When it comes to table tennis players in China, many people can name one or two.
Deng Yaping, Kong Linghui, Zhang Jike, Fan Zhendong, Sun Yingsha, etc., each era has a favorite athlete of each era.
But if you want to talk about the spouses of these athletes, I believe that most people are not impressed, or have not paid attention to this aspect at all.
If you want to say that the spouse of any of these players in the national table tennis team is well-known and familiar to more people, it may still belong to Yan Boya, the wife of Wang Hao, the head coach of the current national table tennis men's team.
This is because Yan Boya once appeared on a variety show, and also clashed with Wang Hao in the show, which appeared on the hot search, which caused heated discussions among everyone.
Moreover, because Yan Boya was born as a dancer, she also showed her proud dancing posture in that variety show, and some fans called her "the first wife of national table tennis".
Today, let's take a look at the story of this "No. 1 wife of national table tennis":
One
In 1987, Yan Boya was born in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, into an artistic family!
Yan Boya's parents are both engaged in art work, and under the influence of his ears and eyes, Yan Boya has also inherited his parents' artistic genes very well, in addition, Yan Boya is also faster than his peers in terms of physical development.
When Yan Boya was very young, she was sent by her parents to practice dance, and she liked dance Yan Boya very much, and she was indeed talented in dance, so the dance teacher also liked her and often gave her a small stove.
When Yan Boya started practicing dance, a boy named "Lele", who was four years older than Yan Boya, had been practicing table tennis for several years in Jilin Province, another province in the northeastern region.
This little boy named "Lele" is the later table tennis Olympic champion Wang Hao, because he was naughty and festive when he was a child, his father gave him a nickname "Lele".
Yan Boya was born in an artistic family, Wang Hao was also born in a sports family, his father also practiced table tennis professionally when he was young, although he did not play any famous games, but he is also a die-hard fan of table tennis.
Wang Hao started practicing with his father, and later his father felt that his ability was not enough to teach his son, so he sent Wang Hao to his former teacher to continue practicing table tennis.
When they were children, Wang Hao and Yan Boya practiced one and the other dance, although they were not in the same field, they both worked very hard.
With the improvement of Yan Boya's dancing skills, she has grown from the district to the city and then to the province, and until this time she has always been the best group of students of the same age.
When he jumped to the province, Yan Boya was faced with a problem, that is, Liaoning Province is located in the northeast of the mainland, and there is a big gap between Liaoning Province and many provinces and cities in terms of population and scientific and educational resources.
So, when Yan Boya was 12 years old, her parents decided to send her to the capital Beijing to continue practicing dance.
In this way, the two were also born in the northeast of the mainland, but because of different dreams, they both chose to come to the capital Beijing to continue to pursue their dreams.
But at this time, the two obviously didn't know each other's existence, and the most important thing was that they had no time to take care of anything else at this time, especially about these things of love and love, and they were still very ignorant, after all, they were both in the most critical stage of career development.
Yan Boya is thinking about how to make his dance look better, how to still dance the protagonist on the big stage, and Wang Hao is thinking about how to reach the main layer after entering the first team if he can be promoted from the second team to the first team.
Two
After staying in the national second team for about a year, Wang Hao was promoted to the national first team because he won the men's singles championship at the Asian Table Tennis Junior Championships at the end of 1999.
At this time, Wang Hao was only 16 years old, not to mention Liu Guoliang, Kong Linghui and other absolute main forces, that is, Ma Lin and Wang Liqin were more experienced than him, so Wang Hao, who had just entered the men's first team, could only start as a sparring partner.
In this regard, Wang Hao did not complain, because starting from the sparring has always been the tradition of the national table tennis team, and how many outstanding players have risen from the sparring partner to the main force step by step at the beginning, Wang Hao firmly believes that he can do it too.
When Wang Hao entered the national first team, Yan Boya was still practicing dance hard at the Dance Academy.
From her hometown of Liaoning to Beijing, she got up early every morning and practiced until late at night before going to bed, the young Yan Boya thought about giving up several times, but when she thought of her parents' efforts to send her to Beijing to practice dance and make a comeback, and when she thought of the eager eyes of her parents who expected her to become a talent, Yan Boya finally chose to persevere.
