Fans who are familiar with the Chinese table tennis team know that the leader of the Chinese women's table tennis after Deng Yaping is Wang Nan.
But in fact, at that time, there were also many players who had the opportunity to compete for the status of "first sister of women's table tennis" in the post-Deng Yaping era, and even one of them was on a par with Wang Nan at the beginning.
But later, in several key competitions, she failed to seize the opportunity and finally left the national table tennis team.
But she was also the absolute No. 2 main force in women's table tennis in that era, and she was Li Ju.
Today, let's walk into Li Ju's table tennis world:
One
On January 22, 1976, Li Ju was born in an ordinary family in Nantong, Jiangsu.
Li Ju's parents, including relatives and friends, are not engaged in sports, so when Li Ju was young, her parents never thought that their daughter would become a professional table tennis player in the future.
However, Li Ju has been relatively weak since she was a child, and often has a cold and fever, and the doctor told Li Ju's parents that Li Ju's physical fitness is not very good, and Li Ju should be allowed to enhance physical fitness to improve her physical fitness.
Li Ju's family chose two sports for Li Ju: table tennis and swimming, because these two sports do not have almost no physical confrontation, and there is no need to have too strong physical fitness when they start practicing.
7-year-old Li Ju chose table tennis in these two sports, and Li Ju began formal table tennis training.
Soon after practicing table tennis, Li Ju began to show her super talent in table tennis, and the coach at that time also attached great importance to Li Ju and often gave her a small stove.
But after practicing for two years, Li Ju suddenly felt some pain in her right shoulder, and after going to the hospital for an examination, she found that there was a lipoma on her right shoulder.
At that time, both Li Ju and her parents were shocked, but fortunately, the doctor told them that the problem was not big, but they still had to have surgery.
After the operation, I have to recover, I can't play, this interruption is a year, after all, I just started to practice table tennis, and the original intention of my parents to let Li Ju practice table tennis is also to exercise, and now Li Ju's physical fitness has improved a lot, plus she is sick, so Li Ju's parents are not ready to let their daughter continue to practice table tennis, and even Li Ju himself thinks it's good to go on like this.
However, there is one person who has not given up, that is Li Ju's enlightenment coach, he is very optimistic about Li Ju's development in table tennis, after all, he has seen Li Ju's terrifying talent in table tennis.
So Li Ju's enlightenment coach came to Li Ju's parents many times to explain how talented Li Ju was in table tennis, and with the efforts of the enlightenment coach, Li Ju's parents finally sent Li Ju back to the sports school to continue practicing table tennis.
Later recalling this incident, Li Ju himself couldn't help but sigh: "Thank you very much to my enlightenment coach, if he hadn't told me to persist at the time, I might have given up a long time ago, and then I wouldn't be where I am today." ”
In 1986, 10-year-old Li Ju entered the Jiangsu Provincial Junior Sports School, and after 4 years of training at the Junior Sports School, Li Ju was selected for the Jiangsu Provincial Team in 1990.
A year later, Li Ju entered the national youth team, at this time Li Ju has mastered the right hand horizontal grip racket arc circle combined with fast attack play, forehand and backhand can pull the arc ball, and has high-quality spin and speed, skilled skills, both offensive and defensive.
In 1992, 16-year-old Li Ju entered the national first team, and Deng Yaping won the women's singles and women's doubles championships in the Barcelona Olympics that year, officially sitting on the position of the first sister of the Chinese table tennis women's team.
Two
A year after Li Ju entered the national team, a girl from Fushun, Liaoning Province who was two years younger than Li Ju also entered the national team, that is, Wang Nan.
It's just that Li Ju and Wang Nan are still young players at this time, and everyone's main focus is still on Deng Yaping, Qiao Hong and other main players.
In 1995, Li Ju, who had been in the national team for 3 years, went all the way to the finals in this year's National Championships, but in the face of Deng Yaping, who was in full swing, it was not easy for Li Ju to stand on the other side of the table, how could she expect her to win the championship.
In 1996, at the Atlanta Olympics, Deng Yaping won the women's singles and women's doubles championships, and became the first athlete to win the women's singles and women's doubles championships since table tennis entered the Olympics.
Deng Yaping was only 23 years old this year, and many members of the current national table tennis team may not have made results, but Deng Yaping has been ranked No. 1 in the world for 7 consecutive years, so Deng Yaping, who is overwhelmed by the cold, has a heart of retreat.
Deng Yaping, who is only 23 years old, already wants to retire, not to mention Qiao Hong, who is 5 years older than Deng Yaping, and she announced her retirement directly after the Atlanta Olympics.
