After the end of the Singapore Grand Slam, some of the main players and coaches returned to the DPRK and entered a short rest stage. Among the many coaches, Fan Zhendong's head coach Wang Hao is missing. In this regard, the outside world has speculated that Wang Hao may have left the national team. After the Tokyo Olympics, Huang Haicheng, sun Yingsha's former head coach, voluntarily submitted an application to bid farewell to the national team coaching career for personal reasons. After this, meritorious coaches Liu Guozheng and Chen Xuan rarely appeared in the coaching bench. In the Singapore Grand Slam Tournament, Wang Hao, as the head coach of Fan Zhendong, not only did not serve as an off-court coach, but also did not appear on the field, which also made many fans quite puzzled.
Has Wang Hao really left the national team? Are Chen Xuan and Liu Guozheng sure they will no longer coach? Did the national table tennis coaching staff start shuffling in the Paris Olympic cycle? A series of doubts sparked heated discussion among fans. Wang Hao, when he was an athlete, was already the mainstay of the national table tennis men's team. Although in the men's singles final of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, he lost to South Korea's Yoo Seung-min and missed the first Olympic singles gold medal of his career. But with his super strength and rich experience in the game, Wang Hao is the only player on the team to reach the Olympic men's singles final three times.
Even if it is called "the second oldest of the millennium" by fans, it is still impossible to deny Wang Hao's strength. After retiring, Wang Hao, Ma Lin and others entered the national team as coaches, Ma Lin is currently the coach of Chen Meng, the world number one in women's singles, and previously helped Liu Shiwen win the women's singles championship at the World Championships. Wang Hao entered the men's team and became the "teacher" of Fan Zhendong, the world's first. In 2019, Fan Zhendong entered a career bottleneck period, and Wang Hao, as the head coach, fell into the cusp of the storm. Some fans said that Wang Hao's coaching ability is not as good as Liu Guoliang's, and it is difficult to bring out the Olympic champion.
Some fans also believe that Wang Hao's mentality in the athlete period is not strong enough, otherwise he would not have lost all three Olympic men's singles finals. Fortunately, in the following seasons, Fan Zhendong bottomed out and rebounded, not only winning the team championship at the Tokyo Olympic Games, but also winning the men's singles championship at the 2021 World Championships. Entering the Paris Olympic cycle, he is the absolute core of the team. Among them, Wang Hao played a pivotal role. At present, whether Wang Hao is sure to leave the national team has not been officially announced.
Fans have exploded, and some people have bluntly said that "if Wang Hao leaves the national team, it will be a huge loss for men's singles." Some fans speculate that maybe it is just a rumor that not coming to the Singapore Grand Slam does not mean that he will no longer coach the national team. Previously, coaches such as Liu Guozheng and Chen Xuan also faced the embarrassing public opinion situation of "withdrawing from the national team". The Chinese Table Tennis Association has not yet responded to whether several coaches will continue to coach, and fans need to remain rational and hope that it will eventually be a happy outcome for everyone.
(Luo Treasurer)