It's too burning!!! Did everyone watch the men's table tennis final of the World Table Tennis Championships a few days ago? We're winning the championship again!
After the X round of battle, we won the championship of this World Table Tennis Championships, and the Chinese men's team also achieved the record of ten consecutive championships of the World Table Tennis Championships.
Chinese women's table tennis players are also extremely competitive, and the Chinese women's team won the Japanese women's team 3:0 to win the championship this year, and achieved five consecutive championships.
In this arena, even the age of a veteran in his 20s can be called a veteran, but there is a 59-year-old player who has been active on the court.
She is the 59-year-old table tennis veteran - Ni Xialian, yes, this year's Chengdu World Table Tennis Championships, she is here again.
This year, at the Chengdu World Table Tennis Championships team competition, Ni Xialian led Luxembourg to the round of 16.
Unfortunately, in the women's team quarter-finals on October 5, Luxembourg lost 3-1 to Portugal and missed the quarterfinals.
She also bid farewell to the team competition of this World Table Tennis Championships.
From the age of 7 to table tennis at the age of 59 still fighting in the table tennis arena, she has made herself a legend.
In 2021, a reporter asked her, "Will this be your last Olympic Games?" ”
"I don't remember my age now, so I think I'm a little younger today than I am tomorrow," she said.
59 years old, table tennis master, five-game Olympics, who is it?
People who don't pay much attention to sports events may not be familiar with it, but the audience who knows her will burst into tears:
"Please make her a big movie!" That's called sportsmanship! ”
"I was impressed by her charm!"
"She really did what she loved all her life!"
The birth of "Strange Ball Player" Ni Xialian
As a table tennis player who can fight non-stop all the way, Ni Xialian's table tennis talent is beyond doubt.
Ni Xialian is a child who is full of curiosity about external things, and her father was worried that she could not focus on one thing. It wasn't until she met table tennis that the genius finally found her field.
Like other gifted teenagers, education begins with dolls. 7-year-old Ni Xialian was sent to table tennis school by her parents and began table tennis training.
Her entire childhood was spent almost as a day in training and frequent competitions.
In 1972, the table tennis team of the Shanghai Jiangwan Stadium Junior Sports School was photographed.
The second from the left in the front row is Ni Xialian.
Ni Xialian's road to table tennis was not smooth. Due to his short height, he was dropped out of the sports school and transferred to the Shanghai Workers' Team for training.
Ni Xialian was like a bird flying in the blue sky, and her wings were suddenly broken.
Maxima is common, but Bole is not. After the high-intensity training of the Shanghai Workers' Team had achieved results, after being valued by another sports school coach, he recalled to the sports school and began a counterattack journey.
In 1977, Shanghai selected members of the National Junior Competition, and she was selected with the second result. In August, as the main player of the Shanghai team, he won the team championship and the women's singles championship.
In 1978, Ni Xialian, known as "Little Boy", became the main member of the Shanghai team.
At the age of 16, she won the runner-up in women's singles at the 1979 National Games and was able to enter the national team.
Don't watch the athletes play on stage for a few minutes, but offstage it takes countless repeated exercises to get a more perfect presentation.
Ni Xia Liancheng is known as the "Strange Ball Player" in the industry.
This is related to her unique style of play, she shoots straight with her left hand, uses a long rubber racket, and the ball path is unpredictable.
Ni Xialian innovated the straight plate long rubber attack and pull push combined with the inverted beat play, and then the continuation of the long rubber playing style is Deng Yaping, who everyone knows.
Ni Xialian in the national team is not afraid of suffering, not afraid of tiredness, and even, sometimes in the game, she will be very worried that her mistakes will bring defeat to the team.
Finally, her dedication and persistence have also been rewarded by fate.
On the pitch, she is a very difficult player to deal with, the inverting technique is very skilled, each cricket has a different speed and rotation, making her opponents often feel overwhelmed.
In the 37th World Championships, his partner Guo Yuehua, a famous national table tennis player, won the mixed doubles world championship with "not losing a game".
This mixed doubles champion is also her only single event world champion.
That year, Ni Xialian was only 20 years old.
Standing on the podium and listening to the national anthem, Ni Xialian understood at that moment what she wanted to do, and also strengthened her determination to go all the way.
At this point, Ni Xialian's athletic career reached its peak.
However, after the 38th World Championships, with the growth of powerful players and the influx of young table tennis talents, Ni Xialian gradually left the main position.
In 1986, Ni Xialian retired from the national team, ending this seven-year journey. She returned to Shanghai from Beijing and entered Shanghai Jiaotong University to study.
History of overseas struggle
At the age of 37, he finally realized his dream of the Olympic Games
Although Ni Xialian retired, her love for table tennis has not dissipated.
