Chen Yufei, He Bingjiao, and Wang Zhiyi are all the main players in the national feather women's singles today.
However, some old fans should not be very familiar with these young athletes, and many people may still miss Li Xuerui, Wang Shixian, Wang Yihan and other athletes who have long since retired.
Indeed, the strength of national table tennis at that time was much stronger than now, and the competition within the national feather was also fiercer than now.
Li Xuerui, Wang Shixian, and Wang Yihan, three athletes with different styles, also had very good performances in different periods, and the fans at that time also affectionately called the three "two kings and one Li".
Now, all three of them have been retired for many years, so what is the current situation after their retirement, let's find out together today:
One: Wang Yihan
Wang Yihan was born in an ordinary family in Shanghai, China in 1988.
Wang Yihan's mother likes to play badminton very much, so when she was a child, Wang Yihan was like watching her mother play, and later accompanied her mother to play.
However, at that time, Wang Yihan's mother did not think about training her daughter to become a professional badminton player, until Wang Yihan was 9 years old, because she was too tall and had good sports performance, the physical education teacher suggested that Wang Yihan's parents could let their daughter practice sports.
Wang Yihan's parents originally wanted to sign up for a training class for their daughter during the summer vacation, but after listening to the advice of the physical education teacher, they decided to sign up for a sports training class for their daughter.
Because Wang Yihan's mother likes to play badminton, she enrolled her daughter in a badminton interest class, and in this way, Wang Yihan officially embarked on the road of badminton.
In this way, after training for more than half a year, Wang Yihan was favored by the badminton coach of Shanghai Junior Sports School, so he came to Shanghai Junior Sports School to start training.
In 2001, 13-year-old Wang Yihan participated in the national youth competition for the first time, and although she only finished 17th, she left a deep impression on the fans.
This is because Wang Yihan plays every game as if he is playing in the final, and he works very hard.
In 2002, 14-year-old Wang Yihan was sent to the Shanghai Physical Labor Team, but who knew that at this time, Wang Yihan was found to be a little hyperthyroidism in adolescence.
As a result, the Shanghai Physical Labor Team confiscated Wang Yihan, and for a period of time after that, Wang Yihan was actively training while receiving treatment, and was finally selected by the Shanghai Physical Labor Team again.
In 2003, Wang Yihan won the championship in the National Youth Badminton Competition and was selected for the national second team.
After entering the national second team for more than two years, Wang Yihan was promoted from the second team to the first team, during which she did not have any outstanding results, but less than a month after entering the first team, Wang Yihan defeated the top two main players of the national badminton women's singles Xie Xingfang in the Chinese badminton tournament.
Soon after, Wang Yihan defeated Zhang Ning and Xie Xingfang in a row at the Yiyang World Cup Invitational Tournament, and won the world championship at the age of 18.
After the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Zhang Ning and Xie Xingfang gradually withdrew from the national team, and the 20-year-old Wang Yihan became the main force of the national feather women's singles.
Since then, Wang Yihan has gradually risen to the first place in the world rankings, and before the 2010 Uber Cup final, Li Yongbo, the head coach of the national team at the time, said in an interview: "Wang Yihan will be the "world's first sister" if she wins this game. ”
And Wang Yihan did not live up to Li Yongbo's attention, and finally won the game, which is equivalent to the official recognition of her identity as the "first sister of the national feather".
At the 2011 World Championships in London, Wang Yihan successfully reached the top, and she was just one Olympic gold medal away from this time.
Before the start of the London Olympics, Wang Yihan was among the best in the national women's singles in terms of both internal and external war results, and it can be said that she has a great chance to win the women's singles championship at the London Olympics.
But who knew that she met Li Xuerui, who was in hot form, and finally lost with a big score of 1-2 and won an Olympic silver medal.
After the London Olympics, Wang Yihan was still the main force of the national feather women's singles, but she did not have too outstanding results, and finally chose to retire in 2016.
For her own career, Wang Yihan did not fall in love before the age of 25, and after retiring, she announced on social media that her boyfriend was Gu Zhengyun, a member of the Shanghai badminton team.
Although her boyfriend is not as famous as herself, the two are still very affectionate, and now they have been married for more than four years.
After retiring, Wang Yihan did not leave table tennis, but chose to go to East China Normal University to become a teacher.
