Text | Little meow
Edit | The early sun
As sung in the song "Invincible", "How lonely is invincible".
When many table tennis players retired due to injury, there was such a woman, but she chose to retire because she had no opponent.
She is the "big devil" Zhang Yining, who has ruled the table tennis world for more than ten years.
Talent is revealed
Born in Beijing in 1981, Zhang Yining has been a well-known wild child since he was a child. Zhang Yining has a neat short haircut, and compared to other little girls who like to play dolls and play house, her favorite sports are playing football and running.
In the hutong where Zhang Yining lives, she runs faster than some boys.
Because his parents were busy with work, they had little discipline for Zhang Yining, so when he was a child, after school, Zhang Yining was like having fun, taking a group of friends in the alley and playing various games.
In 1987, an accidental night changed Zhang Yining's life.
On this day, as usual, she played a game of jumping lattice with the children in the alley.
Just when the children were jumping the grid, Zhang Yining's uncle passed by and became an enthusiastic spectator.
He found that his niece was particularly agile, not only did she switch between one and her feet easily, but she also had very good balance.
Subsequently, his uncle and Zhang Yining returned home together, and he mentioned the matter to Zhang Yining's parents, thinking that Zhang Yining had a good athletic talent, and they might as well send her to learn table tennis.
At that time, China's table tennis industry was not as rapid as it is today, and it was in its infancy.
Although Zhang Yining's parents are just ordinary workers, their love for their children has never been less. After hearing his brother's suggestion, the couple sent Zhang Yining to a sports school in Beijing to practice table tennis.
The moment he picked up the racket, Zhang Yining found that he seemed to have telepathy with it, and he was very comfortable playing, not at all like the level that an inexperienced child could play.
The teachers of the sports school also discovered Zhang Yining's talent and took Zhang Yining as a key training object.
In 1987, Zhang Yining was only six years old at the time. Since then, Zhang Yining's table tennis career has begun.
Work hard to achieve yourself
As the youngest table tennis player in the sports school training team at that time, Zhang Yining had more amazing perseverance than some children older than her.
Although she is a girl, she is never afraid of any bumps and sprains, and she can immediately pick up the racket and continue to practice when she is injured.
Little Zhang Yining doesn't know what love is, but she knows that the racket in her hand and the table tennis ball dancing in the air are things she often sees in her dreams.
In 1990, in a regional competition, Zhang Yining won the first championship of his table tennis career.
The 9-year-old was playing against a 12-year-old girl, and although there was a huge disparity in age and physique, Zhang Yining showed an unusual champion mentality.
As the game progressed, Zhang Yining fell behind his opponent with a score of 6:13. Soon the match point came, and it seemed to everyone that she had lost the game
But Zhang Yining relied on a stable mentality and played strongly all the way to equalize the score. At this time, because of Zhang Yining's chasing, the opponent had lost his rhythm, and he fell from the upper hand to the lower wind at the beginning. Zhang Yining found the opportunity to score 15 points.
In 1991, Zhang Yining officially entered the Beijing team.
After entering the Beijing team, Zhang Yining met a coach who changed his life.
Friends and foes
On this day, Zhang Yining practiced as usual, she kept repeating the action of serving the ball in front of the self-service ball machine, and she didn't know that there was a pair of eyes staring at her behind her at this time.
This person was Li Falcon, who was in the process of selecting players for the national team at that time. After seeing Zhang Yining's practice, he found that although this girl was thin and small, her control of table tennis was smooth and she was a malleable talent.
This side made Li Ying pay attention to Zhang Yining.
As a coach, his vision is really vicious. In less than three years, Zhang Yining won the provincial championship and successfully entered the national team.
After entering the national team, Li Falcon took her as his key training object.
It is often said that Maxima is common, but Bole is not. Although Zhang Yining has amazing talent, if it were not for the appreciation of her coach Li Falcon, she would not have won a Grand Slam in just a few years.
In the national team, Zhang Yining not only met his Bole, but also met his lifelong friend. This best friend is 3 years older than her, and she is also a popular figure in the table tennis world - Wang Nan.
In 1994, 14-year-old Zhang Yining stepped into the national team's dormitory for the first time and met 17-year-old Wang Nan here.
That small dormitory housed the daily life of the two Olympic champions, who did not know that they would have a decade-long domination of Chinese women's table tennis in the future.
The first time they met, Wang Nan was frightened by Zhang Yining, because the coach reminded him to take care of the new players, so the moment Wang Nan saw Zhang Yining, she became a warm-hearted big sister, but she didn't expect that the other party not only didn't like to talk, but also ignored herself.
