"All the content of this article has official and reliable sources, and the specific information is detailed at the end of the article"
Preface
When it comes to table tennis celebrities, we are impressed by Kong Linghui, Liu Guoliang, Deng Yaping, and Zhang Yining, who have created brilliant achievements for table tennis in the mainland.
But before these people, there was also a national table tennis meritorious figure in the mainland, who won the championship during the dark period of national table tennis and created extraordinary achievements many times.
He is Wang Tao.
A table tennis celebrity who has been turned away many times because of his low stature.
What kind of fate does Wang Tao have with table tennis?
After being rejected by the national team many times, why did he enter the national team again?
A bumpy ping-pong dream
People who can engage in sports all have an appearance characteristic, that is, they must be tall, especially for basketball, height is a lot of big advantages, but if you want to play a sport like table tennis, you have a great obsession with tall people.
Wang Tao was born in 1967 in Beijing to a dual-income family, his father was a violin musician and her mother was a singer.
Although Wang Tao's father is engaged in music, he especially likes to play table tennis, and he himself is not engaged in sports, so he especially likes to have a child who can engage in such an industry.
So when Wang Tao was not born, his father decided that if he was a son, let him learn to play table tennis, and if he was a daughter, let her learn to sing with his wife.
When Wang Tao was born, his father was ecstatic that someone could finally engage in the sports he liked.
When Wang Tao was one year old, his father often took him to watch playing, and when he was three years old, his father had guided Wang Tao to start playing table tennis.
With the influence of his father, Wang Tao is not exclusive to table tennis.
In order to let Wang Tao feel table tennis better, his father also invited table tennis champion Guo Yuehua to his home to guide him to play, which made Wang Tao's interest in table tennis more and more intense.
When he was 10 years old, Wang Tao entered the Beijing Sports School, and the coach was very optimistic about him and cultivated him as a key seedling.
With professional training, Wang Tao's progress is also very fast, and after that, he participated in countless competitions large and small, but he didn't expect to stand out in the end, which gave Wang Tao a lot of confidence.
So Wang Tao set a goal, advanced the Beijing table tennis team, entered the national team, and won the world championship.
Wang Tao, who has a goal, is more interested in table tennis.
Even after his foot injury, he did not rest at home and insisted on table tennis training.
Although Wang Tao is full of enthusiasm for table tennis, the reality has given him a blow to the head.
When Wang Tao was 13 years old, he planned to join the Beijing table tennis team, but he was rejected because of his height.
In the coach's opinion, the short Wang Tao will have no future in table tennis.
At that time, Wang Tao was 1.65 meters tall, and if he wasn't an athlete, his height would not be a problem at all.
After being rejected by the Beijing team, his father took Wang Tao to find other teams, but the results were all rejected without exception, and the reason was exactly the same.
Looking at the frustrated Wang Tao, his father was heartbroken.
No matter what, he must help his son realize his dream.
Under the mediation of many parties, the table tennis team of the PLA infrastructure engineering unit accepted Wang Tao.
But who knows, a year later, this unit will be abolished, and the only thing Wang Tao can go to is the Xinjiang table tennis team.
It's just that Xinjiang is too far away, Wang Tao is only 14 years old, and his parents are not worried that he will go out alone, but there is no professional team in Beijing to accept him.
If Wang Tao does not have the guidance of a professional team at this age, his professional career will be over.
But Wang Tao did not give up, with tears in his eyes, he secretly determined that he would definitely evaluate his strength and return to the Beijing team again.
After arriving at the Xinjiang table tennis team, Wang Tao trained desperately to make his skills more proficient.
In 1982, Wang Tao returned to Beijing with his strength and was admitted to the Bayi table tennis team.
During his time in the Bayi team, Wang Tao participated in many competitions and won many national championships, but because of his short stature, he never missed the national team.
Confused period
In 1987, the 6th National Games was held in Guangzhou, and Wang Tao also participated in this competition.
On the field, Wang Tao defeated many masters of the national table tennis team and won the men's singles championship of the National Games.
The weight of this award is not insignificant, and Wang Tao also opened the door of the national team with this award.
Wang Tao thought that he would finally have the opportunity to fight in the table tennis arena and hit the dream of becoming a world champion, but he didn't expect his career to be so twists and turns.
After entering the national team, the coach was still concerned that Wang Tao's height advantage would not be advantageous in future games, so after joining the team, he was only used as a role for them to spar, which is what everyone calls "feeding the ball".
Wang Tao was very unwilling, but he had no choice.
One night, Wang Tao was practicing with the players, and his father told his brother that he would come to play in the evening, but Wang Tao didn't pay attention to it, so he waited in the training hall.
But when he saw his father, he found that he had lost three front teeth and his lips were red and swollen.
Under Wang Tao's repeated questioning, the elder brother told the reason for his father's injury.
It turned out that his father tripped over the manhole cover in order to watch him play, and he tripped over the manhole cover while riding a bicycle at night, and the person fell into the well, and after being pulled out by his brother, it is what it is now.
But in order to watch Wang Tao play, his father refused to go back for treatment.
After listening to the reason, Wang Tao burst into tears, only he understood why his father insisted on watching him play, his father watched not only the ball, but Wang Tao's dream, and it was not easy to be rejected by the national team for so many years.
In addition to his father, Wang Tao also felt ashamed of his girlfriend Guan Hua.
Guan Hua is a girl Wang Tao met when he entered the Bayi team.