Two: Li Xuerui
Li Xuerui was born in 1991 in a working-class family in Dadukou District, Chongqing.
Because her parents were busy with work, Li Xuerui lived with her grandparents when she was a child, and she has always said the term "intergenerational relatives" in China, and Li Xuerui's family is no exception.
The grandparents are very doting on Li Xuerui's granddaughter, which has led to Li Xuerui's personality being a little naughty and willful since she was a child.
When it was time to go to school, Li Xuerui's parents decided that they couldn't let their daughter go on like this anymore, so the two decided to send Li Xuerui to practice badminton.
Why do you learn badminton, on the one hand, her parents think that sports can strengthen her body, and on the other hand, Li Xuerui's mother likes sports very much and is still an athlete in the factory.
In this way, Li Xuerui was sent by her parents to the Dadukou District Sports School to practice badminton, and at first, except for Li Xuerui's coach Li Xiang, other coaches were not optimistic about Li Xuerui.
Because Li Xuerui is too naughty, and she is still the youngest of the team, but after two months of practice, all the coaches have changed their opinion of Li Xuerui.
"Long hands and long feet, more suitable for badminton, this child can train very hard, training is very serious"
"She has an ability to overcome herself that others don't have"
......
In 2003, 12-year-old Li Xuerui was selected for the Chongqing badminton team, and won the women's singles championship at the National Junior Championships for the next three consecutive years.
With her outstanding results, Li Xuerui entered the eyes of many coaches, so in 2006, at the age of 15, Li Xuerui was selected for the national youth team, and she only stayed in the national youth team for four months before entering the national youth team.
Not only that, Li Xuerui also attracted the attention of the Bayi team, which has never produced a badminton women's singles champion since its establishment, so they focused on cultivating Li Xuerui.
After staying in the national youth team for 9 months, Li Xuerui was selected for the national second team, and she achieved a triple jump in just over a year, which shows the importance that coaches and relevant leaders attach to her.
Li Xuerui did not live up to these values, winning the women's singles championship of the National Youth Badminton Championships in 2007 at the age of 16, and the Asian Youth Badminton Championships in 2008.
In 2010, 19-year-old Li Xuerui finally entered the national first team, the highest hall of Chinese badminton, at this time only two years before the London Olympics, it stands to reason that Li Xuerui will not have a chance.
In fact, everyone also thinks so, and everyone's main attention at that time was still focused on Wang Yihan, Wang Xin, Wang Lin and other team members.
But who knows, Li Xuerui went from the World University Badminton Championships to the first Asian Championships women's singles championship and then the first women's singles championship in Thailand, a Grand Prix that symbolizes the highest level of badminton, Li Xuerui has grown into one of the world's top athletes in one year.
Not only that, since winning the Thai Grand Prix, Li Xuerui has achieved the worst results in the semi-finals in a series of highest-level events, especially in 2012, when she won the women's singles championship in two super events, German badminton and All England badminton.
In just one year, Li Xuerui has brought her world ranking from 10 to 4th, so at this time, both coaches and teammates have to consider Li Xuerui's participation in the London Olympics.
At that time, Guoyu implemented the "unanimous external" selection standard, that is, the outreach winning rate was taken as the main reference criterion, and in the end, Li Xuerui's external victory rate was as high as 90%, ranking second in the team.
In this way, Li Xuerui successfully won the ticket to the London Olympics, and finally defeated her sister Wang Yihan in the final to win the championship.
After winning the Olympic championship, Li Xuerui won a total of 9 championships that year, and the world ranking also came to No. 1 at the end of the year, and the world No. 1 ranking lasted for 119 weeks, setting a record for the longest single time in the world No. 1 in badminton women's singles.
After that, Li Xuerui won the runner-up of the World Championships, the championship of the finals, and helped the team win the Uber Cup and the Sudirman Cup.
Just when everyone was expecting Li Xuerui to stand on the top podium again at the Rio Olympics, she was injured and has never been able to return to her peak form.
After the end of the 2019 Military Games, Li Xuerui announced her retirement, and after retiring, she married her younger brother Qiao Bin, who was one year younger than herself.
In 2021, Li Xuerui announced on social media that she would become a mother, and it was also in this year that Li Xuerui entered Chongqing University as an associate professor.
Three: Wang Shixian
Wang Shixian was born in an ordinary family in Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province in 1990.
