01 From the "problem player" who was almost expelled, to Zhang Yining's classmate sister
Guo Yan, born in Beijing on June 24, 1983, is 172cm tall (similar to Zhang Yining) and weighs 62kg.
She can be said to be one of the typical representatives of the masculinity of women's technology, the technical characteristics are good serve, high quality arc ball, good first three board technology and so on. These are the advantages of Da Guo Jie, and they are also a typical and unique link in the masculinization of women's technology.
Guo Yan began to learn to play table tennis at the age of 5 and entered the famous Shichahai Sports School in the third grade of primary school. This school is remarkable, with countless world-class players such as Zhang Yining, Li Jiawei, Liu Jia and Wu Xue, mainly because there is a "Grand Slam coach" Li Falcon in the school.
At that time, Li Falcon was also the coach of the Beijing team, and he personally came to bring Guo Yan and a batch of good seedlings. When Guo Yan was 12 years old, Li Falcon selected her to join the Beijing team, one of the reasons was that in Guo Yan, he vaguely saw "Zhang Yining's shadow".
However, unlike the "old cadre Zhang", Guo Yan is a typical "problem player". Because she is an only child, Guo Yan has been pampered since childhood, although the family conditions are average, but as long as the child opens her mouth, her parents always try their best to meet all her requirements.
Because of his outstanding achievements in the team, Guo Yan always felt good about himself, and over time he developed a proud, complacent and self-righteous personality. For example, if the team asks not to go out at night, she will definitely find a way to "escape", once she escapes, she will definitely be caught by Li Falcon, and once caught, she will definitely "invite parents", even if she is fined, she will not admit her mistakes, just like a naughty boy.
Li Falcon couldn't help it, this child's talent was too good to be expelled; moreover, Guo Yan's heart was not bad, he was grinning, and he had not made a mistake in principle, so he had to take training to "clean up" her. But Guo Yan's physical fitness is super good, and she is not afraid of tiredness, and will always successfully complete the tasks assigned by the coach, and the rest of the time is "free time" in her words, and the coach and parents "have no right to ask questions".
After practicing like this for 3 years, Guo Yan, whose achievements became increasingly prominent, won the women's singles championship of the National Junior Championships in 1998, and she also successfully entered the national team with this result. This year, she was only 15 years old.
At this time, Zhang Yining, a sister of the same door who is two years older than her, came to the national team as early as 5 years ago to report, but at this time, the 1st sister of Chinese women's table tennis is still Wang Nan, and Guo Yan Zhang Yining is only her foil's sister. Who knows, Guo Yan, who just joined the 1st team, immediately caused a big problem.
In order to see the level of the little master sister, but also in order to test the "teaching level of the Shichahai Sports School", Wang Nan proposed to play a "guidance ball" with Guo Yan, who did not know the height of the sky, and Guo Yan, who did not know the height of the sky, gladly agreed, and Zhang Yining next to her also happily waited to see the joke, she had long heard of the "big name" of the little master sister.
Who knows that Guo Yan's explosive first three boards and masculine playing style make Wang Nan very uncomfortable, three times two times actually lost the battle, this time Guo Yan said unashamedly: "Look, the world champion is just like this." The beat fell, punched the clock and walked in, leaving Wang Nan and Zhang Yining messy in the wind.
This overly "arrogant" personality made Guo Yan later pay the bill. Years later, Guo Yan said sadly when recalling this time: People look at me as a smooth sailing before I was 15 years old, but in the next 15 years, I am constantly paying for it!
02 All the way to the peak to become the captain of women's table tennis, but never participated in the Olympic Games
It is said that Guo Yue and Xiao Zao are sad, in fact, Guo Yan is even more tragic than them, at least the first two have participated in the Olympic Games.
Throughout Guo Yan's career of more than 20 years, even if he stood on the throne of the world's first and became the first sister of women's table tennis, he still did not participate in the Olympic Games until he was 30 years old, even if he did not even get a P card. Why?
Speaking of which, two of them were infinitely close to the Olympic Games, but both were lost because of Guo Yue (the last time can also be said to be squeezed out by Ding Ning).
The first was the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Guo Yan defeated his sister Zhang Yining at the 2006 World Cup to win the championship, and the dispute over the amount of the Olympics showed a glimmer of light. However, Guo Yue won the 2007 World Table Tennis Championships and directly suppressed Guo Yan.
In this way, the younger and more personality genius Guo Yue followed Wang Nan and Zhang Yining and became the third candidate to win the singles bronze medal and the women's team gold medal.
