introduction
In 2014, THE UNENWOER PRESIDENT ADAM ANTHAM Sharala abruptly stepped down.
Speaking of the former president of the Itttennis Federation who has been in office for 15 years, he has a lot to tell about the Chinese table tennis industry (hereinafter referred to as "national table tennis").
Sharala has led several changes to the rules of table tennis competitions, such as: small balls to large balls, 21 points to 11 points, unobstructed serves, the adjustment of Olympic doubles to team events, "glue ban" and so on.
He even tried to force Liu Guoliang and Kong Linghui to retire early by exerting pressure. What are the deeper reasons behind these behaviors?
Did he suddenly step down in ashes, was it because "there was no way to change, he couldn't stand it", or because of his own corruption problem, he had to resign early?
History will eventually tell us the truth.
01 Self-theft
After leaving office in 2014, Sharala went on to serve as The ITTF's Honorary President until March 2019, when he was officially suspended from the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) and was not allowed to participate in any ITTF-related competitions.
Regarding the direct cause of the punishment, the statement read: "Breach of fiduciary duties during his presidency of the ITTF". He took advantage of his position to use his power for personal gain in the TMS International repurchase transaction, not only interfering in the equipment bidding process, but also using the FUNDS of the ITTF in violation of the law on many occasions.
According to the post-assessment, Sharala illegally made nearly $20 million in these transactions.
In addition, the Sharala couple registered a health centre in 2008 and relocated the ITTF headquarters here to earn high rents.
Only the virtuous can obey others. This is liu Bei's words in teaching his beloved son Liu Chan in his last will, to the effect that "only a wise man and a noble character can make people convinced." This phrase is applied to Sharala, a high-ranking sports official, and must be seen in the opposite direction. Virtue is the power of the soul, and it is difficult for a person who is not worthy of virtue to go further.
Although Sharala's status in the table tennis arena is high, he is not wise and unclear, and his private morality is corrupt, which eventually leads to the late festival and the loss of his reputation.
Throughout history, there are many such examples, but there are always people who cannot restrain their selfish desires and let history repeat itself again and again.
The problem of Sharala is not only a personal problem, but also to some extent exposes the fact that some of the mechanisms of the Table Tennis Federation are not sound enough.
Before the ITTF issued a statement, it had asked Sharala to attend the hearing and give a truthful account of the relevant issues, but it refused.
Virtue is realized by deeds, not by words. Faced with her own mistakes, Sharala chose to evade responsibility, which shows how virtuous she is and makes the public even more contemptuous.
His actions not only buried what little reputation he had left, but also cast an indelible stain on the ITTF.
One cannot help but ask, how did such a morally inferior person climb to such a high position?
02 From golfer to chairman of the Table Tennis Federation
Sharala is not native-born Canadian, but Egyptian.
He showed a talent for playing table tennis from an early age and entered the national team at the age of 19. A few years later, the twenty-five-year-old Sharala chose to retire and was hired as a coach by a Table Tennis Club in Canada shortly after. Under his training, DomonsZenk won the National Women's Singles Championship. Sharala has since become a Canadian citizen.
After some coaching achievements, Sharala was hired as a technical instructor by the Canadian Table Tennis Association. He was very managerial and skilled, and within a few years he was promoted to the ceo of the association.
The former table tennis player, who was both capable and ambitious, climbed all the way and eventually became the sixth president of the ITTF in 1999.
03 In order to hinder the national table tennis, several reforms
During his tenure, Sharala led a package of reforms, namely the "small ball to the big ball" mentioned at the beginning of this article, the 21 points to 11 points, and so on.
In this regard, Sharala has repeatedly told the media that it is not for the Chinese table tennis team, but to make the table tennis competition more exciting.
As we all know, the national table tennis has long won gold, silver and bronze medals, and rarely meets opponents. "Wood shows in the forest, the wind will destroy it", an invincible existence inevitably attracts jealousy and unnecessary accusations.
Under the manipulation and promotion of some special people, the "Chinese table tennis monopoly theory" has never disappeared. Since you can't defeat it head-on, let's find a way out of the rules.
In order to meet the improper demands of some people, Sharala has introduced some new rules that are "tailor-made", which are precisely to curb the play of national table tennis, and its sophistry is difficult to convince.
Trickery is just a poor shrewdness! In the face of diligence and skill, it is vulnerable.
The so-called "small ball becomes a large ball" is to change the previous diameter of 38 mm to 40 mm. Although it has only increased by 2mm, it has a big impact on ball speed.
"The world's martial arts, only fast is not broken." The national table tennis players are all well aware of the essence of this sentence, and when they play the ball, it is called a lightning bolt.
The skills of the national table tennis team members are not born, they are all honed day by day by practicing boy skills from an early age. In order to adapt to the way of playing big balls as soon as possible, it is necessary to reform the entire training method. Big ball will make the players lose the big advantage of "fast ball speed", and it is not easy to make up for it in a short period of time.
What is a road? The road is trampled from the place where there is no road, from the place where there are only thorns.
It takes pressure to make gunpowder fire. Our table tennis athletes have never lacked such courage and determination!
History proves that in the face of absolute power, any conspiracy and trickery are futile.
Sharala didn't stop there, and then she started the idea of "scoring" - changing the 21-point scale to 11 points.
He is a professional in the circle himself, familiar with the characteristics and playing style of the Chinese team: amazing physical strength, full of tenacity, especially good at protracted battles - always able to turn the situation around in a relatively long game, counterattack and turn the tables, and finally win.
The greatly shortened timing of the game increases uncertainty and contingency, and for national table tennis players, such a targeted change is obviously unfair.