Persistence may not be able to wait for success, but he will definitely gain something from it, and the hard-working Yan Boya became the best batch of students in the same group and began to participate in some important literary performances.
In 2002, at the age of 19, he won the men's singles championship at the ITTF Egypt Open, and his world ranking was also among the top 10 for the first time.
The young Wang Hao was originally a talent reserved by the coaching staff of the national table tennis men's team for the Beijing Olympics, but who knew that Wang Hao performed so well in the Athens Olympic cycle, so the coaching staff began to think more.
When the Athens Olympics were approaching, Wang Hao won the competition with the veteran Kong Linghui, so the coaching staff decided to let Wang Hao, who was only 21 years old at the time, participate in the Athens Olympics.
The coaching staff actually did not have great expectations for Wang Hao, on the one hand, he was young and inexperienced, on the other hand, Ma Lin and Wang Liqin were at their peak at this time, and the coach imagined that Ma Lin and Wang Liqin would meet in the finals, Wang Hao just experienced the atmosphere of the Olympic Games, and the Beijing Olympics four years later was the time for him to perform.
But who knows, the coaching staff's high hopes for Marin unexpectedly lost to the Swedish veteran Waldner in the men's singles quarterfinals.
At the Athens Olympics, the signing of the three members of the national table tennis men's team is, Ma Lin alone in the upper half, Wang Hao and Wang Liqin in the lower half, with Ma Lin losing to Lao Wa, there are no Chinese team athletes in the upper half.
Wang Hao played well, all the way to the semi-finals, and Wang Liqin successfully joined the team, and the two players who entered the semi-finals in the upper half were Sweden's Waldner and South Korea's Yoo Seung-min.
In the end, Yoo Seung-min, who performed well, defeated Lao Wa and advanced to the men's singles final first, which handed over the problem to the men's coaching staff.
Before the Athens Olympics, Wang Hao's record against Liu Chengmin was much higher than Wang Liqin's, but he lost ten games against Wang Liqin.
So, in the semi-finals between Wang Hao and Wang Liqin, Wang Hao easily defeated Wang Liqin as if he had descended from heaven, and he retained most of his physical strength without much effort.
In the men's singles final, the coaching staff thought that Wang Hao would easily defeat Liu Chengmin, but who knew that Liu Chengmin, who had been crazy, could not live with common sense at all, coupled with Wang Hao's huge pressure, he finally lost to Liu Chengmin, and the national table tennis men's singles missed the Olympic triple championship.
Three
The cost of Wang Hao's loss in the Athens Olympics was very large, not only making the Chinese team lose the championship, but also nailing himself to the pillar of shame, which also made Wang Hao suffer from "fear of finals" for a long time after that.
During that period of time, Wang Hao reached the finals four times in the competition, but lost to his opponent, and it was at that time that some media began to call him "the second millennium".
When Wang Hao was at a low point, Yan Boya was selected into the General Political Song and Dance Troupe and became a dancer in the army.
Because Wang Hao is a member of the Bayi team, an athlete and a soldier, when Yan Boya entered the General Political Song and Dance Troupe, she and Wang Hao began to have the first thing in common.
At the 2006 Doha Asian Games, Wang Hao defeated teammate Ma Lin in the men's singles final and gradually came out of the defeat in the Athens Olympics.
Time flies, and soon the Beijing Olympics will come as scheduled, this time it is still Wang Hao, Wang Liqin, and Ma Lin who will compete in the Olympics together.
At this time, the 25-year-old Wang Hao was at the peak of his career, and he made it all the way to the final, against his fellow brother Ma Lin (both of whom were coached by Wu Jingping).
In the end, Wang Hao still made a bad move, lost to Ma Lin with a big score of 1-4, and once again missed the Olympic men's singles championship.
The loss of the Athens Olympics, it can be said that Wang Hao is young, and he should pay the tuition, but the loss of the Beijing Olympics makes Wang Hao unbearable, at this time he is already 25 years old and has entered the peak of his career, and he urgently needs a major championship to prove himself, but who knows that he will lose again, and the only result he can take at this time is a men's singles World Cup champion.
Fortunately in the Beijing Olympics, Wang Hao lost to his teammate Ma Lin, not other players from other foreign associations, if he lost to Liu Chengmin in the Athens Olympics, then maybe Wang Hao will be directly scolded by rumors to retire.
