Table tennis is our national sport and one of the proudest sports for Chinese in the Olympic Games.
We are more familiar with table tennis coaches such as Liu Guoliang, Kong Linghui, Ma Lin and Shi Zhihao, etc., and Shi Zhihao's love life has always been one of the topics of people's gossip.
Shi Zhihao would rather violate the team rules before and fall in love with Cao Yanhua, who is also a member of the national table tennis team. After divorcing Cao Yanhua, he turned around and married his disciple Li Nan, who was more than 20 years younger than him.
This incident has caused a huge shock and controversy in the sports world, so how are Shi Zhihao and Li Nan doing today?
1. Table tennis legend Shi Zhihao
Shi Zhihao was born in an ordinary family in Zhejiang in 1959. Although he was born in Zhejiang, he followed his parents to Shanghai when he was very young, so he is also half Shanghainese.
Shi Zhihao has been learning table tennis since he was six years old, and at the age of 14, he joined the railway table tennis team and trained here for a year.
In 1974, Shi Zhihao entered the Bayi team again, and after staying here for 4 years, he came to the national team.
Shi Zhihao's first wife is named Cao Yanhua, and she is also a well-known leader of the Shanghai table tennis team.
Cao Yanhua and Shi Zhihao entered the national team in the same year. Since the two are of the same age and are the absolute main force in the team, they naturally have more common topics.
Gradually, the relationship between the two people gradually surpassed that of ordinary friends.
However, the management of the national team is very strict, and the team members are not allowed to fall in love, not to mention that Cao Yanhua and Shi Zhihao are the absolute main forces, and if the two of them fall in love, it will definitely affect the results.
Even so, the two of them still got along silently.
At the same time, Shi Zhihao continued to show his talent and superb skills in the field of table tennis in training.
He changed the traditional style of play, continued to innovate, and made a name for himself in the Asian Table Tennis Championships, and also won the championship.
In the 1981 World Table Tennis Championships, Shi Zhihao participated in the table tennis team competition and won the men's team championship with his teammates.
Shi Zhihao's personality is very stable, and he can play exceptionally in every game.
Even if there are many uncertainties in the game, Shi Zhihao can calmly observe and analyze in order to make the most correct response. For this, his coach gave him a high rating.
Later, Shi Zhihao retired and transformed into a head coach and went to Germany to teach.
After staying in Germany for a period of time, she chose to return to China to coach and serve as the head coach of the national women's table tennis, and has trained many world champions such as Liu Shiwen and Ding Ning.
It can be said that Shi Zhihao's ball skills and technical level are beyond doubt, after all, under his guidance and tactical arrangement, our female table tennis players have achieved excellent results.
Among the many table tennis coaches, Shi Zhihao is also one of the most respected and loved coaches.
However, compared to his illustrious teaching career, the emotional experience is the gossip that fans talk about after dinner.
Second, Shi Zhihao, Cao Yanhua, and Lao Yan flew separately
At that time, he and Cao Yanhua, a member of the national team, hit it off at first sight, and quickly fell into the whirlpool of love. However, at that time, the national team expressly forbade students not to fall in love during training, not to mention that both of them were the main force in the team.
After all, if two people talk for a while and break up, they will be hit psychologically.
This blow will definitely be reflected on the field and will have an impact on their results, so it is understandable that the national team is forbidden to fall in love.
But even so, Shi Zhihao and Cao Yanhua still "committed crimes against the wind" and silently interacted. Shi Zhihao likes Cao Yanhua's spirit and skills of not admitting defeat very much.
At that time, Cao Yanhua was one of the masters of the women's table tennis team, won a total of 59 medals in major competitions, and was also known as the "Queen of Table Tennis".
If table tennis had been included in the Olympic program at that time, Cao Yanhua would have been able to win the Grand Slam again.
However, table tennis was not included in the Olympic program at that time, so it was a pity.
In the 38th World Table Tennis Championships, Cao Yanhua won the women's singles championship, and partnered with Cai Zhenhua to win the mixed doubles championship, and partnered with Ni Xialian to win the women's doubles championship.
Because Cao Yanhua is too good, many people feel that Shi Zhihao is not worthy of Cao Yanhua. But Cao Yanhua thinks that Shi Zhihao is the best, and she doesn't want anything else.
After the end of the World Table Tennis Championships, Cao Yanhua announced his retirement and entered the palace of marriage with Shi Zhihao, who had retired.
After getting married, Cao Yanhua went to Japan to study, and Shi Zhihao accompanied his wife.
At that time, Shi Zhihao's identity was still in the Bayi team, and he was still a soldier, so he couldn't study abroad.
Later, the director of the Shanghai Sports Commission helped Shi Zhihao transfer from the army to the Shanghai Sports Commission, and arranged to be a coach in the gymnasium, so that Shi Zhihao could successfully accompany his wife to study in Japan.
