In the history of Chinese women's table tennis, there have been many excellent players, in addition to the famous players such as Deng Yaping Wang Nan Zhang Yining Ding Ning, which we are familiar with, there are actually such famous players as Qiao Hong and Li Ju.
Mention of Wang Nan, we have to mention Li Ju, she once and Wang Nan and known as the Twin Stars of Chinese Women's Table Tennis, after Deng Yaping retired, Li Ju and Wang Nan together, carried the banner of Chinese women's table tennis, and continued to win glory for Chinese women's table tennis in the international arena.
In the Sydney Olympic Games, Li Ju and Wang Nan participated in the women's singles and women's doubles competitions together, in the women's singles competition, Li Ju successfully defended her half of the division, and Wang Nan met in the final, in the final, Li Ju fought hard for five sets and finally lost to Wang Nan and won the runner-up. At the same time, in the women's doubles, Li Ju and Wang Nan successfully won the Women's Doubles Championship at the Olympic Games!
For a time, Wang Nan Li Ju became the absolute main force of Chinese women's table tennis, just like Deng Yaping Qiao Hong at that time, and joined forces to rule the table tennis world.
In terms of age, Li Ju is 2 years younger than Wang Nan, and at the time of the Sydney Olympics, Li Ju was already 24 years old.
This age is still a young athlete for today's female table tennis players, but for Li Ju at that time, she already belonged to the old athletes in the national team, after all, when Deng Yaping retired, she was only 24 years old!
After the Sydney Olympics, with the rise of younger athletes such as Zhang Yining and Niu Jianfeng, Li Ju gradually retreated, and after Li Ju played the 2001 Games, he announced his retirement.
At that time, the reason for Li Ju's retirement, in addition to age, there was also a reason for the physical aspect, due to long-term hard training, At this time, Li Ju began to have injuries.
However, just the year after Li Ju retired, the Chinese women's table tennis suffered Waterloo, and in the women's team competition at the Busan Asian Games, Wang Nan alone lost two points, resulting in the Chinese women's table tennis finally missing the championship!
At this time, the coaching team believes that the Chinese women's table tennis only relies on Wang Nan Zhang Yining and the two are far from enough, once Wang Nan Zhang Yining and Zhang Yining play abnormally, it may cause serious consequences, at this time the coaching team remembered Li Ju.
Although Li Ju had retired at that time, after all, from the perspective of strength, Li Ju and Wang Nan Zhang Yining were not superior or inferior, and even surpassed Zhang Yining in terms of competition experience.
In this case, the coaching team invited Li Ju to return to the national team and promised that as long as Li Ju returned, she could also participate in the Athens Olympic Games!
At this time, Li Ju has been retired for more than a year, but when she saw that the Chinese women's table tennis had fallen into a trough and the national team still needed itself, Li Juyi returned without hesitation!
After Li Ju's comeback, she quickly reached the women's singles final four in the 2003 World Table Tennis Championships, only to lose to Zhang Yining in the semifinals, but despite this, Li Ju's performance was still the best athlete besides Wang Nan Zhang Yining!
However, in the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, when the Chinese women's table tennis submitted the Olympic quota, Li Ju was not selected!
The women's singles qualification for the Athens Olympics were Wang Nan Zhang Yining and Niu Jianfeng!
Although Li Ju felt incomprehensible and aggrieved in her heart, Li Ju did not say anything, and on the day of the announcement of the list, Li Ju left the national team and never returned!
Why did Li Ju lose the Athens Olympics at the last minute?
There are two reasons for this:
First, the reason for age.
At the time of the Athens Olympic Games, Li Ju was already 28 years old, in the history of Chinese women's table tennis, this already belonged to the old athletes who were not compromised, and at that time, it was mainly Niu Jianfeng who competed with Li Ju in the Olympic Games, and Niu Jianfeng was only 23 years old at the time, from the perspective of training value, Niu Jianfeng undoubtedly had more advantages.
Second, doubles coordination.
Previously, Li Ju had been partnering with Wang Nan to participate in women's doubles competitions, and won two World Table Tennis Championships and one Olympic Women's Doubles Championship, but after Li Ju retired for the first time, Wang Nan found a new partner, that is, Zhang Yining.
The women's doubles combination of Wang Nan and Zhang Yining is also very powerful, so that Li Ju will not have a women's doubles partner after her comeback.
And the Athens Olympic Games, each association can have two pairs of women's doubles combinations to participate in the competition, the Chinese women's table tennis at that time, in addition to Wang Nan Zhang Yining, is Niu Jianfeng Guo Yue is more powerful.
In this way, if Li Ju participates in the Olympic Games, she cannot participate in doubles, and will only be able to participate in a singles competition, and Chinese women's table tennis has great restrictions on the deployment of troops.
So, in the end, Li Ju still rubbed shoulders with the Olympic Games at the last moment!
Although Li Ju felt incomprehensible and aggrieved in her heart, Li Ju could only accept this reality helplessly and left the national team on the same day!
Of course, at the last minute, Li Ju's Niu Jianfeng squeezed out, and in the singles competition of the Athens Olympic Games, he was out early, laying the groundwork for future tragedies, which is another story!