Among the many shining stars in the Chinese table tennis world, Li Ju has become the hegemon of the generation after Deng Yaping with her fierce style of play. Not only is she an Olympic champion, but she also won seven world table tennis championships and the International Table Tennis Pro Tour, retiring in 2001. However, a year after her retirement, Li Ju announced her comeback in 2003, and in a short period of time, she recovered her state and actively prepared for the Athens Olympic Games, but surprisingly, Li Ju did not wait for the opening of the Olympic Games to announce her retirement again.
So, why did Li Ju come back after retiring? After the comeback, he did not wait for the opening of the Olympic Games and announced his retirement, what is going on?
Speaking of which, Li Ju's sports career is still relatively smooth. She learned table tennis at the age of 7, entered the municipal junior sports school at the age of 10, entered the provincial team at the age of 14, and was selected into the national youth team after only 1 year of training in the provincial team, and officially entered the national team the following year with her strong strength.
Although Li Ju is a female athlete, her playing style is very distinctive. She is accustomed to holding the racket with her right hand, playing the ball fast and fiercely, which belongs to the arc fast attack method, and her front and back hands can pull the arc ball on the catch. Because her ball spins and speeds quickly, she often catches her opponent off guard.
After the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, Deng Yaping and Qiao Hong slowly faded out of the world table tennis scene, and the rising star Li Ju was able to emerge, and an era that belonged to her began.
Prior to that, Li Ju had won the women's singles runner-up, women's team championship and women's doubles championship at the National Table Tennis Championships.
In 1996, Li Ju won the women's singles runner-up and the women's team championship at the 13th Asian Cup.
Subsequently, Li Ju ushered in the peak of her sports career. She won the Women's Team Championships and the Women's Singles Title at the World Table Tennis Championships and the International Table Tennis Federation Pro Tour, respectively. Her outstanding results soon made her no. 2 in the world table tennis rankings, and she also became a formidable player in the international table tennis world because of her strong playing style.
However, Li Ju also has regrets, that is, she has been in an invincible position for a long time, and the strong hand she encountered is actually her teammate Wang Nan.
At first, Li Ju could barely gain the upper hand. But Wang Nan has a particularly strong psychological quality in playing, and no matter what situation she encounters, she can maintain her composure and calmness. In terms of playing, Li Ju's ball plays fiercely, but she is not very good at controlling the rhythm. Wang Nan is different, she is very good at controlling the rhythm of the shot, and unexpectedly attacking.
Li Ju and Wang Nan, as a doubles combination, can be said to have a tacit understanding in the game. Whether it is in domestic or international competitions, you can win the gold medal in seconds. However, when it comes to women's singles, when Li Ju and Wang Nan become opponents, Li Ju is often difficult to win. So she and Wang Nan are always one to win the runner-up and the other to win the championship.
What makes Li Ju most sad is that at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, she and Wang Nan became opponents again in the women's singles final. The two played a difficult point in the final, first 2:2 tied, but in the last set, Li Ju was eager to win, and the result was to lose points in a critical moment, but Wang Nan caught up and won the championship.
For Wang Nan, a difficult opponent, Li Ju also often thinks about how to win against her. After continuous and hard training, she finally won in the women's singles final of the Women's Table Tennis International Cup in the same year, and she finally realized her dream of winning the women's singles championship.
In 2001, due to the impact of injury, Li Ju had to choose to retire and bid farewell to the national team.
However, no one expected that Li Ju had only been retired for more than 1 year, because the Chinese women's table tennis team lost the women's team championship at the Busan Asian Games, Wang Nan alone lost two sets, and Li Nan lost one set. Although Jang won a set, she eventually lost to North Korea 1:3. And in the women's doubles competition, Zhang Yining and Li Nan also lost to South Korean players. In the mixed doubles, Wang Nan and Wang Liqin, as well as The combination of Ma Lin and Li Nan, only won the third place. It can be said that in addition to Zhang Yining winning the women's singles championship, almost all the army was destroyed, creating the worst result in history.
At this critical moment, the national team leader gave Li Ju ideological work and asked her to come back. For the sake of national honor, but also difficult to give up the love of table tennis, Li Ju was ordered to put down the business that had just been operated and returned to the national team.
You know, at this time, Li Ju has stopped training for more than 1 year. When she started training again, she found that her grades were no longer the same. In order to get back to state as quickly as possible, she decided to start from scratch. During that time, Li Ju would carry out a lot of training every day, and at the same time she had to overcome injuries and psychological problems, so that period became her most difficult period.
Fortunately, Li Ju overcame the problems she encountered through continuous efforts, and her level was quickly verified at the World Table Tennis Championships in Paris. In that competition, she won two bronze medals in women's singles and women's doubles. The international sports world was shocked again, after all, she had only been in the team for 3 months.
Subsequently, Li Ju won the women's doubles championship and the women's doubles runner-up in the China Table Tennis Open and the Greek Open respectively. According to Li Ju's recollection, although her best results appeared before she retired, after her comeback, her mentality was much calmer than before.
In fact, long before Li Ju's comeback, the national team leaders promised to let her participate in the Olympic Games, and Li Ju also had some regrets about winning the silver medal in women's singles at the 2000 Olympic Games. So to be able to participate in the Olympic Games again, her biggest wish is to achieve the women's singles championship. However, what Li Ju did not expect was that at the last moment of the Olympic selection, she was defeated.
At that time, the main players of the national team were Wang Nan and Zhang Yining, and the third person chose between veteran Li Ju and 23-year-old Niu Jianfeng. In the end, the national team chose Niu Jianfeng to participate. Li Ju was very disappointed, but Li Ju looked at the overall situation, although dissatisfied, or silently accepted such a bitter result, lamenting that she was destined to lose her life with the Olympic women's singles champion, she left the national team that afternoon, and announced her retirement again.
Unfortunately, Niu Jianfeng lost to Jin Xiangmei in the Round of 16 at the Athens Olympic Games. You know, Niu Jianfeng has never lost to Jin Xiangmei before, which shows that her psychological quality is not good. If Li Ju had participated at that time, she would never have lost this competition with strong psychological quality.
In fact, according to media reports at the time, there was a vote in the team, and Li Ju won 11 votes, ranking first in the list. Niu Jianfeng only received 6 votes. But in the end, the national team chose Niu Jianfeng, and Li Ju could only accept it silently.
After Li Ju retired from the army, he changed careers and entered the financial industry. Later, he also opened a sports industry company. Since then, Li Ju has also served as the deputy dean of the School of Physical Education of Nanjing University. Although she is not engaged in table tennis full-time, she is still engaged in her beloved sports career and has great achievements. I wish Li Ju better and better in the future.