After the Olympic Games, Chen Meng withdrew from the Macau Championships, the China Grand Slam, and the Montpellier Championships. This move made many fans feel regretful, regretting that they couldn't see her and Sun Yingsha's master duel.
However, during this period, Chen Meng received a lot of good news, and was given a new position as honorary principal. Just when the fans were happy for her, the ITTF suddenly announced a punishment for her!
It is worth mentioning that Liu Guoliang is to blame behind this sudden punishment!
Chen Meng officially announced his new identity and officially took office
On September 15, Sun Yingsha defeated Wang Yidi to win the women's singles title of the Macau Championships, and when everyone's eyes were attracted to the championship, few people noticed that Chen Meng received a new appointment on the same day.
On the same day, the Affiliated School of UCAS (Qingdao): Qingdao Chengyang District National Science Experimental School hired Chen Meng as the honorary principal of the school, and worked with the school to contribute to the sports cause of his hometown and the cause of Chinese table tennis.
The letter of appointment will be effective from September 15, 2024 and will expire on September 14, 2029, for a total term of five years.
As soon as she was appointed, she walked into the door of the Affiliated College of National Defense University (Qingdao) with a confident smile. Her arrival is not only an ordinary visit, but also a spiritual transmission and dream enlightenment.
To welcome the sports superstar, high-level officials from the local education and sports system gathered early on campus. These include the director of the Education Bureau, the Director of the Sports Bureau, the Director of the Sports Center, and the President and Party Secretary of the School Affiliated to the National Defense University.
Their arrival is not only a personal respect for her, but also a high respect for sportsmanship. At the same time, they also look forward to Chen Meng bringing an unforgettable exchange experience to the students.
Before leaving the school, Chen Meng not only took a photo with the table tennis players, but also signed the uniform that accompanied her to win the Olympic women's singles, and left it in the school, in order to inspire these future pillars of the school.
It's a pity that the fans haven't been happy for two days, and the result of the ITTF's punishment has come!
Three members of the national table tennis team were punished
On September 17, some netizens found that Chen Meng was given 0 because he withdrew from the Macau Championship. The ITTF has a rule that unless there are uncontrollable reasons that cannot participate, athletes who withdraw from the competition will face a penalty of 0 valid points.
If the ITTF treats everyone equally, this matter may be over. However, in addition to Chen Meng in this WTT Macau Championship, 7 female players including Hayada of the Japan team and Shin Yubin of the Korea team all withdrew, but only Chen Meng was given 0 among the 7 people.
Later, fans found out that this was the case for Chen Meng, who was not only on the women's team. Ma Long and Fan Zhendong, who also retired from the competition, also faced the situation of 0 effective points, but the external players who withdrew like them were fine.
In other words, among the 15 top players who withdrew from the WTT Macau Championships, only three were assigned 0, and these three happened to be all from the national table tennis team, so it's no wonder that fans think too much.
It should be noted that this is already Ma Long's second 0 this year. At the Chongqing Championship in June, Ma Long suddenly decided to retire shortly before the start of the tournament. Although many fans said that he was forced to retire from the game, he still received a penalty of 0, and the world ranking also fell from second to fourth.
After Malone withdrew from the game, his fans asked for a refund to no avail. Fans defended their rights one after another, saying that they would either refund the ticket or cancel Ma Long's 0 punishment, but unfortunately the World Table Tennis Federation remained silent as if it was dead.
This time, he was given another 0 in the Macau Championship, so that he only had 6 valid points left. He is currently ranked No. 6 in the top 5 in the world rankings.
And after two 0 punishments, his points are less than half of Wang Chuqin's.
The impact of 0 on the athlete
Points are not only a stepping stone to a major event, but also play a key role in the organization of the event, and the tournament organizer can determine the eligibility and seeding players according to the ranking of points, ensuring the fairness and enjoyment of the competition.
For example, in international competitions such as the Olympics and the World Championships, the athletes with the highest points ranking are usually seeded and are ranked to avoid meeting each other at an early stage, thus ensuring that the competition is exciting.
However, there is a big premise for all this, and the points must be enough to qualify for the competition. Perhaps it is precisely because of the two Fu 0 that Ma Long does not dare to push off the upcoming WTT China Grand Slam.
On the contrary, Fan Zhendong and Chen Meng, who are ranked second in the world in men's singles and women's singles, are at the top of the points, and there is still a chance for trial and error, so the Chinese Grand Slam still does not participate.
In fact, they didn't participate in the competition, and the fans didn't pay much attention to it, but were glad that they could rest well, after all, the schedule after the Olympics was too full. What really makes them mind is whether this retirement will be given 0 again.
Fan Zhendong and Ma Long have both realized their dreams of a Grand Slam, but Chen Meng is still one World Table Tennis Championships women's singles championship away from the Grand Slam. If you want to participate in the World Table Tennis Championships, you must be ranked high in singles, and fans are afraid that she will continue to be given 0, which will affect her Grand Slam plan.
The most important thing is that she is 30 years old this year, and whether she can participate in the next World Table Tennis Championships is still two words.
Liu Guoliang is to blame?
The matter of withdrawing from the competition and giving 0 is inseparable from Liu Guoliang. As the organizer of WTT, he initially wanted to promote friendly exchanges between players from various countries, so as to improve the overall strength of table tennis.
This is a good thing, but the fault is that the rules of the WTT are too strong. The rules stipulate that the top players in the world will automatically enter the competition, and to put it bluntly, registration is mandatory. In case some athletes do not want to participate, they can only withdraw from the competition, but if they withdraw from the competition, they will face a penalty of 0.
Therefore, in the eyes of fans, this move is no different from the overlord treaty, which is nothing more than wanting to tie up these top players and make them have to participate, so as to attract their fans to buy tickets to watch the game.
In addition, among the 15 people who withdrew from the Macau Championship this time, only the Chinese team was punished, which caused fans to become more and more dissatisfied with Liu Guoliang, feeling that he was not as good as doing things in foreign associations and would protect his own athletes.
The trio retired again
What fans never expected was that in the Montpellier championship after the Grand Slam, three people retired again. How can the fans still sit still, Ma Long and Fan Zhendong are okay to say, after all, one of them is too old to keep up with the high-intensity competition, and the other does not like to participate in commercial competitions.
But when Chen Meng was asked what his future plans were at the end of the Olympics, he once said that everything is up to the organization, but the situation of the organization is that he can't participate? The Macau Championship and Grand Slam tournaments at least she was shortlisted first, and then the news of her withdrawal came out, although I don't know whether she voluntarily withdrew or was forced to retire, but she did qualify.
But at the Montpellier Championship at the end of October, she did not qualify as the world No. 2, which made fans dissatisfied. questioned whether the national table tennis wanted her world ranking to clear 0, and the news that the national table tennis would not let her compete became more and more outrageous.
So, do you think Chen Meng doesn't want to play or doesn't let him play?