Recently, the Korean Table Tennis Association announced the participation list of the Asian Games and the World Table Tennis Championships, and several veterans have been defeated, replaced by a group of young people. Among them, there is an athlete named Kim Ha-young who attracted the attention of Chinese fans, because when we checked the relevant information, we found that she was actually Chinese, and her original name was Li Yiran. That is to say, Li Yiran not only joined the Korean team, but also changed his name, and it is more likely to represent South Korea against Chinese players in the future.
It is understood that Li Yiran was born in 1997, 24 years old this year, was once a Chinese table tennis player, and also represented the Chinese team in the 2013 World Junior Challenge. At that time, Li Yiran had fought against the famous Japanese player Ito Mimachi, fighting a bitter seven-game battle to win the opponent, and her name gradually became known. But what is surprising is that Chen Xingtong and Wang Yidi, who are about the same age as Li Yiran, have gradually become the main force of national table tennis, and Sun Yingsha and Wang Manyu, who are younger than her, have become world champions, but she has struggled and has never been able to go further.
In desperation, Li Yiran decided to leave the national table tennis and joined the Korean nationality, changing his name to Kim Ha-young. Don't look at Li Yiran's lack of competitiveness in China, but after coming to South Korea, her personal strength is far stronger than her peers, and she quickly broke out of the world. Today, Li Yiran has been selected for the Asian Games and World Table Tennis Squad, indicating that her personal strength has reached the top level in Asia, which is really regrettable. Of course, this is also a helpless thing, after all, the competition in China's table tennis arena is too fierce, if you can't excel, you can only ignore the crowd, the only way out is to go abroad to play.
In fact, there is a Chinese player in today's Korean team, her name is Tian Zhixi, who is already a sister of Korean women's table tennis, and her appearance is outstanding, and she has a high popularity in China. Every once in a while, Tian Zhixi will interact with fans through live broadcasting and share his experience playing for the Korean team. Tian Zhixi was once a Luneng player, because there was no way out in the domestic table tennis world, he switched to the Korean team in 2011 and began to represent the Korean women's table tennis player, and last year's Olympic Games broke into the women's singles top 8. As for Germany, Singapore and other table tennis powers, there are Chinese female players, who constitute a unique landscape of the world table tennis.
However, Li Yiran's joining the South Korean team may be a wake-up call for national table tennis. We all know that in the past, athletes switched to other countries, most of them entered the end of their careers, such as Ni Xialian won several world championships for the national table tennis, and then went to Europe to play. However, in recent years, a large number of young talents have flowed out, indicating that China's table tennis is no longer a healthy competition, but is in an unhealthy development model. The situation of national table tennis is very illustrative, Ma Long, Xu Xin, Liu Shiwen and other veterans in their 30s, even insistence, Liu Guoliang and other people pay too much attention to the results of the competition, dare not exercise new people, so that many young players missed the best time to grow, resulting in talent drain.
The national table tennis coaching team is always talking about upgrading, but the implementation is not in place, the veterans cannot retire, the young people cannot stand up, and the future development of the national table tennis will become very embarrassing. Of course, some people believe that Chinese players joining other countries can improve the overall level of other countries' teams, which is also an incentive for national table tennis, but it is not all bad. Whether the excessive brain drain is joy or sorrow, only time can tell us the answer.