Wang Shixian was often ridiculed by children for looking like a ball because she didn't like sports when she was a child and her body was relatively stout.
Such remarks are too much, Wang Shixian's self-esteem is a little unbearable, so when she was 8 years old, she proposed to her parents the idea of wanting to exercise to lose weight, and after discussion, her parents enrolled Wang Shixian in a badminton training class.
Although she wanted to exercise to lose weight, after she really got in touch with badminton, Wang Shixian still regretted it a little, because on the first day, the coach asked her to cut off her long hair.
Because of the haircut, Wang Shixian even cried for a whole night, and it was under such circumstances that Wang Shixian officially started badminton training.
After practicing badminton for a few years, her figure has slimmed down, and people in the class even call her "class flower", which strengthens Wang Shixian's determination to learn badminton.
After that, Wang Shixian entered the Suzhou Amateur Sports School for training, and trained in the Suzhou Amateur Sports School for about two years, and Wang Shixian went to the Affiliated Sports School of the Shanghai Sports Institute for training.
After about a year of training in Shanghai, Wang Shixian won the championship of badminton women's singles group B in the Jiangsu Provincial Games, and with this championship, Wang Shixian was successfully selected for the Jiangsu badminton team.
After training for several years in the Jiangsu badminton team, 15-year-old Wang Shixian was selected for the national junior team in 2005, and a year later Wang Shixian entered the national second team.
Yang Daiming, who was the head coach of the women's singles team of the Chinese badminton women's team at the time, commented on Wang Shixian and said that she was too squeamish, and Wang Shixian herself had no objection to this statement.
Because Wang Shixian was very crying at that time, although with the help of her coach and teammates, she cried less, but her adaptability was still not good.
This problem is reflected in the game is that the psychological quality and will quality are not good, and as soon as he encounters those opponents who can be entangled, Wang Shixian is more likely to have problems.
In 2009, Wang Shixian, who was still a member of the second team, won the championship at the Chinese Badminton Masters that year.
After winning the championship, Li Yongbo, the head coach of the national feather team, said in a post-match interview: "Wang Shixian was only the reserve force of the team in our original plan, and now it seems that she will be allowed to enter the first team in advance." ”
After entering the first team, Wang Shixian successively won the runner-up in the National Games, the Korean Super Championship, the Asian Games champion and other good results.
Starting from the Asian Games, from the end of 2010 to the beginning of 2011, Wang Shixian reached 7 consecutive finals of various competitions, won the championship 4 times, and after the All England seal, her world ranking also reached No. 1 for the first time.
In the subsequent Badminton Super League, Wang Shixian defeated Wang Xin, Wang Yihan and others in a row, and won the Most Popular Award with a record of 8 wins.
At this time, Wang Shixian had the potential to become the national feather women's single sister, but who knew that she lost unexpectedly in the Asian Championships, which made her full of anxiety about the upcoming Sudirman Cup.
Wang Shixian's uneasiness is not without reason, she was powerless against Schenk in the group stage of the Sudirman Cup, so after the Sudirman Cup, Wang Shixian's performance plummeted, and even she herself said: "The Sudirman Cup is indeed a turning point."
In this case, the London Olympics came as scheduled, although Wang Shixian's form rebounded in early 2012, but it was still too late, according to the national badminton team's "unanimous selection" criteria, Wang Shixian finally ranked fifth in the women's singles, missing the London Olympics.
After losing the London Olympics, Wang Shixian did not give up and still looked forward to the Rio Olympics, but who knew that her state had repeatedly declined in the Rio Olympics cycle, and she still missed the Olympic Games in the end.
Although she missed the Rio Olympics, Wang Shixian still came to Rio because her boyfriend Chen Long was selected for the national men's singles to participate in the Rio Olympics.
Wang Shixian was Chen Long's logistics butler in Rio, helping him take care of everything except competitions and training, and finally Chen Long successfully won the men's singles championship in the Rio Olympics, and Wang Shixian was also honored.
Among the "Two Kings and One Li", Wang Shixian has the worst grades, but her husband is the most well-known, it seems that God will definitely open a window for you while closing a door for you.
Now Wang Shixian has also entered Beijing Sport University to teach, and the three of them have all become university teachers, specializing in cultivating the new generation of athletes, I don't know which of them is more talented in coaching?