Winning the WTT Saudi Arabia Grand Slam Women's Singles Championship, Chen Meng finally reached the podium of the singles championship in international competitions after two years. In mid-January, Chen Meng celebrated her 30th birthday, scanning the women's table tennis world and winning the top women's table tennis championship at an age of more than 30, which is quite rare.
Chen Meng was born on January 15, 1994. In the national table tennis, there are very few people who are still active in the front line at the age of 30+ years old, and Ma Long, who is nearly 36 years old, is a myth, and he and Xu Xin and Liu Shiwen, who are 30 years old + years old and compete in the Tokyo Olympics, have become the only three "evergreens" in the history of the national table tennis Olympics. If the age of the singles champion in an important international competition is used as an indicator to scan the Chinese women's table tennis, Chen Meng made history on the evening of May 11.
In the summer of 2021, Liu Shiwen competed in the Tokyo Olympics, when she had celebrated her 30th birthday, and it was a pity that Liu Shiwen lost unexpectedly in the mixed doubles final at the Tokyo Olympics and failed to create a miracle of winning the Olympic championship at the age of 30+. Liu Shiwen last won the singles title at the 2019 World Cup, when she was already a 29-year-old veteran.
Like Liu Shiwen, Wang Nan is also a famous "evergreen" in the history of Chinese women's table tennis. In the summer of 2008, Wang Nan competed in the Beijing Olympics, her third Olympic trip, when she won the women's team championship and the women's singles runner-up. Wang Nan was born in October 1978 and is about to reach the age of 30 when he competes in the Beijing Olympics. After the Beijing Olympics, Wang Nan retreated bravely.
Early world champion Emily Lin also chose to retire at the age of 30. Emily Lin was born in 1941, and in the 1965 World Table Tennis Championships, she and her teammates Zheng Minzhi, Liang Lizhen, and Li Henan won the turnaround battle under the leadership of head coach Rong Guotuan, making great contributions to the first team championship for Chinese women's table tennis. In 1971, Emily Lin was already a 30-year-old veteran, and she shined at the 31st World Table Tennis Championships held in March and April of that year, winning three gold medals in women's singles, doubles and mixed doubles, drawing a wonderful end to her sports career.
The just-concluded WTT Saudi Arabia Grand Slam, Chen Meng showed a rare passion and domineering in the past two years, she first defeated Miu Hirano, Miwa Zhangmoto, Hina Hayada 3 Japanese Olympians, and defeated Sun Yingsha, the first person in the international table tennis world in the last three seasons, in accordance with the relevant rules of national table tennis, she has qualified for the Olympic team and singles events, and only the official announcement is left to enter the Paris Olympics.
Two months later, Chen Meng will embark on the journey of the Paris Olympics, when she was 31.5 years old, becoming the oldest women's table tennis Olympic player in the history of Chinese sports, once she wins the championship, she will become the oldest Chinese table tennis history to win the world's three major champions, if she can win the singles gold medal, will surpass the age of Emily Lin when she won the World Table Tennis Championships singles championship. Can Chen Meng accomplish this miracle?