In the talented Chinese women's table tennis team, Deng Yaping, Wang Nan and Zhang Yining can be described as a generation of leading figures and have a prominent reputation.
However, after them, Li Xiaoxia, who became the 4th person in the Grand Slam, seemed extremely ordinary, and even many people did not know her.
But according to common sense, if a person is really ordinary, how can he go to the top of life? Therefore, it can only be said that Li Xiaoxia is absolutely low-key.
This excellent female player who has reached the top of the Grand Slam for 18 years should be regarded as a late bloomer, and her life experience and sports career can only be described as "tribulation" and "steep".
When Li Xiaoxia resolutely retired after reaching the peak of her personal professional achievements, she finally couldn't help but post a complaint about the pain and injustice she had experienced.
Come to think of it, the national table tennis coaching team can not get rid of it.
Girls chasing dreams
The "end of the universe is in Tieling" may already be a household name in China.
However, more people may not know that Anshan, Liaoning Province, was once the birthplace of a generation of Chinese table tennis geniuses.
1988 is an absolutely memorable year for an Anshan people.
In June, a girl named Li Xiaoxia fell to the ground.
In July, a little girl named Guo Yue also followed.
In October, a boy named Ma Long came to the northern city of China during the harvest season.
At that time, no one would have thought that these three names would be circulated in the land of China, and no one would have thought that these three names would shine in the Chinese table tennis arena.
The three of them have embarked on the road of table tennis, but compared to the genius girl Guo Yue, Li Xiaoxia's road to success is so tortuous and arduous.
Li Xiaoxia began practicing ball at the age of 7, and although she was born a month earlier than Guo Yue, she practiced a year later.
When the two met at the Anshan Tiedong District Sports School, Li Xiaoxia lost more than Guo Yue.
And Guo Yue seems to be sitting on the through train, entering the provincial team at the age of 8, being selected for the national team at the age of 12, and becoming the youngest world champion in the history of Chinese table tennis at the age of 16.
On the other hand, Li Xiaoxia, at the age of 9, still had to leave her hometown and went alone to the Huangting Sports Primary School in Jinan City, 2,000 miles away from Anshan, to start table tennis "learning art in a foreign land".
Because of her family situation, her parents need to work hard to earn tuition for her.
As a result, Li Xiaoxia, who left home as a young child, tasted the bitterness that many children of the same age did not experience.
During the day, Li Xiaoxia practiced ball with her friends, attended classes together, and focused attentively, and the situation was better.
However, at night, only Li Xiaoxia, a little girl, lived in the three-story Huangting Gymnasium, and did not dare to get up in the middle of the night to go to the toilet outside.
In order not to be afraid and bold, she had to turn on the flashlight all night when she slept at night.
Li Xiaoxia later admitted herself: "At that time, the most difficult thing to endure was homesickness at night."
Her mother came to Jinan to see her once in more than a month and stayed with her for three or five days.
At this time, Li Xiaoxia could sleep with her mother in her arms like an ordinary girl, but it was only a few days of happiness.
As a native of the north, Li Xiaoxia, who is accustomed to eating northeast rice, is very unaccustomed to Jinan's steamed buns, especially the hard-noodle steamed buns in the canteen.
In the end, she could only break the bun and mix it with some water, soften it, and then eat it.
This state of diet directly affected Li Xiaoxia's physique, causing her to rain on cloudy days and always love fever and colds.
Li Xiaoxia later smiled and said that this was all when she was in the Imperial Pavilion in Jinan, because she would not take care of the debts she "owed".
Wash coats in cool water in winter, walk barefoot in the corridors, and wear long sleeves in the middle of summer.
Eat more when the meal is delicious, and don't eat it when it is not delicious, which leaves hidden dangers for her physique.
She said: "This ordeal of Jinan's imperial pavilion and small body, this wealth, has benefited me for a lifetime, and it is also worth remembering for a lifetime."
In 1998, 10-year-old Li Xiaoxia entered the Shandong team and finally entered the door of the national team three years later.
Although the sharp edge has always been overshadowed by Guo Yue, she still won the women's singles and women's doubles championships at the National Table Tennis Championships at the age of 14, becoming the youngest table tennis women's singles national champion at that time.
However, no World Series title became her hard wound, leading to her losing the 2003 World Table Tennis Championships in Paris.
At that time, the national table tennis women's team was full of masters, and Wang Nan, Guo Yan and Zhang Yining were the absolute main force in the team.
After the comparison, the coaching team chose Guo Yue and abandoned Li Xiaoxia, which is definitely a major blow for a 15-year-old girl.
Although Li Xiaoxia always believes: "There is always a reward for paying." "Only a very bitter, very bitter, unforgettable experience can achieve a little achievement."
However, for a long time after that, Li Xiaoxia's psychological shadow area was so large that she was in a state of loss, so that she did not eat well, did not sleep well, and was physically and mentally haggard.
