Table tennis plays an extremely important role in China, and the women's singles at the Olympics is the focus of attention. Recently, the Chinese table tennis team announced the list of two players representing the country in the women's singles event at the 2024 Paris Olympics, namely Sun Yingsha and Chen Meng. This decision has aroused widespread attention and heated discussions in public opinion.
Let's take a look at these two players first. Sun Yingsha, born in Hebei in 1991, is one of the main athletes of the Chinese table tennis team, and has won many championships, including the World Cup and the World Tour Finals. Chen Meng, born in Guangdong in 1997, is a rising star in recent years, and despite his young age, he has achieved impressive results in many important tournaments and is regarded as a strong candidate for the future of Chinese table tennis.
However, this list also made Wang Manyu, a player with outstanding strength, out of qualifying for the Olympic Women's Singles, which caused a lot of questions and controversy. Wang Manyu, born in Shandong in 1999, is one of the hottest star players in Chinese table tennis. In the just-concluded 2023 season, she has achieved an impressive record of 8 women's singles championships, which can be described as a well-deserved "champion of the season". Many believe that Wang Manyu deserves the precious qualification to represent China in the women's singles at the Olympics.
Zhang Xuefeng, a well-known table tennis commentator, and He Xiaolong, a well-known journalist, both published long articles expressing doubts and dissatisfaction with this decision. They believe that the Chinese team in this Olympic cycle, Wang Manyu's performance is far better than Chen Meng and others, and she deserves to get the third Olympic women's singles quota. In order to express his support for Wang Manyu, Zhang Xuefeng even publicly announced that no matter what Wang Manyu achieves in the Paris Olympics, he will reward this fellow countryman with 1 million yuan.
In the face of such a strong wave of public opinion, the Chinese table tennis team also responded. Both star Ma Lin and head coach Li Ying said the decision was made in accordance with strict selection rules, and the final two Olympic squads were the most suitable candidates for the Paris Olympics.
However, fans aren't exactly buying it. Many people believe that the list is still in the public stage, so they have complained about Wang Manyu, hoping that through the influence of public opinion, they can win Olympic qualification for this outstanding player.
In this public opinion turmoil, Wang Manyu and Chen Meng themselves did not respond much. Recently, though, there are some details that have been discovered and circulated widely by avid fans. The first is that Chen Meng blocked some users who abused her online on social media. What's even more striking is that Wang Manyu has shut down Chen Meng on social platforms.
According to statistics, Wang Manyu currently follows 136 users, of which 47 are from the sports circle, including teammates Ma Long, Lin Gaoyuan, Sun Yingsha, Chen Xingtong, and even Japanese player Miyu Hirano, but Chen Meng is not in her attention list. It is worth mentioning that Chen Meng's watchlist still includes Wang Manyu.
So, why did Wang Manyu take Chen Meng? There are several possible explanations:
First of all, Wang Manyu is not usually very active on social media, and perhaps she has not followed Chen Meng in the first place. Because there are no other teammates like Wang Yidi and Ma Lin on her watchlist. Therefore, Wang Manyu did not pay attention to Chen Meng, which is likely to be just a coincidence.
Secondly, after this decision was announced, some of Wang Manyu's reactions during training may be able to answer why she took Chen Meng off. Although Ma Lin and others all recognize Wang Manyu as the third player of the women's team, everyone knows that her goal is the women's singles event. After an unexpected loss to the 2023 Saudi Arabia Grand Slam, Wang Manyu may have realized the dilemma ahead. At that time, someone photographed her alone in a daze outside the field. After the Chinese team announced the Olympic lineup, Wang Manyu was also photographed on the training road with a tired and slightly unwilling.
Obviously, Wang Manyu's goal of working hard for three years fell short, which was undoubtedly a heavy blow to her heart. What's even more sad is that considering that the collective interests are higher than the individual, Wang Manyu can't say anything about this matter. Therefore, she may subconsciously alienate everything related to this matter, such as taking down Chen Meng.
Regardless of Wang Manyu's motives, this incident reflects a certain degree of contradiction and division in the Chinese table tennis world. On the surface, this is just an ordinary selection list, but the controversy it has caused is enough to prove the fans' love for Wang Manyu and how much weight she has for the whole sport of table tennis.
At the same time, this also reflects that there is still room for improvement in China's table tennis talent pool. Despite dominance around the world, it focuses too much on individual stars, and when there is a disagreement over the selection, it will cause fierce criticism. If the reserve forces of all ages had developed in a balanced manner, perhaps such a contradiction would not have arisen.
Regardless, table tennis at the Paris Olympics is destined to be exciting. Sun Yingsha and Chen Meng, who carry the national honor, will definitely live up to expectations and be teachable; Wang Manyu, who failed to participate in the competition, believes that he will also display his talents in other competitions and win glory for Chinese table tennis. The Chinese team are still the favourites to win gold, and we will wait and see if they can achieve another great result at the Olympics.
In general, this public opinion turmoil reflects the love of Chinese people for table tennis, and also exposes some deep-seated contradictions, such as the imbalance of talent reserves. I believe that through this incident, Chinese table tennis can learn lessons and make improvements in talent training and selection!