National table tennis has long occupied the position of the hegemon of the world table tennis world, but with the implementation of the "wolf breeding plan", more and more young talents from other countries have emerged, and even pose a threat to national table tennis. Among them, the biggest opponent of national table tennis is the neighbor Japanese table tennis, and in the latest ranking released by the World Table Tennis Federation, national table tennis and Japanese table tennis together occupy half of the country.
It is understood that this ranking is aimed at the 10 top athletes who became famous at a young age in the history of world table tennis, 5 men and 5 men and women, who are basically characters who can go down in the history of table tennis. On the men's side, China's Ma Long and Fan Zhendong were selected, finishing at 18 years, 4 months and 9 days (5th) and 15 years, 5 months and 9 days respectively (2nd). In addition, Chinese Taipei's Lin Yunru is on the list with 18 years and 15 days (4th), and France's F-Lebrun is in 3rd place with 17 years, 1 month and 12 days. It can be seen that Fan Zhendong emerged in the World Series at the age of more than 15, which is already a very unnatural performance, but he is not the first.
It turns out that in the history of world table tennis, the youngest promising player is Tomokazu Zhangmoto from Japan, who was only 14 years old, 10 months and 15 days old when he first opened the eyes of the world, and was a talented athlete who broke the men's record. Of course, from the perspective of blood, Tomokazu Zhang is still Chinese, but under the influence of his parents' choice, he has become a Japanese player. Of course, becoming famous at a young age does not mean that you can continue to be brilliant, and the example of Zhong Yong is not uncommon in the world table tennis world. Now it seems that Tomokazu Zhang has the possibility of being unnoticed, at least in the past few years after the Tokyo Olympics, he has indeed not made too obvious progress, if he can't achieve a breakthrough, it will be very difficult to make achievements in his career.
On the women's side, China's Guo Yue reached the top, and her record was even more outrageous, becoming a member of the national team at the age of 12 and reaching the world stage at the age of 14 years, 5 months and 15 days. Guo Yue left a deep impression on the fans with her image of "tomboy" when she played, and her masculine style of play also made her very sharp on the field. It's a pity that Guo Yue has certain problems in his personality, and his career is anticlimactic, so he said goodbye to the arena early. Among the other four women's players, Sun Yingsha ranked 5th with 17 years, 7 months and 27 days, and the others were all from Japan, namely Misei Ito at 14 years, 7 months and 11 days, Miwa Zhang at 15 years, 10 months and 7 days, and Miu Hirano at 16 years, 6 months and 18 days.
Overall, Japanese table tennis is following the model of the rise of national table tennis, vigorously cultivating young people, and has successfully delivered many top players, but it may be limited by the background, training methods and tactical ideas, etc., and the subsequent development of their athletes is not as good as that of Chinese players. However, from a long-term perspective, there has been a shortage of talents in national table tennis, and over-reliance on veterans will also hinder the growth of young people, which is the key reason why Chinese players are not as dominant as in many world competitions, and we should still be vigilant.