Zhang Jike: The second fall

In Zagreb in 2007, in the second round of mixed doubles, 19-year-old Zhang Jike and 18-year-old Yao Yan walked out of the arena with their heads drawn.

The coach of the women's team, Kong Linghui, affirmed the strength of his opponent and blocked the reporter's request for an interview with Yao Yan. Compared with Kong Linghui's care for his apprentices, Liu Guoliang was "full of firepower"——

"Zhang Jike is the least satisfying in this competition... His performance was completely different from what I thought... The eyes are high, the hands are low, and the expectations of themselves are too high... Through this game, he needs to have an objective understanding of himself. ”

Chinese players and coaches often face reporters with a flat line, and a pair of mixed doubles rookies under the age of 20 stopped in the round of 64, the results are ugly, but it does not seem to make the coach so angry. Because of this, Liu Guoliang's words caught Zhang Jike and the reporters at the scene a little off guard.

And that's just the picture on TV.

Taking off the microphone, turning off the camera, Liu Guoliang, who was still angry, even blurted out to a reporter he knew well: I will not give him another chance for such a team member.

Of course, this is the coach's angry words in private, and it is a helplessness for a young athlete to hate iron and steel.

A 19-year-old young man playing in the World Championships for the first time was judged by his coach, which was somewhat harsh. Liu Guoliang was not afraid that Zhang Jike would be slumped, and he was even more afraid that because he was not prudent enough, he would let this piece of jade be buried again and would never be able to bloom.

Why "again"?

Go back in time 3 years:

The dormitory of the men's table second team, 16-year-old Zhang Jike, mechanically packed his luggage. The "expulsion" was an expected decision, and it was Liu Guoliang, who was still a young coach at the time, who informed him to leave the team.

Liu Guoliang has been sending Zhang Jike to the bus leaving the team, and during the whole process, all the words of comfort pale, and Zhang Jike's problem has broken through the scope of team rules and discipline.

Regarding this "removal", the Chinese table tennis team has not given a clear explanation. After Zhang Jike became famous, Liu Guoliang said in an interview that Jike only made a small mistake at that time, but in order to teach him a lesson, he was fired.

And the news that the media broke out, far from being covered by "small things", if the media broke the news, suspected of gambling and running away from the team, it is a very serious mistake, just to leave the team, parents send their children to the national team for training, if not managed well, in case something happens after leaving the team, how can the team explain to parents?

Conversely, how much money you have to lose is cruel enough to face it, which is obviously not the concept of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

When he won the World Youth Championship at the age of 14, Zhang Jike seemed to see an avenue full of honor and flowers, which slowly spread out in front of him.

Just two years later, he was sent back to his hometown in Shandong along the road he came from.

The pain of gaining and then losing is far more painful than "never getting".

In the future, metamorphosis or fall? Silence or a fresh start? Zhang Jike, who felt that the world had collapsed, did not know that there was a man named Yin Xiao who was waiting for him in his hometown.

【Broken plate】

In the 2000 World Table Tennis Championships team competition, the Chinese men's team lost 2-3 to Sweden and lost the championship trophy.

What is less known is that on the eve of this final, core players Kong Linghui and Liu Guoliang's head coach Yin Xiao embarked on the flight back to China alone.

If this matter is put into other sports teams, it will at least be interpreted as "infighting among the coaching staff before the game, resulting in the loss of the Chinese team", and even more difficult speculation is unknown.

Soon after, this one of the four elders who followed the old Cai to "fight the rivers and mountains" since Cai Zhenhua "returned to China to start a business", left the national team and returned to Shandong.

A few years later, he met Zhang Jike, who had also returned from frustration with the national team.

Zhang Jike's depression is conceivable, a teenager who is ashamed to see people, wears a cap, travels every day, and even once accidentally fell into the sewer because the brim of the hat was too low.

Many fans know that Zhang Jike in the process of rebuilding confidence, in order to relieve the stuffy emotions, drove to the mountain to break the plate, what the fans did not pay much attention to was that the person standing next to Zhang Jike to accompany him to break the plate was Yin Xiao.