Later, a club in Germany invited Shi Zhihao to be a coach, and Cao Yanhua also willingly accompanied her husband and became a housewife in Germany.
In Germany, Cao Yanhua gave birth to a son, Shi Zexi.
In order to be able to take better care of her son, Cao Yanhua gave up the sky-high contract offered to her by the German club and devoted herself to working for the family.
Some people also say that Cao Yanhua was too patriotic and unwilling to fight with his motherland, so he refused the coaching position of the German club.
The two of them lived very happily in Germany, not only bought a luxury car and a villa, but also saved a large amount of money.
However, in 1995, Shi Zhihao and Cao Yanhua still chose to return to China, after all, they were not missing their motherland for a moment in Germany.
After that, after entering the national team coaching, he put all his energy on his work.
In the end, he couldn't go home a few times a year, and Cao Yanhua also started his own business and set up his own table tennis school.
In this way, the two of them started a long-distance life for many years, and the family of three got together less and left more, and they couldn't see each other a few times a year.
If couples don't see each other a few times a year, sooner or later something will go wrong.
Because there is less gathering and more separation, the marriage of the two has also come to an end, although Shi Zhihao has repeatedly proposed to let Cao Yanhua take his son to Beijing with him, and the family of three can meet every day.
But Cao Yanhua was busy with the career of the table tennis school and couldn't agree to Shi Zhihao's request, and Shi Zhihao was unwilling to give up the job of the female table tennis coach, so the plan for the three to get together was shelved.
In the end, the two quarreled because of this incident and ended in divorce.
The news of their divorce made people in the circle regret, after all, the two of them met as teenagers, and they have accompanied and supported each other for so many years.
For Shi Zhihao and Cao Yanhua, the people in front of them are no longer the people of that time, and they look at each other in pairs, only disappointed.
Second, the teacher-student love
Shi Zhihao's second wife is called Li Nan, a disciple more than 20 years younger than him, and the two met in 1997, only two or three years after Shi Zhihao returned to China.
Li Nan was only in her teens at the time, she was still a little girl who had not grown up, she was very simple, she cried when she lost a game, and laughed when she won a game.
During the training camp in Huangshi, Li Nan lost a game that he shouldn't have lost because of carelessness, and his guilt and anger made Li Nan play all the way in the later games, which seemed to be protesting.
As the head coach, Shi Zhihao could naturally see that Li Nan was losing his temper, and he endured his anger and asked other coaches to talk to Li Nan.
However, Li Nan still maintained his previous style, which made Shi Zhihao very angry and directly beat Li Nan back to the provincial team.
Li Nan was stunned at the time, and said that I was in the women's second team, but at the level of the top three, you want to beat me back to the provincial team, how is this possible?
However, how could Shi Zhihao not know Li Nan's true strength? He just wanted to cure Li Nan's arrogance and petty temper.
Shi Zhihao had already expected that Li Nan could definitely return to the national team with his own strength, and sure enough, with his outstanding performance in the championship, Li Nan returned to the national team again.
At the beginning, Shi Hao's impression of Li Nan was that the other party was a child and a very talented athlete.
And as a coach, he has to be a good Bole and tap Li Nan's potential and ability.
Perhaps the first kind of love is a very pure feeling from the father's generation, or the special identity between the coach and the players.
When did the two people start to have a good feeling between men and women? This matter is not clear to Shi Zhihao and Li Nan themselves.
Li Nan said that when he was most depressed, he couldn't say a lot of things to his friends and family, so he could only say it to Shi Zhihao, who was the most trusted.
But in this process, Li Nan felt a strong sense of security, so the two naturally approached.
This is not a process of love at first sight, but a journey of love over time.
The age span between the two is too big, and it is a love affair between the national team coach and the players, so the two have not made it public for a long time.
At that time, Li Nan, who was born in the 80s, said to Shi Zhihao that you are single, and I am also single, and the two of them are together without breaking the law, and it has not affected anyone, and others can say whatever they like.
Li Nan's remarks also put Shi Zhihao at ease. Later, Li Nan left the national team in 2009, and the two officially established their relationship.
After marriage, Li Nan also gave birth to a lovely daughter to Shi Zhihao, named Shi Zenan.
epilogue
Now, Shi Zhihao has already stepped down as the head coach of the women's team and has come to his hometown of Shanghai.
He served as the vice president of the Shanghai Sports Institute and the first president of the China Table Tennis Academy, and was even elected vice president of the International Table Tennis Federation.
In Shi Zhihao's view, today's life is not only about teaching others to play table tennis, but also about what he cherishes and cherishes, that is, accompanying his wife Li Nan and his baby daughter.
No matter what the outside world says, the young and old, who are 22 years apart, still go on firmly. What do you think about this?