The text | English
Editor| Captain Zhang
If you want to ask which sport the mainland has achieved the best results and the highest degree of promotion, then there is no doubt that it is our table tennis.
Especially since the 1980s, women's table tennis in the mainland has almost monopolized all the champions of the World Series, and the current top 5 players in the world ranking are also Chinese players.
Cao Yanhua
When it comes to the outstanding female table tennis players in the mainland, the first thing we think of should be the Great Demon King Zhang Yining and Deng Yaping and others.
But in fact, China's women's table tennis team, as early as the 70s and 80s of the last century, there was an ace, Cao Yanhua
Unlike other girls, she likes to smoke and drink and burn her hair, but her achievements are still difficult for her contemporaries to match.
Today we will look at the story of Cao Yanhua.
Grand Slam winner
Cao Yanhua was born in 1962.
In that era, thanks to the fact that table tennis was the earliest sports that began to develop in China, the popularity was even greater than now, and people could be seen playing table tennis everywhere.
Under the influence of the ear, Cao Yanhua began to follow her sister to pick up balls for others when she was two years old, and after going to primary school, she began to systematically contact table tennis and learn to play table tennis.
She began practicing table tennis at the age of 5, showing such a strong talent that her next-door neighbors knew that a girl from Lao Cao's family played table tennis very well. After layers of selection, she entered the national team training at the age of 15.
Cao Yanhua's table tennis style complements his personality. She has a very straight personality, dare to love and dare to hate, she is good at using the straight arc ball fast attack method, using excellent serves, solving the opponent in the first three boards, and also creating a new way of playing, the women's straight board single-sided pull.
This was a complete departure from the mainstream technology of the time, and it also became her advantage.
Cao Yanhua, who entered the national team, gradually blossomed in only two years.
At that time, the Chinese table tennis team was invited to Europe to participate in the visit to Europe competition, and Xu Yinsheng, the coach of the Chinese table tennis team, felt that her skills were very unique, belonged to rare talents, and had a lot of room for progress, so he let her go to Europe for exchanges.
In this way, Cao Yanhua, who was still a trial player, went to Europe, and did not expect that this was the beginning of her brilliant career, and she won the championship in the European competition.
At the 1980 Asian Championships, she defeated then-world champion Park Young-soon in the women's singles competition, shocking the entire world table tennis scene. It also made more opponents start to pay attention to this 18-year-old girl.
It was also in this year that she won the Women's Table Tennis Open for the first time in history. Since then, she has become more and more courageous and successfully took over the status of the first sister of Chinese women's table tennis.
In 1981, Zhou Lansun, who had the greatest influence on Cao Yanhua, began to serve as her coach. He carried out technical reforms for Cao Yanhua, and while retaining her characteristics, he reinforced her weaknesses, and Cao Yanhua's table tennis level has greatly improved.
After that, as long as Cao Yanhua participated in the competition, the champion almost never fell, almost no one on the court was her opponent, she won one championship after another, and soon became the first female table tennis player in history to win a Grand Slam, and won the title of General of Constant Victory.
Throughout his career, Cao Yanhua won a total of 59 championships, including in 1983 and 1985, he was named one of the top ten athletes in the country.
In addition, Cao Yanhua's heroic personality is not only reflected in her table tennis skills, but also in her daily life.
She likes to smoke and drink, which has also brought her a lot of controversy, and the leader of the table tennis team has talked to her more than once, hoping that she can consider quitting smoking and drinking for her career, but she does not listen at all.
Eventually, she also announced her retirement at the peak of her career at the age of 22 because of the slight physical discomfort caused by such a habit.
However, the act of retiring is not only because of physical health factors, but also contains the turmoil between Cao Yanhua and another man.
Retired for love
The male protagonist of the story is Shi Zhihao, who was known as a beautiful man in table tennis at that time.
Shi Zhihao
The relationship between the two began with a table tennis team traveling to Europe to compete. At that time, the two of them trained together for more than a month, and they also developed a good feeling.
During the days of training in Europe, Shi Zhihao helped Cao Yanhua carry luggage, and Cao Yanhua sewed bags for Shi Zhihao, and the two lived closely.
One night Shi Zhihao called Cao Yanhua and invited her to see a movie, Cao Yanhua said that he was not very interested in movies, so Shi Zhihao asked Cao Yanhua out to chat with the two people, and the two formally established a relationship that night.
Falling in love in the table tennis team is a big taboo and is not allowed by the leaders. Although Shi Zhihao and Cao Yanhua hid well, the paper package could not hold the fire, and this relationship was eventually discovered by the leaders.
Cao Yanhua is not very popular with the leaders because of his personality itself in the team, coupled with the love storm, he has suddenly become the object of criticism by various leaders.
The leader of the table tennis team was seriously criticized by the leaders of the General Administration of Sports because of this matter, and after returning to the team, he called Out Cao Yanhua and Shi Zhihao and asked them if they were really in love, but the two sides did not admit it.
So the leader sent his anger to Cao Yanhua's head coach Zhou Lansun.
Fortunately, Zhou Lansun also loves his beloved apprentice, and he told the leader that Cao Yanhua's training effect is very good, even if he falls in love, it will not affect the results.
At the same time, he also enlightened Cao Yanhua, and he said to Cao Yanhua:
"I now ask you as a father if you are in love with Shi Zhihao."
In the face of the coach who has always been with him, Cao Yanhua admitted.
At this time, Zhou Lansun did not get angry, let alone let them break up, but only let Cao Yanhua guarantee that it would never affect the training.
At that time, Shi Zhihao's ability was not very prominent in the national team, so he was returned to the local team after violating the team rules, while Cao Yanhua stayed with his irreplaceability.
