As we all know, there are countless world champions of the Chinese table tennis team, but everyone is in a different era and plays different roles. In the history of national table tennis, there has been such a famous player, although he did not appear many times in the world series, he made a very important contribution and became a hero in the hearts of fans.
Unfortunately, limited by his playing style and age, this person finally lost to Liu Guoliang in the competition for Olympic qualification, and then quickly went down to the top, fading out of the main layer of the Chinese team, leaving many regrets - who is he? Ding Song, the "secret weapon" of Cai Zhenhua, who was once a great hero of national table tennis and then head coach, is also! Do you remember him?
Ding Song, born in 1970, a famous player in the national table tennis in the 90s, his technique is particularly different, not only has a counter-attack, but also more like an offensive player, so it often makes the opponent extremely uncomfortable. It was precisely because of this that the then head coach Cai Zhenhua hid it many times as a secret weapon against the Swedish team.
In the early 1990s, the national table tennis was at a low ebb, the Swedish team led by Waldner dominated the world table tennis world, and the Chinese men's team changed 2 managers, and finally handed over the responsibility of "turning over" to Cai Zhenhua. After repeated defeats, everyone finally found an opportunity at the 1995 Tianjin World Table Tennis Championships and once again opened the men's team final with sweden.
When it is also time, sweden's 3 main players have a record of beating our main players, we estimate that Waldner and Perlson have the possibility of winning, especially the old watt may win 2 points, so the battle with Karlsson is absolutely not lost. But two years ago, in the men's team final of the 1993 World Table Tennis Championships, our main player Wang Hao lost to this person, so Cai Zhenhua was under great pressure.
It was in this situation that Ding Song, who had been hiding his strength before, appeared and launched a very wonderful duel with Carlson. As soon as he changed the conservative mentality of his brother Wang Hao, he first defeated Karlsson's fighting spirit with an attack, then chased after the victory, and finally completed the task easily 2-0, scoring a key point for the national table tennis, and finally helped the whole team to win sweden 3-2 and win the championship again!
It was with his victory at the Tianjin World Table Tennis Championships that Ding Song became a well-known hero of national table tennis and was also very hopeful to participate in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. But it backfired, a year later, the national table tennis announced the Olympic participation list, Ding Song lost to Liu Guoliang in the team competition, and was not included in the list of Cai Zhenhua to go to the United States.
It turned out that ding song wanted to participate in the Olympic Games that year, and also had to form a men's doubles with Kong Linghui, and the team considered that the doubles mode of "attacking and matching" was a taboo in the table tennis world, and at the same time, Liu Guoliang and Kong Linghui grew up together and cooperated tacitly, so they finally occupied a slight advantage in the Olympic competition, thus squeezing out Ding Song and getting the tickets.
Although he was a little reluctant that year, with Liu Guoliang's achievements in winning the men's doubles and men's singles gold medals in Dalian, Atlanta, Ding Song was also relieved. In an interview many years later, Ding Song also admitted frankly: If I were to change, would I be able to achieve such results? Now think about it, the leader's decision was the right one!
However, there are so many table tennis players in China, after all, there are a few who can participate in the Olympic Games, so Ding Song's regret is not unique to him. But after 1996, Ding Song's performance began to decline sharply, and although he reported the team lineup in 1997, he no longer had the top three positions; as for the singles match, he was even more defeated, and was easily swept 3-0 by Belarusian Samsonov.
After 1997, Ding Song completely faded out of the main lineup of national table tennis, which has both the reasons for the style of play and the problem of age - since the 80s, it is difficult to reach the top of the chipping style, which is their helplessness in the arc ball era; and the national table tennis in order to make Ding Song surprisingly victorious, until he is 25 years old, he did not reuse it, and this age is indeed a bit big for the players of the Chinese team.
But in any case, Ding Song can play a key role in important moments, so that all fans will remember his achievements deeply, that is already better than many athletes with better results! Although he is like a shooting star in the history of national table tennis, the light he emits is worth remembering forever for all people who love table tennis: pay tribute to the predecessors!