A few days ago, the unexpected death of Chinese professional darts player Zhou Momo caused a huge repercussion in the darts circle, and many dart friends felt particularly sorry that Chinese darts lost such an excellent dartman.
While praying for Zhou Momo, let's review how Zhou Momo embarked on the road of professional darts, and how her success inspires us.
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Text / Artichoke
Edited / Li Jiajun
On January 25, bad news came from the darts circle: Zhou Momo, a female player who represented China in the PDC Darts World Cup, died of illness at the age of 31.
The Professional Darts League (PDC) also released the news through official social media on the same day, in which Zhou Momo was evaluated as the first female player to represent China on the TV broadcast of the Darts World Cup.
Zhou Momo
In fact, the popularity of darts in China is still in its infancy, and for those who aspire to work full-time as professional dartsmen, both the language and the cost of the competition are difficult to ignore. Even if sponsorship can be found and the language can be overcome, its own strength must reach a certain height. This is especially true for high-spec and high-prize events.
Taking the competitions held by the professional darts league as an example, Chinese players can only qualify for the PDC World Championships and PDC World Cup only through a wild card in China.
In the three years of the epidemic, the pattern of the world dart scene has changed from one pole to many poles, and the situation of British and Dutch players monopolizing the dart world has gradually collapsed, and more excellent dart players in European countries have begun to spring up. But focusing on Chinese players, these three years may be the toughest time of their darts careers.
During the epidemic, the cost of competing abroad is expensive, and the professional darts league will not provide any additional subsidies other than the daily expenses and air tickets to participate in the World Championships and World Cups. The dart players who flew to the UK to compete and were stranded in the local area had to pay all the extra costs incurred by not being able to return home on time due to the epidemic... A series of subjective and objective reasons have led to Chinese players only competing in China, thus becoming farther and farther away from the world's mainstream.
It should be noted that these difficulties are only for male players, and for women, participating in professional competitions to get prize money to support their survival mode is even more out of reach.
The lack of attention paid to the women's own darts events and the pitiful low prize money make it difficult for them to stay in the circle for a long time. To improve your life, you have to make it to tournaments dominated by male darts, such as the World Championship and the British Open – but so far, only Fallon Sherlock has been shortlisted and triumphed in these important tournaments. In the Chinese dart world, except for Zhou Momo, there is hardly a second female player who has been active in this circle for a long time.
But Zhou Momo also proves that female players can also stand in the sport of darts and succeed.
Three years ago, CCTV followed Zhou Momo to film her life and training routine.
Through that documentary, we can see that Zhou Momo, who comes from a single-parent family, lacks her father's love since she was a child, which makes her develop the tenacity to "rely on herself for things". After graduating from university, she came into contact with darts after a gathering of friends, and as she continued to deepen her knowledge of the sport, she moved alone to Yantai, where the darts environment is stronger.
When others train for half a day, she dedicates the whole day to darts. In her own words, there are only darts in life, "Sometimes I get dizzy when I practice darts, and I can't lift my arms the next day." With this hard work, she has also quickly grown from a little girl who has nothing to do with throwing darts to a beginner who can play and win tournaments.
In 2018, the 26-year-old Zhou Momo ushered in the explosion of her career, she defeated a group of male players (defeated Zong Xiaochen in the final) through the PDC China audition and qualified for the World Cup.
In London in June, she and Zong Xiaochen represented China in the arena of the world's top darts event, becoming the first Chinese female player in China to appear on the TV broadcast of the PDC Darts World Cup, as the Professional Darts League said. Not only that, Zhou Momo is also the second female player in the history of the Darts World Cup, which truly confirms the title of "the first female dart in China".
In December of the same year, after Zhou Momo won the women's championship of the China Open Darts, he defeated the men's champion Han Shichang in the final of the International Championship to promote to the "double champion".
Zhou Momo and Zong Xiaochen
Both are from Dandong, Liaoning Province, and became teammates at the 2018 Darts World Cup
Participating in domestic competitions can no longer satisfy Zhou Momo's dreams and ambitions. In 2020, she began applying to compete in the Perfect Darts series in Japan, which had never had a foreign female competitor participate before.
Zhou Momo, who did not know Japanese, made unimaginable efforts for that tournament, not only successfully qualified for the competition, but also won the championship in the first competition. In the more than ten races since then, Zhou Momo has won nine of them, setting off a violent Chinese whirlwind in the Dongying Dart Altar and gaining many Japanese dart fans.
Such achievements are undoubtedly great achievements and breakthroughs for Chinese darts.
Zong Xiaochen also commented on her in a circle of friends commemorating Zhou Momo, "You are the first Chinese mainland dart player to win glory for the country in overseas competitions."
Zhou Momo competing in Japan (left)
Over the past three years, the number of Chinese darts players participating in international competitions has been greatly reduced, and the difficulties and twists and turns encountered have made the development of the sport in China more negative. Zhou Momo is the only remaining bit of sunlight in this darkness.
Next week, she should have set out on her journey to Japan in her ready-made race suit to continue competing in the Perfect series... However, all this has come to an abrupt end.
We had planned to interview several dart players who had a good relationship with Zhou Momo, but they all chose to decline. At this difficult time, her friends, the darts in the circle are undoubtedly very painful. In their circle of friends, we can see their admiration and longing for Zhou Momo, and they also carry the hope of the future of Chinese darts.
We hope that in the near future, more names of Chinese darts will appear on the world stage, so that the flame of hope protected by Zhou Momo can continue to burn.