It can be said that throughout 2004, Li Xiaoxia was carrying out psychological construction, and at the same time fighting against illness.
During that time, she repeatedly had a high fever and did not go away, and finally returned to Shandong for more than two months.
Although she eventually recovered, Li Xiaoxia missed the opportunity to qualify for the Shanghai World Table Tennis Championships.
The big sword has no edge and no skill
However, it is gold that always shines.
Since 2005, Li Xiaoxia, who has accumulated a lot of money, began to achieve a series of achievements, not only in the civil war, but also in the foreign war.
She first won the 2005 Table Tennis Super League Women's Team Championship, the China Table Tennis Open (Shenzhen) Women's Singles Champion, and the 10th National Games Women's Doubles Champion in China.
Subsequently, she won the women's doubles championship of the 2007 China Open Table Tennis Championships (Nanjing) and the women's doubles champion of the National Table Tennis Championships.
Internationally, Li Xiaoxia won the women's doubles championship of the 2006 Slovenia Table Tennis Open, the table tennis women's team and women's doubles champion of the 15th Doha Asian Games.
By 2007, it was even more popular, and successively won the Croatia Table Tennis Open Women's Doubles Championship, the Qatar Table Tennis Open Women's Singles and Women's Doubles Champion, the Kuwait Table Tennis Open Women's Doubles Champion, the Japan Open Table Tennis Championship Women's Doubles Champion, the 18th Asian State Table Tennis Championships Women's Team, and the Women's Doubles Champion.
2007 German Open Table Tennis Championships Women's Singles and Women's Doubles Champion, Swedish Table Tennis Open Women's Singles Champion.
The key points here are also heavyweight achievements, that is, the women's team championship of the World Table Tennis Championships in Bremen, Germany, the team champion of the 2007 World Cup, the women's singles and women's doubles champion of the ITTF Tour Finals.
By 2008, she had won the Women's Team Championship at the Guangzhou World Table Tennis Championships and the Women's Singles Champion at the Singapore Open.
That is to say, in less than 4 years, Li Xiaoxia has won more than 20 championships alone, which can be said to be soft on winning awards.
These achievements are not only fruitful, but also enough to be dazzling, which fully proves how correct "Li Xiaoxia and Wang Nan, Zhang Yining, and Guo Yue are the same as the focus of the Beijing Olympic cycle."
Especially in the 2007 World Table Tennis Championships in Zagreb, Li Xiaoxia's historic victory over her eldest sister Wang Nan should be said to be extremely bright at this time.
However, the reality is extremely bone-chilling, and in the end, the female table tennis players who people see at the Beijing Olympic Games are Wang Nan, Zhang Yining and Guo Yue, and Li Xiaoxia is substituted.
This is an extremely heavy and even cruel blow to Li Xiaoxia, who regards the Olympics as the highest honor and ultimate dream, and the tickets are close at hand.
I believe that everyone has a scale in their hearts, so people see that when Zhang Yining won the women's singles gold medal at the Beijing Olympic Games, they immediately rushed to the stands to hug Li Xiaoxia, and the two cried opposite each other.
But the mood is different, Zhang Yining is extremely happy and crying, and at the same time has comfort to the little master sister.
And Li Xiaoxia, who wept into tears, tears are extremely complex, and they should be full of excitement, blessings, bitterness and regret.
Fortunately, the long-tempered Li Xiaoxia was not knocked down, and it was not the first time that she had suffered such a suffocating frustration.
After being lost, confused, and in tears, she calmed down and put herself in the right position, regained her spirits, continued to practice hard, fought the three-foot table, and insisted on her journey to win the championship.
In 2008, Li Xiaoxia won the Kuala Lumpur World Cup Singles Championship, the China Open (Shanghai) Women's Singles Championship, and the Table Tennis Super League Women's Team Championship.
In 2009 and 2010, Li Xiaoxia's technical skills steadily improved. She began her ambition to launch an assault on the London 2012 Olympics.
At this time, Wang Nan and Zhang Yining have retired one after another, and she is no longer the dispensable "4th person" or "5th person".
However, in the finals of the 2011 Rotterdam World Table Tennis Championships and the Singapore World Cup, Li Xiaoxia lost twice to Ding Ning, who was in excellent form, and she could only watch Ding Ning and take a step closer to the throne of "one sister" and the dream of a Grand Slam.
She seemed to have encountered a high "hurdle" that could not be crossed, so that in the national table tennis team, it was rumored that Ding Ning was Li Xiaoxia's "bitter lord", and confusion, confusion, and melancholy came to her again.
These two defeats made Li Xiaoxia particularly depressed.
The main reason is not the technology itself, but the psychological quality; not that the opponent is too strong, but that the opponent is too soft.
The industry's evaluation of the two is: Li Xiaoxia wins with strength, and Ding Ning is known for adapting. On absolute strength and technical connotation, Ding is not as good as Li; but the on-the-spot change and technological convergence, Li is not as good as Ding.
