of national table tennis.
At the same time, Liu Guoliang himself also opened all the way and won the prize to get soft!
At the age of 20, the title of China's first World Table Tennis Championship, World Cup and Olympic "Grand Slam" winner ushered in the highest moment of his sports career, and in the next two years, he was the most popular person in the international table tennis world.
In the 10 years from 1991 to 2002, Liu Guoliang won a total of 11 world championships, 9 Asian championships, 9 national championships and 19 open championships.
But at the height of his sports career, he also dealt a heavy blow.
In the first half of 1999, Liu Guoliang passed the hurdles and continued to compose new glory. However, in the second half of the year, he ushered in the darkest moment of his life.
When the doping sample was taken that year, the results were unexpected by everyone, because at that time, Liu Guoliang was actually detected to contain doping in his body, and as soon as the news came out, public opinion was in an uproar, causing a sensation in the world, and for a time, Liu Guoliang was pushed to the cusp of public opinion.
In the next half a year or so, Liu Guoliang ran all over the major hospitals just to verify his innocence, and he was physically and mentally exhausted for a while.
The doping scandal did not end until April 2000, and Liu Guoliang finally settled down.
It turned out that the reason why Liu Guoliang was detected to contain stimulants in his body at that time was because during that time, Liu Guoliang was once in a state of excitement, and his work and rest were irregular, so he secreted epitestosterone, and when the stimulant was sampled, he was mistaken for a stimulant.
Despite his innocence, Liu Guoliang's career was greatly affected by this storm, and he fell from the peak to the bottom overnight.
At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, because of his poor form, he lost two key points and eventually failed to win the championship, which became the biggest regret in Liu Guoliang's life.
The biggest advantage of Liu Guoliang's playing ball is to get used to "blocking serve", but after the doping incident, the International Table Tennis Federation proposed the reform of "unobstructed small ball" and "small ball becomes large ball", which directly weakened Liu Guoliang's advantage.
Based on this, in 2002, Liu Guoliang resolutely chose to retire and transform into a national table tennis coach, this year he was only 26 years old, which was the time when the wind was flourishing!
Although he bid farewell to his sports career, in the second year of his transformation into a national table tennis coach, Liu Guoliang officially served as the head coach of Chinese men's table tennis, becoming the youngest young marshal in men's table tennis.
After taking office, he has made a big push to promote the selection of the World Table Tennis Championships, increasing the transparency of internal selection and the attention of the media and fans to the national table tennis.
From 2003 to 2017, in his 15-year coaching career, Liu Guoliang pushed the achievements of national table tennis to the peak of the world, and also led the national table tennis to usher in the most brilliant era.
In addition to missing two gold medals at the 2013 World Table Tennis Championships, Liu Guoliang did not let any gold medals slip out of the hands of the national table tennis.
Moreover, under his coaching, he has trained 14 world champions, including four Grand Slam players such as Ma Long, Ding Ning, Li Xiaoxia and Zhang Jike, and the title of "Godfather of National Table Tennis" is well deserved.
How powerful is the national table tennis? This can be illustrated by a small example.
At the 2011 Rotterdam World Table Tennis Championships, Zhang Jike and the women's doubles won the championship each, but when the award was presented, the organizers awarded the women's doubles championship trophy to Zhang Jike, and the men's singles championship trophy was awarded to the champion of the women's doubles.
At the moment of getting the trophy, both Zhang Jike and the champion of the women's doubles were very ignorant, but it was not easy to refute anything. Some netizens can't help but joke that the organizers may have forgotten what the trophy looks like.
In 2017, Liu Guoliang suddenly stepped down as the head coach, because of the reform of the management mode of the national table tennis team at that time, the position of head coach and head coach was no longer set up, but changed to a separate national team coaching team for men and women, so Liu Guoliang changed from the head coach of the national team to the head coach of the men's table tennis team.
Liu Guoliang was unwilling to accept such an arrangement, so he took the initiative to step down as the head coach of the national team, although he was not in the jianghu, but there has always been his legend in the jianghu.
On December 1, 2018, Liu Guoliang was officially appointed as the chairman of the Chinese Table Tennis Association.
As soon as he became the president of the Chinese Table Tennis Association, the Japanese media praised him, calling him a "terrible existence!" After three years, on November 24, 2021, Liu Guoliang, the "godfather of national table tennis", was successfully elected as the vice president of the International Table Tennis Federation Association.
From a 13-year-old national youth player to a Grand Slam winner, from a legendary player to a meritorious coach, from the president of the Chinese Table Tennis Association to the vice chairman of the International Table Tennis Federation, as a leader on the road to the development of national table tennis, his legendary road will continue!
I don't know what everyone thinks about the legendary road of Liu Guoliang, the godfather of national table tennis? Feel free to leave a comment in the comment area.
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