After a period of frustration, Wang Hao stood up again, because after the Beijing Olympics, veterans such as Wang Liqin and Ma Lin gradually retreated to the second line, and Wang Hao became a well-deserved "first brother" in national table tennis.
In 2009, 26-year-old Wang Hao won the men's doubles and men's singles championships at the Yokohama World Table Tennis Championships, and won the men's singles championship at the National Games, breaking the outside world's statement that he was "the second in the millennium".
But who knew that after the National Games, Wang Hao fell into a trough again, losing foreign wars 6 times in half a year, and it was also during this time period that Wang Hao met Yan Boya.
Yan Boya's unique literary temperament as a dancer, coupled with his good-looking and hot figure, immediately attracted the strong-blooded Wang Hao, and he couldn't help but think in his heart how good it would be if such a beautiful woman had been by his side.
So Wang Hao took the initiative to talk to Yan Boya, at this time Wang Hao was also a well-known sports star in China, and he was also a member of the Bayi team, Yan Boya was naturally very familiar with him.
In this way, Wang Hao successfully talked to Yan Boya, and also got Yan Boya's contact information, although both of them were very busy with work, but the two never broke off contact.
After going back and forth, Yan Boya also discovered Wang Hao's thoughts, and she gradually had a good impression of Wang Hao, so the two gradually established a relationship.
Four
After being with Yan Boya, Wang Hao slowly returned to the top, but he encountered new challenges.
From the 2011 World Table Tennis Championships, the World Cup to the 2012 London Olympics, etc., Wang Hao basically reached the men's singles finals, and his opponents were almost all Zhang Jike.
At this time, Wang Hao was at the peak of his career, both mentally and technically, but when he met the unreasonable Zhang Jike, he still lost the game.
Every time Wang Hao loses, Yan Boya will be careful to comfort him, once Wang Hao's mother was sick, Yan Boya asked for leave to take care of Wang Hao's mother in order to let Wang Hao concentrate on the game.
It is precisely because of Yan Boya's company that Wang Hao has repeatedly lost to Zhang Jike at the end of his career, but he is not disappointed.
In 2013, 30-year-old Wang Hao married his girlfriend Yan Boya, who had been in love with him for three years, in his hometown of Changchun.
At that time, Wang Hao had not yet announced his retirement, and the reason why this wedding was held was because Yan Boya was 6 months pregnant at this time, so four months after the two got married, Yan Boya gave birth to a son "seaweed" for Wang Hao.
In 2014, Wang Hao officially announced his retirement and returned to coach the Bayi team, while Yan Boya has been teaching his husband and children at home and has not been able to continue to engage in the dance career he loves.
In 2015, Yan Boya participated in a variety show "I'm Not a Star", which was to let some celebrity family members participate in the competition, which was actually to borrow the influence of celebrity family members to gain popularity.
Yan Boya participated in this show as the wife of Olympic champion Wang Hao, and Yan Boya also showed his professional level as a dancer.
There is another link in this show, which is to let the celebrity's family cheer for him, so in one episode, Wang Hao came to help his wife Yan Boya.
But who knew that in the performance that day, Yan Boya wore a bold dress and danced with a group of male dancers full of temptation, seeing that Wang Hao's face was green, he quarreled directly with Yan Boya in the show, and finally the two broke up.
In Wang Hao's view, Yan Boya, as a wife, should focus on family and children, and he himself is a traditional man who can't accept that he is so close to other men.
However, in Yan Boya's view, Wang Hao has his own career, and he should have a career too, and he is just dancing, which is much larger than this.
The quarrel in the show did not affect the relationship between Wang Hao and Yan Boya, or the quarrel between the two was also part of the hype of the publicity show.
After that, Yan Boya completely gave up his career as Wang Hao thought, and gave birth to Wang Hao's second son "Conch", and Wang Hao also went from the Bayi team to coach the national team, and also became the head coach of the national table tennis men's team.
It can be said that the reason why Wang Hao can devote himself to the table tennis career has a lot to do with Yan Boya giving up his career to take care of his family.
Therefore, while everyone likes these table tennis players and coaches, don't forget the family members who are silently working behind the scenes!