Shi Zhihao, who returned to the local team, chose to retire to study at the Shanghai Institute of Sport, while Cao Yanhua continued to play at his dominance level as if he had not been affected, and won several championships in a row.
But she herself is a different kind of table tennis team, her wild and uninhibited personality has made the leaders look unpleasant, coupled with the love storm, she is even more unpopular in the team.
At this time, because Shi Zhihao had gone to Shanghai, Cao Yanhua lacked companionship and love in the table tennis team, which made her feel lonely, coupled with her body was not as good as usual, so through careful communication with the team leaders, she made the decision to retire.
At that time, table tennis was about to become an Olympic sport for the first time, and the team members and leaders advised her to participate in the Olympic Games and then retire, but Cao Yanhua, who had a very high personality, could not listen to anything, she just wanted to retire quickly and marry Shi Zhihao.
The table tennis team could only agree, and held a grand farewell match for Cao Yanhua at the Jing'an Gymnasium in Shanghai.
A year after retiring from the army, Cao Yanhua and Shi Zhihao held a wedding.
During this period, Cao Yanhua received an invitation from the Japanese side to go to lecture, and Shi Zhihao could not go because she was an active soldier of the Bayi Team, so she had to embark on the road to Japan alone.
A year later, she chose to return to China and went to Germany with Shi Zhihao to develop.
At that time, Shi Zhihao was coaching table tennis in a club in Germany, with a good remuneration, the two bought a house and a car in Germany, and life was also very comfortable.
During this period, there were also German table tennis teams that wanted to hire Cao Yanhua as a coach, but she refused because she did not want to cultivate opponents for her motherland.
In 1992, 30-year-old Cao Yanhua became pregnant, but the child was miscarried due to an accident, which made the couple very uncomfortable.
Fortunately, after a while, Cao Yanhua became pregnant again.
This time, Cao Yanhua was much more careful, afraid that the child would leave his side again. Their child was born 10 months later, a boy.
After giving birth, the two decided to return to Shanghai after giving the child a living environment that he was more familiar with.
The two relied on their wealth in Germany and intended to do business at home. However, the two who did not have much talent did not achieve much in the mall.
In 1997, Shi Zhihao was invited to the national team, served as a coach, and went to Beijing, while Cao Yanhua stayed in Shanghai to continue his career, and the two lived in two places, which also laid the groundwork for the future contradictions between the two.
Shi Zhihao invited Cao Yanhua to Beijing more than once, but she refused.
Shi Zhihao, who became the coach of the national team, was extremely busy at work, and needed to be responsible for the training tasks of many of the team's main players every day, usually after 12 o'clock before he could sleep, not to mention having too much contact with Cao Yanhua.
Cao Yanhua expressed dissatisfaction with this, and even said to Shi Zhihao:
"You'll live with table tennis for the rest of your life!"
The two people who have been separated for a long time have more and more contradictions, and both sides are more stubborn people, and neither of them is willing to change their lives for each other, so the two choose to divorce.
The divorce of the two, the parents of both sides do not know, in order to let the child have a happy childhood, did not disclose to the child, Cao Yanhua still sent her child to her grandparents every week.
But after three years, this secret could not be hidden.
Both parents and children were shocked, but both said that their love for their children would not disappear and that they would raise them together.
The two had planned to let their children practice table tennis, but when the child learned that his parents were such excellent table tennis players, he gave up.
Perhaps because his parents' achievements are too high to live in the shadow of their parents, he does not intend to become a professional table tennis player.
The second marriage was spoiled as a young girl
After the divorce, Cao Yanhua's life is still colorful, she set up her own table tennis studio in Shanghai, and after 12 years of leaving table tennis, she decided to return to the cause she once loved.
To set up this table tennis studio, she even sold her only house.
Now Xu Xin, a member of the Chinese table tennis team, is Cao Yanhua's disciple, and when it comes to Xu Xin, Cao Yanhua also proudly said that he did not realize his Olympic dream, and Xu Xin realized it for himself.
However, after separating from Shi Zhihao, Cao Yanhua is very low-key emotionally, and there has been no news about feelings.
Until one day she posted a photo on social media, in which she leaned against her husband, who wore a black hat and black-rimmed glasses and looked stylish and handsome. People do it to know that Cao Yanhua has been low-key for the second marriage.
Afterwards, in an interview with the media, she said that her current husband is a super warm man, very spoiled himself, and has a particularly good personality.
I and my husband often exercise at home and play table tennis together.
And her table tennis skills are far better than her husband's, so she holds a ping-pong ball in her left hand and a mobile phone in her right hand to record this warm moment.
"Even if this is the case, my husband can't beat me."
Today, Cao Yanhua is the principal of the table tennis school, and her career is smooth.
And Cao Yanhua also more than once posted photos with her girlfriend and husband on her social media, in which everyone smiled at the camera and smiled from the heart.
She was quite happy with her life now, and the years didn't seem to be able to leave a mark on her face.
In the photo, sixty-year-old Cao Yanhua, perhaps after her husband's pampering, looks like a 30-year-old girl, and after her second marriage, she can be said to have gained real happiness.
This is Cao Yanhua, a Dare to Love and Dare to Hate Cao Yanhua, she brought the supreme honor to the Chinese table tennis team, and because of her character and behavior, she retired early, and after divorcing her first husband, she found the true destiny that belonged to her.
Nowadays, Cao Yanhua's mentality is getting better and better, engaged in meaningful work, and passes on the table tennis culture to more people.
What was once unruly has now been transformed into the nourishment of the cause, and also allows her in the table tennis world to repay the heavens that once cultivated her in another way.
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