Guan Hua is also a table tennis player, and she was born in a table tennis family, her father is the captain of the Henan Sports Team, and her mother is a table tennis player.
During the Bayi team, Guan Hua liked Wang Tao's steadfastness and seriousness, and Wang Tao was also attracted by Guan Hua, but both of them were young at the time and did not pierce the window paper.
With Guan Hua entering the national team, Wang Tao's psychological gap has become even greater, and he thinks that the gap with Guan Hua is getting bigger and bigger, and the two have become people from different worlds.
But Guan Hua doesn't think so, she has always encouraged Wang Tao and asked him to practice hard, and she is waiting for him in the national team.
When Wang Tao finally entered the national team, he still did not get rid of the fate of being short and having no future, and he was still not favored, so he could only end up being a sparring partner.
After Guan Hua found out, he often comforted and encouraged Wang Tao, hoping that he would not give up, and someone would always find out that he was a piece of jade.
The two often interact in private, which creates the feeling that they are in a relationship.
Because the national team forbade players to fall in love with each other at that time, the leader found the two of them and asked one of them to retire.
Guan Hua knew that Wang Tao had not been able to enter the national team with great difficulty, and if he withdrew, his career would be over before it began.
So she took Wang Tao one step ahead of her and said quit, and then returned to the Bayi table tennis team.
When Guan Hua left, Wang Tao openly wanted Guan Hua to court, and the two confirmed their love status.
Everything that happened around him made Wang Tao feel lost, and he didn't even know what to do in the future.
Fortunately, Bole, who favored him, finally came.
Bole Cai Zhenhua
Cai Zhenhua won numerous awards when he played table tennis, and coached in Italy as a public coach after retiring.
Because of his joining, the level of table tennis in Italy has been greatly improved, and he is affectionately known as the godfather of table tennis in Italy.
In 1989, the Chinese national team invited Cai Zhenhua to return to China to coach, and he shouldered the responsibility of the revitalization of national table tennis.
As a coach, Cai Zhenhua also realized that the level of the players was uneven, and after observation, he decided to use the men's doubles as a breakthrough to let the men's doubles lead the men's singles, so as to achieve better results.
Since the men's doubles is to be used as a breakthrough, it is also very important to who teams up with whom, and Wang Tao is a good seedling selected by Cai Zhenhua.
But other coaches were very opposed, thinking that Wang Tao was short and would not have a big development.
However, Cai Zhenhua said against public opinion: Heroes are never judged by their height on the table tennis court, and results are the last word.
So Wang Tao and Lu Lin combined, one tall and one short, and became the most eye-catching existence in the team.
Cai Zhenhua instructed Wang Tao to play, and frequently provided opportunities for the two to play.
At this moment, Wang Tao's heart was indescribably grateful, he could only train hard and repay Cai Zhenhua with his achievements.
In 1994, in the Chiba competition in Japan, Wang Tao and Lu Lin were the least favored pair.
But on the field, several other groups of players were eliminated early, only Wang Tao and Lu Lin reached the final, and finally lost to the Swedish team, but won the silver medal.
This is the first medal won by the table tennis team since its defeat.
In 1995, at the World Table Tennis Championships in Tianjin, the Chinese team played a beautiful turnaround, and when they met the Swedish team, Wang Tao contributed a lot, defeating Persson at the critical moment of the decisive battle and winning the victory.
Wang Tao won the gold medal in singles and doubles.
At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Wang Tao won two silver medals in singles and doubles.
In the singles competition, Wang Tao met Liu Guoliang, who was 9 years younger, and in his usual training, Wang Tao won Liu Guoliang 9 times in 10 matches.
But Liu Guoliang is a crazy competition-type player, the bigger the game, the more he can make a record, and finally lost to Liu Guoliang and won the silver medal in men's singles.
The same is true for doubles, Wang Tao and Lu Lin played against Liu Guoliang and Kong Linghui, and finally lost.
Although he lost to his own people, it is still a big regret for Wang Tao to fail to win the championship.
In the following competition, Wang Tao failed to have a good record due to physical pain and age, and then retired.
Retired life
After retiring, Wang Tao entered the Xi'an Institute of Physical Education to study, and then served as the head coach of the Bayi table tennis team.
During his coaching, he trained many excellent table tennis players.
After the disbandment of the Bayi team, he Wang Tao served as the director of the Baseball and Softball Management Center of the General Administration of Sports of China.
He devoted all his heart to volleyball.
And his married life is also very happy.
After retiring, he married Guan Hua in a low-key manner, and in 2000, he was upgraded to become a father.
Guan Hua returned to the family after having a child, took care of the child, and gave Wang Tao a strong backing, so that he could work in front of him without worries.
From the friendship of the table tennis team when the two were young to the mutual support for decades after marriage, not only did not make the two "look at each other and hate each other", but cherished each other even more.
And Wang Tao is becoming more and more dependent on Guan Hua.
epilogue
Now Wang Tao is 57 years old, his son is also an adult, and his temples have long turned gray when he is middle-aged, but his heart for table tennis has always been hot.
Despite the ups and downs of his career, he finally achieved his dream of becoming a world champion in table tennis.
I have to say that Wang Tao's table tennis dream can be realized without the support of his father, Cai Zhenhua's appreciation, and his wife's encouragement, but more importantly, Wang Tao's pure heart that does not give up.
What do you think about this?
Resources:
Xinmin Evening News: How is the myth of table tennis practiced?
Shanxi Elderly: The road to the championship of table tennis national player Wang Tao