It was Zhang Jike's most downtrodden 2 years, Yin Xiao used the companionship and guidance of his master and father, and at the end of 2006, he personally sent Zhang Jike to the national team again.

The Beijing Olympic cycle is the peak moment of "two kings and one horse", of course, there is nothing wrong with Zhang Jike.

【The only chance】

Time to the 2012 cycle, the replacement of new and old is an opportunity and a challenge, at that time Chinese men's table tennis, "two kings and one horse" Lianpo old state has declined significantly, young Ma Long, Zhang Jike, Xu Xin has not yet had strong personal results to support the status in the team.

In the Moscow World Table Tennis Championships team competition held in this context, the women's team, which forcibly replaced the old and new, unexpectedly lost to Singapore in the final.

This put a lot of pressure on the men's team finals that followed, from the players to the coaching staff.

Wang Hao, who was previously dubbed "Fat Hao" by netizens because of his declining state and out of shape, was staked by Liu Guoliang to lose weight and was absent from the World Series for a long time, said that there was a problem with his racket 5 minutes before submitting the final list.

"Can it work?"

In the face of the coaching staff's inquiry, Wang Hao showed a little hesitation, and Liu Guoliang decided to change.

On Zhang Jike!

This is almost the "only" opportunity Liu Guoliang gave Zhang Jike. Repeatedly bumped into the coach, once expelled from the national team, has not yet had a strong result in the senior team, whether such a thorn should be important, some people in the coaching staff have doubts, it is a normal thing.

And now, Liu Guoliang decided to use this person.

This is a game that must be won, Liu Guoliang can not lose, Chinese men's table tennis can not lose, just lost the women's team championship the day before, the Chinese table tennis team can not afford the consequences of losing the championship of both men's and women's teams, to put it bluntly, can not afford to lose.

God also seems to be intentionally testing Zhang Jike, originally thinking that the smooth game, Ma Long accidentally lost. In front of the 1-1 big score, the third set was particularly important.

Zhang Jike can't lose, once he misses, he will bear the reputation of "dropping the chain at the critical moment", which is by no means alarmist, Ma Long, who lost this competition, directly from the key training object of the two Olympic cycles, fell to the third person in the team and lost the singles qualification. The brutality of professional sports is what it is.

As a result, everyone knows that there is no danger, Zhang Jike shows the inevitable lack of experience of young athletes, and also shows a personal tough style of ball and a psychological quality that can be carried and withheld.

This match is the most important turning point in Zhang Jike's career.

From the genius boy who was on par with Ma Long back then, to the years of a 2-year delay in the rising period, to starting from scratch and a good opportunity from the sky, when the avenue full of flowers and honor slowly unfolded in front of him for the second time, Zhang Jike grabbed him deadly.

【Blood Border】

Zhang Jike's two Olympic cycles, competitors are mainly Wang Hao and Ma Long.

The London cycle, although it started a little late, but after experiencing the Moscow World Table Tennis Championships, Zhang Jike rose from a young man who was preparing to succeed in the echelon to a chance to compete for the Olympic list.

The first opportunity he faced to break into the top two main layers was the 2011 World Table Tennis Championships, facing the battle-hardened Wang Hao, Zhang Jike, who participated in the singles of the World Table Tennis Championships for the first time, picked Big Brother 4-2 in the final.

The moment he won the championship, Zhang Jike roared up to the sky, shredded his shirt, and also tore open the hole in the men's singles competition in the tightly knitted Olympic preparation cycle.

A year later, the freshly dressed boy won the Olympic singles title in the warm sunshine of the Thames River in London, achieving the Grand Slam of the World Championships, the World Cup and the Olympic Games, setting a record for the fastest Grand Slam in 445 days.

The frustrated Olympic men's singles photographed by Zhang Jike was still Wang Hao, and this defeat made Wang Hao lose the opportunity to complete the Grand Slam forever.

Zhang Jike, who was full of spirits, changed a celebratory move, and he ran all the way to the sidelines and kissed the championship podium.

In the new cycle, the 2014 World Cup final, after fighting Ma Long for 7 rounds and finally winning the championship, Zhang Jike's celebratory moves escalated again - he kicked the billboard on the sidelines, and also smashed Ma Long's face and confidence. The boundary between the bloodiness of athletes caused by this action is still being discussed, and he was fined 45,000 US dollars, equivalent to about 300,000 yuan.