After retiring from the national team, she traveled to Europe, first playing for a year in Germany and finally in Luxembourg.
In 1986, the club of the German company Beyer went to her home and asked her to help them relegate in the Bundesliga.
In early 1989, he entered the German table tennis arena and won every battle within one year.
Every player has their own weaknesses, and Ni Xialian is no exception.
As she grew older, her physical toughness and physical strength declined, each time she added a new and difficult move, it was a kind of torture for her.
Self-defeating is very important for table tennis players.
Sometimes playing makes her feel physically and mentally tired, and some games are not satisfactory. The inverted board can deceive the opponent, but sometimes she herself is confused.
The biggest improvement after Ni Xialian came to Europe was to improve her ability to play arc balls.
The arc style of play is quite a threat to Ni Xialian.
Sweden's Svensson is one of the most effective European players to deal with Ni Xialian.
At the 1998 European Championships, she was the only player to beat Ni Xialian.
However, Ni Xialian's tenacious will and rich experience in competitions have enabled her to achieve excellent results in some major international competitions.
Her success in a series of competitions in Europe means she is becoming more and more confident in herself.
In 1998 he won the Polish Open, the Bulgarian Open, the European Championship singles champion, and two U.S. Open titles in 1998 and 1999.
Ni Xialian ushered in her own highlight moment, three European Championship singles champions, three European Round of 12 champions.
In 1998, Ni Xialian rose to 4th place in the world rankings, behind Deng Yaping, Wang Nan and Li Ju.
Not to accept the shoot is not Ni Xialian's original intention, over the years, the European women's table tennis has not emerged from the local strong hand, many times, she is "warm and difficult".
At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, 37-year-old Ni Xialian played for Luxembourg, finally realizing her Olympic dream and reaching the women's singles round of 16.
From 2002 to 2007, Ni Xialian left table tennis for a time.
After the 2008 Olympic Games, Ni Xialian was time to rest both in terms of age and physical fitness. However, the Luxembourg Table Tennis Association looked at Mao Lu and hoped that Ni Xialian would wear a battle robe.
Ni Xialian thought about it and finally agreed, her concept is "to help others, but also to help themselves", at the same time, it is an affirmation of their own value, so thinking about it is solid in their hearts, but also found motivation.
Since then, Beijing, London, Rio, and Tokyo, she has not been absent.
In 2015, at the age of 52, she defeated Ai Fukuhara 4-3.
At the 2017 World Table Tennis Federation Austrian Open, Ni Xialian set a new record.
Ni Xialian fought hard in seven sets and defeated 19-year-old Japanese sharpener Hashimoto Hotaru 4-3.
That game lasted 1 hour, 32 minutes and 44 seconds, setting a record for the longest game in the history of modern table tennis.
Since going abroad and stepping into other countries, she is like a "ping-pong ambassador".
She brought her table tennis skills learned in China to the Luxembourg platform, including the promotion of the sport on the European and world stages.
She always had a smile on her face, and her prerequisite was that she loved table tennis.
When asked by a reporter if she could make a bold prediction about how old she would eventually be, Ni Xialian joked with her husband, the coach, that I was still a newcomer.
Aunt Ni
True Olympic spirit
Because of table tennis, Ni Xialian met a lifelong partner in Luxembourg.
In Tokyo in 1983, when Nelson first met Ni Xialian, he fell in love at first sight.
Denison wanted to get to know the Chinese girl, but he told himself to be patient and wait for the Chinese girl.
Karma, it's so wonderful.
11 years later, Denison coached the Luxembourg national team, and he was pleasantly surprised to find that Ni Xialian was in front of him, this time, he seized the opportunity and took the initiative to pursue.
Today, Ni Xialian is a household name in Luxembourg.
She represented Luxembourg in the Olympic Games five times and reached the podium at the World Table Tennis Championships, making Luxembourg table tennis history.
Not long ago, Ni Xialian was awarded the "Chavenlier" (Order of the Oak Crown) for her outstanding contribution to Luxembourg's sports industry.
She never saw age as an obstacle.
Even if the contestant who played with her was an eighteen- or nineteen-year-old girl, she was not thinking about why she was no longer young, but how to learn the difficult movements of her opponents.
What's more, she has a wealth of experience and skill, and young opponents should be afraid, not that she is afraid of them.
She prefers that people focus on her actions and efforts rather than her age.
The athletic lifespan of table tennis players generally does not exceed 25 years, but Ni Xialian has created a legend in this field.
She never sets limits on her life, and it also allows us to see how far a person can go.
After 30 years, her love of table tennis has never changed, and she still runs, rotates and swings on the field.
The years have changed her countenance, but the dream has never been far away.
Whether she won the prize or not, from the moment she stood on the field, she won.
And for you and me in front of the screen, why shouldn't it be so?
Won, lost, but never gave up.