Sharala and the conspiracyists behind him did find the fate of the national table tennis players, and in the period after the division system was just reformed, the performance of the national table tennis was greatly affected.
Art can have no borders, but artists have a homeland. This principle also applies to sports competition, and keeping one's own technology secret is by no means a broom. Since it is competitive, technology is top secret.
Companies that lose their core technology will be uncompetitive and will go bankrupt overnight.
The cover action before the serve is like a barrier, so that the opponent can't see the coming of the ball, lose the opportunity, and fall behind in an instant.
Sharala proposed "unobstructed serve" to eliminate this advantage of national table tennis. When your serve posture and movements are exposed, you lose the opportunity to start the game, so that the opponent is ready to pick up the move.
That's not all, Sharala then got her head on glue and table tennis materials – the racket was changed to inorganic glue, and after the table tennis was changed to plastic, the ball speed was affected again. For the national table tennis team that plays "fast and accurately", this is another big constraint.
Inorganic glue is an aqueous solution type of glue that directly affects the elasticity of the racket and slows down the ball speed. Changing the table tennis to a plastic ball makes the ball speed drop again and again.
In 2005, Sharala led the restructuring of table tennis at the Beijing Olympics, the most influential of which was the adjustment of men's and women's doubles to men's and women's teams.
In addition, the number of players in a single event is limited to 2. This is for the Chinese team with a very high overall level.
04 Just because you don't admit it doesn't mean you haven't done it
In the face of reporters' questioning, Sharala has always had a set of grandiose statements, denying that he is deliberately restricting the suppression of the Chinese team.
"Changing it to a big ball was proposed by the previous chairman of the Table Tennis Federation."
"The 21-point system was changed to an 11-point scale to improve the ornamentation."
In April 2014, a whistleblower letter caused a huge storm. The 15-page whistleblower details Sharaala's many disgraceful practices during his long tenure.
In the face of ironclad evidence, Sharala is irrefutable.
After being forced to step down from the presidency of the Table Tennis Federation in advance, Sharala publicly wrote: "I am not trying to stop my work, but to seek change." ”
This made people who did not know the truth applaud him at the time, but it was nothing more than a cover-up of the fact that they were weak-minded.
"I come every year to preside over the annual general meeting of the ITTF,...... The responsibilities and projects of the General Assembly for the next year will also be proposed, and a development plan will be proposed. "Salada" is "addicted" to a lot, and the words are full of love.
Not admitting it does not mean that it has not been done, the years have spared anyone, and Sharala was finally liquidated, which was very gratifying.
Because of their physique, national table tennis players generally do not rely on brute force to win, but rely on excellent technology and super fast ball speed.
Athletic training is a systematic project that needs to be gradual, and abrupt changes to the training plan will cause many problems and adverse effects. Affected by these so-called "reforms", players such as Liu Guoliang and Kong Linghui, who were at the peak of their careers at the time, slipped and slipped again.
The president of the European Table Tennis Federation, Bossi, has exposed the fact that Salad is using power for personal gain in the form of an open letter. "In order to benefit her relatives, Sharala has built a complex bloated system."
Back in 2001, Sharala registered a table tennis international marketing company called TMS. In the years that followed, he used his authority to broker deals between the company and the ITTF.
The golden time of the athlete's career is only a few short years, and when Liu Guoliang, Kong Linghui and several other seeded players have adapted to the new rules, they have reached the age of decline.
If you want to sum up this history in four words, it can only be: non-war crimes.
The national table tennis players did not lose their minds, but redoubled their training and adapted to the new rules as soon as possible. After Liu Guoliang and Kong Linghui, a group of outstanding young players grew up.
After the national table tennis team lost the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, immediately closed the door after returning home, after a year of adjustment, in the 2005 Shanghai World Championships to create a brilliant: all the championships.
At the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the national table tennis team was unstoppable and won consecutive good results. What people remember vividly is that the three Chinese men's team players hung their gold medals around the neck of head coach Liu Guoliang. At that time, the battlefield commander was middle-aged and had already developed, and at that moment he shed tears of excitement - he was relieved that there were people who followed the national table tennis team and rushed out of the bad obstacles of the outside world.
The calamities of the people often became his learning. The national table tennis team, which had suffered setbacks, survived and became more able to fight well.
epilogue
Although Sharala's actions have caused some bad effects, he is only a tool of some people after all, a whetstone for the national table tennis team, and a big joke in the sports world!
After the incident, three years have passed, and the late salala can only stay in the residence and live in silence every day. There was not much left for him, and I didn't know how deep down he regretted what he had done.
The green mountains can't cover it, after all, it flows east. We must be wary of the existence of people like "Shara" but we must not limit our eyes to this generation.
In contemporary society, there is no country and region in the world that does not attach importance to sports events. Sports is not only an excellent way to improve the physical fitness of the whole people, but also to boost people's hearts and enhance cohesion.
A truly big country must also be a sports power. Along the way, China has become more prosperous and powerful day by day. On the road of national rejuvenation, we are walking faster and faster, higher and higher, stronger and stronger!
bibliography
1. Wen Wei Po Wang Yan, "Sharala's Adoption of Proposals is the Trend of the Times", January 15, 2010
2. Song Fei, "We Don't Limit Europe, Let Alone China- An Interview with ITTF President Salalah", Table Tennis World, No. 06, 2005
3. Chen Jie, Eve Sharala defended herself that the reform was not directed at China, Ping Pong World, No. 01, 2002
4. Forrest Gump Sharala's "Dialogue" with Chinese Fans, Table Tennis World, May 2004
5. Wen Wei Po Zhan Yue suspended for four years! The ITTF lists three "crimes" of former president Sharala2019-3-15