The Olympic selection of the national table tennis first team has ended, with a total of 8 people shortlisted for the final Paris Olympic list, led by 35-year-old Ma Long, while Fan Zhendong, who is a Mesozoic generation, has been shortlisted for the men's team and men's singles events, and has a chance to hit two Olympic gold medals. What is intriguing is that Fan Zhendong himself made a move after forwarding the news about the national table tennis Olympic list, he posted a news and said: "Last dance" This is also the meaning of the last dance, it seems that Fan Zhendong is hinting at farewell.
From a literal point of view, Fan Zhendong may be saying that this is his last Olympic Games, or it is possible that he will choose to retire after the Paris Olympics. In the past, Zhang Yining, the great demon of national table tennis, chose to retire to family life at the age of 29, and it is not ruled out that Fan Zhendong will also choose to do so.
After the Tokyo Olympics, Fan Zhendong won two World Table Tennis Championships men's singles championships and many Grand Slam men's singles championships, but from the second half of 2023, Fan Zhendong began to regress in his performance, losing to the younger Wang Chuqin many times in a row, including the Hangzhou Asian Games.
In 2024, Fan Zhendong scored 2 points against the South Korean team at the World Table Tennis Championships in Busan, helping the national table tennis team to reverse the opponent and win, and the outside world's evaluation of Fan Zhendong was back on track. It's a pity that Xiaopang was upset early in major events such as the Singapore Grand Slam, the Incheon Championship and the World Cup, which directly led to his personal world ranking being overtaken by Wang Chuqin.
In the last Tokyo Olympics, Fan Zhendong reached the men's singles final but lost to Ma Long, missing the Olympic men's singles gold medal, which made Xiaopang unable to complete the Grand Slam achievements for a long time.
The former Xiaopang is the only genius in the mouth of Liu Guoliang, chairman of the Table Tennis Association, he can fight 7 games with Ma Long at the peak at the age of 16, and he can also reach the finals of the World Table Tennis Championships in a row to let the world see what talent is, and even let Grand Slam player Zhang Jike willingly serve as a sparring partner. It's just that fate is always strict with geniuses, Fan Zhendong has been full of ups and downs along the way, survived Ma Long's peak, but failed to open his own era, in 2019, Fan Zhendong had a downturn in the first round of consecutive tours, when he spent a lot of time on self-reflection to successfully save himself, now Fan Zhendong is no longer a 22-year-old young man, 27-year-old He is the face of the current national table tennis men's team, I hope he can put down his burden and work hard to win, let himself enjoy the sport of table tennis.
(Lin Xiaoxiang)