As Li Falcon later said: "You are now playing to the end to beat people, that is, to compete with yourself, not to play technology, how to put people into the game to release themselves is the key." Your ball is there! What are you afraid of? ”
When Li Xiaoxia finished fighting with herself, she finally crossed this "hurdle".
After saying goodbye to loss and untying the knot, Li Xiaoxia, who was further technically refined, finally broke out completely in the final of the 2012 London Olympic Games.
When Li Xiaoxia defeated Ding Ning 4:1, hanging a gold medal on her chest and standing on the championship podium with flowers in her hand, she had completed one of the most important transformations in her career.
After this battle, Li Xiaoxia can be described as "a light boat has passed through ten thousand heavy mountains".
In the 2012 Table Tennis Super League after the London Olympics, Li Xiaoxia defeated Guo Yan and Ding Ning in two 3:1.
At the World Table Tennis Championships in Paris in May 2013, Li Xiaoxia met Ding Ning again in the semi-finals, easily won 4:2, and defeated Liu Shiwen 4:2 in the final, becoming the fourth women's table tennis Grand Slam after Deng Yaping, Wang Nan and Zhang Yining.
Four months later, she won the women's singles gold medal at the 12th National Games.
At this point, the 25-year-old Li Xiaoxia has become a women's table tennis grand slam winner who combines olympic games, world table tennis championships, world cups, itttennis federation tour finals, Asian Games, and national games singles gold medals.
After 18 years of repeated hardening and winning all the championships at home and abroad, Li Xiaoxia finally stood at the peak of her career.
Plain and plain is always true
On December 28, 2013, the Chinese table tennis team elected Li Xiaoxia as the new captain of the women's team by secret ballot, which also marked the recognition of her "first person" in women's table tennis.
Li Xiaoxia also began to plan her next career goal with ambition: "preparing for the Rio 2016 Olympics".
She said that she would pick the key matches to play, the Incheon Asian Games and the Suzhou World Table Tennis Championships, she wanted to complete them one by one.
Li Xiaoxia feels that she still has a lot of potential to be tapped, she said that "through the adjustment of mentality to dig more deep things, so that you can have a higher sublimation in the new exercise cycle."
At this time, everyone has recognized Li Xiaoxia as the new leader of the women's team.
However, the situation was stronger than people, and a serious pneumonia hit Li Xiaoxia, and until the end of 2014, she had not fully recovered.
After the start of the 2015 Suzhou World Table Tennis Championships, Due to Liu Shiwen's psychological problems, she could not maintain a good competitive state in singles, and Li Xiaoxia, who gradually recovered, was able to participate in the Rio Olympic Games in August 2016.
In the end, Li Xiaoxia and Ding Ning finally met in the women's singles final, but lost to Ding Ning 3-4.
Less than 2 months after the match, Li Xiaoxia announced her retirement.
Subsequently, Li Xiaoxia sent a long article in mid-October 2016 suspected of accusing the national table tennis coaching team.
In the article, Li Xiaoxia said: "The reality is much harsher than I thought."
She even pointedly said: "Even if the whole world bullies me, I still believe that God has eyes, not that the time has not arrived."
This text is like a "blood and tears complaint", coupled with Li Xiaoxia's 28-year-old pawn, the world's first person,but so easily retired, which can't help but make people think.
What followed was li xiaoxia's forced concession to Ding Ning, and there was a lot of talk about dissatisfaction with the coaching staff.
But Li Xiaoxia made it clear that she did not concede the ball to Ding Ning, but did not talk about anything else.
Obviously, for Kong Linghui, who has always disapproved of her, she must have some thoughts in her heart.
Li Xiaoxia, a person who can afford to put it down, after fading out of the world, married her boyfriend of many years and the head coach of the Liaoning men's table tennis team Zhai Yiming in August 2017.
Having two daughters in the first three years of marriage can be said to be a winner in life.
And Li Xiaoxia herself also refused the invitation to be a coach, concentrated on her husband and children at home, and lived a moist life with her husband, and now she only occasionally sends Weibo and opens a live broadcast, which is not comfortable.
This most low-key Grand Slam winner, known as "Lee Sledgehammer" and "Queen Liqin", has experienced wind and frost, rain and snow, and after standing at the top of the peaks, he can immediately retreat in a rapid, which fully demonstrates that she is a woman with great wisdom.
Li Xiaoxia's words and deeds also prove that she is a sincere and true woman who is kind to people and "small wealth is peace".
It is her sincerity that has won the pursuit of fans, and 3 years of 2 children, but also let her win the family slam.
Text/Blue Wind Candle Dust
bibliography:
[1] Liang Wei, Li Xiaoxia: Now is not my time, Sons and Daughters of China, 2013(11);
[2] Xu Jingxian, Li Xiaoxia "Girl Who Loves to Cry" has a boyish spirit, Ping Pong World, 2016(10).