In fact, long before Zhang Yining entered the national team, Wang Nan had heard of her deeds, and now this meeting made Wang Nan feel that the other party was an arrogant person.
At the beginning, the two didn't accept anyone, and they always secretly competed in life and on the field.
At that time, Zhang Yining was not nobody, but she had been practicing since she was a child, and she had not had much contact with friends and did not know how to get along with others.
A sprained friendship between the two began.
Wang Nan accidentally sprained her ankle while practicing, so she could only sit in the dormitory to rest, when the taciturn Zhang Yining brought her a bottle of safflower oil.
Wang Nan was very surprised in her heart, and it was this bottle of safflower oil that made her realize that Zhang Yining was actually a little girl who was cold and warm on the outside.
Adolescent children, once they open their hearts, strong feelings are generated.
Since then, the two have broken the ice, training together, eating together, and going back to the dormitory together every day.
Coach Li Falcon saw it in his eyes and felt extremely relieved, he thought that national table tennis needs such friendship, and he hopes that his players can become good friends and learn from each other's strengths and weaknesses than to become enemies on the field.
In 1999, a national competition allowed Zhang Yining to see Wang Nan's strength. Until 2000, Wang Nan won the Sydney Olympic Games in one fell swoop.
Zhang Yining found out how big the gap between herself and Wang Nan was, although she was a teammate in practice, but her actual combat experience in the game was very weak, and she had always taken Wang Nan as her role model at that time, and began to practice day and night.
Defeat your friends to start a new era
In 2002, Wang Nan was upset in the professional competition in Busan, South Korea. It was this failure that made Wang Nan's career begin to decline
Zhang Yining saw the impact of failure on players, she looked at Wang Nan, who was once beautiful, but became depressed because of failure, and her career has been in decline since then, Zhang Yining was heartbroken.
Zhang Yining was inspired by Wang Nan, she no longer envied Wang Nan, but put this former worship into herself.
In 2003, Zhang Yining defeated Wang Nan to win the national championship.
Since then, the era of Zhang Yining has arrived.
Then in 2004, Zhang Yining and Wang Nan, the two sisters, unsurprisingly won the women's doubles championship at the Athens Olympics.
In 2008, Wang Nan chose to retire due to injury, but Zhang Yining was in the best period of her sports career at this time, and seeing the departure of her former teammates, her determination to fight for the cause of Chinese table tennis was even stronger.
At the Beijing Olympics in the same year, Zhang Yining was officially awarded the title of "Big Demon King", not only the women's singles champion, but also the doubles and mixed doubles champion. This grand slam at the doorstep made Zhang Yining beautiful.
Zhang Yining's expression on the field is always light, and he doesn't seem to have too many emotional ups and downs because of the score. The audience also remembered this girl whose mouth was always in a line.
Zhang Yining has a flamboyant personality but is not introverted, although she was already the first person in women's table tennis at that time, she never showed half of her inner pride, because she deeply remembered Wang Nan's words.
"All my achievements in the table tennis world are not personal, but common to all table tennis people. ”
After retiring from the army, he returned to his family
In 2011, Zhang Yining chose to retire because she found that she had won basically all the championships in the table tennis career.
The invincible state made her feel more lonely than ever before, and she also realized that it was time for the Chinese table tennis career to change blood, and she also needed to provide more opportunities for newcomers.
After retiring, Zhang Yining chose to return to his family. In fact, as early as 2009, she and her husband Xu Wei had a low-key marriage. Although the other party is 20 years older than him, the two have never been estranged because of age.
According to Zhang Yining's own words, she can be herself in front of her husband.
Although Xu Wei is a businessman, he can always find time to watch his own games in his busy work, which makes Zhang Yining very moved.
In front of her husband, Zhang Yining doesn't need to cut off her long hair, she can be whatever she wants to be. In 2012, Zhang Yining went abroad for further study, and her husband was also very supportive.
Gradually, Zhang Yining gradually faded out of the public eye and lived his own happy little life.
Now Zhang Yining continues to shine for the Chinese table tennis career, and we can also see from her Weibo that although she is not in the arena, she still has a love for table tennis.
epilogue
Now in her spare time, Zhang Yining will also share her family, and the arrival of a pair of children has also made her taste the sweetness of being a first-time mother.
faded away from the appearance of fighting on the battlefield and became a good wife and mother, Zhang Yining will always live her life in the way she likes, showing everyone an imperfect but most real Zhang Yining.