Therefore, at this time, for the coaching staff of the women's team, who can become Deng Yaping and Qiao Hong, the new leader of Chinese women's table tennis has become a key issue.
At that time, the most optimistic player of the coaching staff was Li Ju, because Li Ju not only won the women's singles runner-up in the 1995 National Championships, but also won the runner-up in the 1996 Asian Cup, of course, they all lost to Deng Yaping.
In 1997, this year, Li Ju successively won the women's singles championship of the Asian Star Tournament, the runner-up of the Women's Singles World Cup, the women's singles champion of the ITTF Pro Tour Finals, the women's team champion of the 44th World Table Tennis Championships, the runner-up of women's doubles and the third place in singles.
Among them, Li Ju lost to Wang Nan in the women's singles World Cup final, and the two of them played inextricably in the first four games, and after entering the tiebreaker, Li Ju, who was strong in attack, once had an advantage, taking a lead of 8-0 and 11-5 (at that time, it was a best-of-five system, with 21 points per game).
But who knew that Wang Nan, who had been behind, seemed to be forced to the edge of the cliff, she began to gradually let go of her hands and feet, as long as she entered the hold, Wang Nan changed the line, and finally Wang Nan not only tied the score, but also won the tiebreaker 21-17, thus winning her first singles world championship.
In the women's singles semifinals of the World Table Tennis Championships, Li Ju lost to Deng Yaping again, while Wang Nan broke into the final, but finally lost to Deng Yaping.
Although Wang Nan's results in the World Table Tennis Championships and the World Cup are better than Li Ju's, especially in the World Cup, he defeated Li Ju in direct dialogue, but Li Ju's world ranking at that time was second only to Deng Yaping.
In 1997, Deng Yaping announced her retirement after participating in the World Table Tennis Championships, so Li Ju was the world's highest-ranked player among the active players at that time.
At that time, although Wang Nan had already won the World Cup women's singles championship first, no one dared to say absolutely on the question of who of the two would become the new first sister of women's table tennis, just like today's Chinese women's table tennis, although Sun Yingsha is currently ahead of Wang Manyu, who dares to say that Wang Manyu will not surpass Sun Yingsha in the future.
Two
The most important game in 1998 was the Bangkok Asian Games, but at this time Li Ju was caught in an injury.
Therefore, under the psychological pressure of wanting to be a sister, Li Ju has endocrine disorders, decreased immunity, and often has a fever.
It is no exaggeration to say that at that time, only the people around her had a cold, and Li Ju must have been the first to be infected, so she was almost inseparable from the medicine jar during that time, and in the end, Li Ju's performance at the Asian Games was not satisfactory.
After the Asian Games, Li Ju had a sarcoma on her big toe, for which she was operated twice, and then she suffered from paronychia, which was caused by the deformation of the toenail caused by running and squeezing the big toe for a long time, which made Li Ju unable to train at all, and the only way was to pull out the deformed toenail.
That period of time was unbearable for Li Ju, the most unforgettable pain in her life was to pull out her toenails, when the stent was pulled out with flesh and blood, Li Ju almost fainted in pain.
When the first dressing change and the nails grew into the new flesh again, Li Ju couldn't help crying in pain.
At that time, the national table tennis team was in full swing to prepare for the 45th World Table Tennis Championships, Li Ju as the main player, she had to insist on training, but her nailsless toes were constantly squeezed and rubbed in the sneakers every day, the pain was unbearable, and Li Ju still persevered in this situation.
The outside world is not very clear about Li Ju's toe situation at that time, they only know that Li Ju's grades were not good for a period of time, so they used all kinds of foul language to criticize and slander Li Ju.
This made Li Ju very depressed, after all, she had no way to let people know what kind of pain she was suffering at that time.
At that time, the best way for Li Ju was to stop training first to adjust, but this choice was directly denied by Li Ju, because the taste of losing was really uncomfortable, and Li Ju wanted to win back.
When the illness is serious, Li Ju can't get cold, so no matter how hot the weather is, Li Ju has to wear long clothes and trousers, and the more nervous she is, the more serious the symptoms will be.
At that time, Li Ju not only had to play results, but also had to fight against the disease, as the main force of the national team, the pressure on all aspects was great, compared with other players, Li Ju had another kind of painful torture, and this torture Li Ju could only bear it alone.
Just when Li Ju was battling the disease, the 45th World Table Tennis Championships came as scheduled, in this World Table Tennis Championships, Li Ju and Wang Nan partnered to win the women's doubles championship, but in the women's singles semifinals, she lost 0-3 to Zhang Yining, a teenager who was 4 years younger than her.