The fine of 300,000 yuan is no longer a problem for Zhang Jike, who bought a house and a car for his parents shortly after returning to the national team, becoming a positive example of the coach encouraging young players to "play well and be filial to their parents in the future".

All this is the gain that table tennis has brought him.

【Lonely Tibetan Mastiff】

Zhang Jike did not like to play table tennis when he was a child, but liked to play football, and his name is a homonym of Brazilian football star Zico. But the father saw that the future of Chinese football was bleak and forced his son to switch to table tennis.

Zhang Jike, who is naturally stubborn, encounters a stern father who beats people if he disobeys, and many decisions in his adolescence may not fully agree with him, but he is also powerless to resist. Zhang Jike became more and more reticent in the high-intensity and high-pressure training day after day.

After entering the national team, Liu Guoliang said that Zhang Jike "is very independent, likes to be alone, and doesn't talk to anyone much." ”

Zhang Jike is like a "lone wolf", he does not like to be gregarious, and he is ruthless with himself alone.

His "ruthlessness" revealed his clues very early. Some insiders broke the news that when they played ball as a child, other children generally said ruthlessly, which was nothing more than "I want to win you", but Zhang Jike was: "Whoever loses will chop off his fingers", "After chopping off his left hand and chopping his right hand"!

In the national team, Zhang Jike practiced "ruthlessly" and was also famous, and he played closed playing many times in his career.

Someone asked him, if you live ten years less, in exchange for you to win a game, would you be willing?

He replied: Don't say ten years less, I am willing to exchange my life for it.

Not soft on his opponent or soft on himself, Liu Guoliang nicknamed Zhang Jike "Tibetan Mastiff". If you add a prefix to this "Tibetan mastiff", it should be "lonely Tibetan mastiff".

【Confusing gambling rumors】

Zhang Jike's style of play is extremely demanding on his physical condition, and his injuries are no longer enough to support him to continue high-intensity training.

In the Tokyo cycle, Zhang Jike, who gradually faded out of the national team, began a wonderful life off the field.

He participates in entertainment activities, meets celebrity girlfriends, and earns 60 million a year, all of which have become the talk of people after tea.

Zhang Jike's first publicly admitted girlfriend is national team teammate Liu Shiwen, for the division and combination, Zhang Jike has always been very generous: "After all, falling in love involves a lot of energy, it's good not to quarrel, a quarrel mood will definitely be affected, Liu Shiwen and I are both particularly strong people, so separation is inevitable." ”

From Liu Shiwen to Jing Tian, not long after the online confession of "K heart T", Zhang Jike fell into the disturbance outside the venue.

Zhang Jike is not the first time involved in gambling, in March 2015, during the National Table Tennis competition in Germany, German media broke the news that Zhang Jike once sneaked out of the hotel and left with a group of people, "Their destination is the casino..."

The relationship between the Chinese table tennis team and gambling, the well-documented part, can be traced back to the 90s of the last century, in the movie "Chinese Table Tennis Jedi Strikes Back", the coach prototype Cai Zhenhua turned over the dice when checking the dormitory of the players.

Of course, film and television have artistic processing, but the actual situation is more serious, at that time, the Chinese team was relatively scattered, there were not many entertainment projects for the players, and the style of playing mahjong was relatively popular. The most serious one, after the game, a big brother player, with his teammates, played in the hotel until midnight.

That incident ended with the leading eldest brother being fined 5 figures, and the other participating team members were also fined various amounts.

A few years later, Kong Linghui, who had been promoted to coach of the women's team, was revealed to have been chased by a casino. Kong Linghui left the national team coaching staff and has not returned.

Now, the younger Zhang Jike stepped into the same river:

Whether Zhang Jike ran away at the age of 16 because he couldn't face him because of gambling, we don't have a definitive answer.

At the age of 35, Zhang Jike was once again involved in gambling rumors.

"Sorry, the phone you made is turned off." This is Zhang Jike's final answer left to the outside world in this whirlpool of public opinion.