Zhang Yining was the biggest dark horse in the World Table Tennis Championships, and even in the final women's singles final, she almost went black to the end, but in the end, her sister Wang Nan was more experienced, and she defeated Zhang Yining in a reversal when she fell behind 0-2.
After this World Table Tennis Championships, Wang Nan successfully topped the world rankings and greatly exceeded in the competition with Li Ju.
At this time, Li Ju knew that it was difficult for her to surpass Wang Nan, and she had lost to Wang Nan many times in the past two years, but in the final of the fourth Women's Singles World Cup in early 2000, Li Ju defeated Wang Nan and won her first singles world championship.
It can be said that this victory over Wang Nan made Li Ju out of the shadow of more than a year has not been able to defeat Wang Nan, and regained self-confidence, when Li Ju came down from the podium, CCTV reporter Li Wujun said to her: "Congratulations on winning the singles world championship for the first time, it has not been easy for you for more than a year." ”
After hearing this, Li Ju was full of emotion and couldn't help shedding tears: "After going through many tribulations, I finally understand that it is not easy to defeat Wang Nan, and it is even more difficult to defeat yourself. ”
Four
Entering 2000, the most important competition was of course the Sydney Olympics.
In order to achieve better results in the Sydney Olympics, Li Ju, like other team members, is preparing nervously.
But unlike other team members, Li Ju is seriously troubled by illness, and she needs to be treated with drugs every day in China, but when she went to the Olympics, in order to avoid doping problems caused by improper medication, Li Ju could only stop taking all drugs.
In the end, Li Ju and Wang Nan won the women's doubles gold medal, but the pair became rivals again in the women's singles final.
In the final, Li Ju once took a 2-1 lead, but at that time, Wang Nan was stronger than Li Ju in terms of momentum and physical strength, so in the end, Li Ju only won the silver medal in women's singles, and Wang Nan, who won the gold medal, became the second Grand Slam of the Chinese women's volleyball team after Deng Yaping, and completely sat in the position of the first sister of women's table tennis.
In 2001, at the 46th World Table Tennis Championships, Li Ju partnered Wang Nan to win the women's doubles gold medal, and then won the women's team championship with the team.
In 2002, the Chinese women's table tennis team went to the Busan Asian Games under the leadership of Wang Nan and Zhang Yining, but in the end, except for Zhang Yining who won the women's singles championship, the women's team and women's doubles championships were lost.
This is the worst Asian Games for Chinese women's table tennis in the past 10 years, and even the Olympic Games and the World Championships are also the worst, so Li Ju, who has been filming for more than a year, was recalled by the national team coach.
After three months of preparation, Li Ju overcame the pain, mental and physical tests, and quickly recovered his technical level.
At the 47th World Table Tennis Championships in 2003, Li Ju also won two bronze medals in women's singles and women's doubles in one fell swoop, shocking the world table tennis world.
Li Ju also performed well in a series of open tournaments after that, and even Li Ju herself said: "My performance proves that I am fully capable of participating in the Olympic Games." ”
But in the end, Li Ju failed to qualify for the Athens Olympics, and the media at the time speculated that Li Ju failed to qualify for the Olympics because she lost to Japan's chipper Ai Fujinuma in the team event at the World Table Tennis Championships in Doha.
"I'm also sorry to lose that game, but the win or defeat of this game doesn't prove that I can't do it, and it's the only time I've lost to a foreign player in dozens of singles and doubles matches in more than a year since I came back, and such a high win rate is rare in the national team. ”
In fact, both Wang Nan and Zhang Yining have lost at the World Table Tennis Championships in Doha, but in the end, the coach chose Niu Jianfeng to participate in the women's singles and women's doubles competitions of the Athens Olympics in addition to Zhang Yining and Wang Nan, probably because she was younger.
Some media broke the news that two days before the list was announced, the women's team conducted a registered vote, and among the four candidates Li Niu Jianfeng, Guo Yue, and Guo Yanzhong, Li Ju topped the list with 11 votes.
But in the end, Li Ju still failed to get a place in the Athens Olympics.
The reason why Li Ju was recalled to the national team was to prepare for the Athens Olympics, but in the end she failed to get a quota, so Li Ju chose to retire again.
In 2014, 38-year-old Li Ju entered the marriage hall, and then served as the deputy dean of the School of Physical Education of Nantong University in Jiangsu.
Although Li Ju is not known by many young fans compared to the two Grand Slams of Wang Nan and Zhang Yining, she was also the main force of the women's team and the Olympic champion.
The above is the unknown story of Olympic champion Li Ju, if you have any good suggestions or ideas, please leave a message in the comment area to discuss.