The second was the London Olympics in 2012. Guo Yan's performance in this cycle is outstanding, beating Singapore's Sun Beibei in the final of the 2010 Moscow Team Table Tennis Championships, taking the only point for the Chinese team. In the same year, she defeated Zhang Yining's nemesis Jiang Huajun in the World Cup and won the championship.
The 2012 Asian Championships was the highlight of Guo Yan's career, she defeated Li Xiaoxia to win the championship, and also cooperated with her teammates to win the women's doubles, mixed doubles, and women's team championships, becoming the first four champions of the Asian Championships, and the world ranking once came to the first place.
Originally, it was definitely a foregone conclusion to be selected for the London Olympics with this result, and it was also included by Shi Zhihao at the beginning. However, suddenly, at the last moment, Ding Ning was escorted, Guo Yue was also on board, and Guo Yan was down.
There may be several reasons:
One is that I am older. At that time, Guo Yan was 29 years old, while Guo Yue was only 24 years old, Ding Ning was younger (7 years younger than Guo Yan), and in terms of cultivating young players, the coaching team was more willing to cultivate these teachers and sisters;
Second, Guo Yan is a right-handed horizontal shot, considering the pairing of the women's team doubles and Li Xiaoxia, Guo Yue is undoubtedly more appropriate, after all, Guo Yue Li Xiaoxia, as a fellow of Anshan, is invincible in the women's doubles event;
Third, among the female table tennis members at that time, only Guo Yue had Olympic experience (2 sessions), and Li Xiaoxia, Ding Ning, and Guo Yan were still newcomers.
The last one is that it is rumored that Guo Yan was "injured" at that time.
On the whole, it seems reasonable that Guo Yan was squeezed out. However, Guo Yan, who learned the news at the last moment, was "heartbroken" and "sleepless all night", and she knew in her heart that she would never enter the Olympic arena again at the age of 30. As an athlete, what a great regret.
At that moment, she cried very sadly.
03 I made green leaves all my life, and finally became a female boss after retiring from the army
In the front, there is the illumination under the "super aura" of Wang Nan/Zhang Yining, there is the surrounding of Guo Yue/Li Xiaoxia's "Anshan Twin Stars", and then there is the squeeze of Ding Ning/Liu Shiwen's "Fearsome Afterlife", and Guo Yan's career as a veteran is extremely awkward.
She is either the third sister or the second sister, occasionally being a "honorary" sister, but also making way for others, always wandering on the margins. However, the atmospheric Guo Yan has never said a word in front of the national honor, and she has silently endured all this, even if she is regarded as a "fire captain".
The Moscow World Table Tennis Championships is an eternal pain in the hearts of Chinese fans, no less than Wang Hao lost to Liu Chengmin that year. In 2010, Shi Zhihao, the head of the female table tennis coach, led the "Concubine Troops" Ding Ning, Liu Shiwen, and the veteran Guo Yan to form a team to march to moscow. Guo Yue/Li Xiaoxia, who accompanied the team, was thrown into the cold palace on the grounds of "physical injury", pressed on the bench, and guarded the water dispenser.
At that time, the order was that Liu Shiwen, the youngest and most aggressive, served as the first singles; Ding Ning, who was tall and fierce, served as the second singles; and it was Guo Yan, the "big sister". Among the 3 people, only Guo Yan has rich experience in the competition and has a stable mentality, like Ding Ning and Liu Shiwen, two young players who have great pressure before the game, resulting in a serious imbalance of mentality, and finally won by the experienced Singapore women's table tennis.
Among them, Liu Shiwen lost 2 consecutive sets, Ding Ning lost 1 set, and the only one who won was veteran Guo Yan. When Feng Tianwei scored the last point of victory, Li Jiawei, the former sister of the Singapore team, jumped up from the chair on the sideline, rushed into the field, and hugged her teammates tightly... To be able to win the championship from the Hands of the Chinese team, the Singapore team was ecstatic and wept with joy...
According to relevant sources, after the Chinese women's table tennis coach Shi Zhihao announced the list of Ding Ning, Liu Shiwen and Guo Yan to play in the final, the Singapore team members felt a burst of secret joy in their hearts: "The Chinese women's table tennis put two young players in the position of the first two singles, won't the opportunity come?" ”
After the game, both the national table tennis team leader and the manager showed enough "generosity". Shi Zhihao said: "This competition also let everyone see that the Chinese team is not without opponents... Criticism, pressure... Athletes have to go through this stage... Losing should say that the problem arises on our own... Young people pay the price, and I think that's normal as well. In Shi Zhihao's speech, there was no mention of the problems of "platooning and deployment" and "carelessly losing Jingzhou."
The final result of this battle was: due to the discord between the generals, Guo Yue gradually went into a downturn, leaving only a doubles position in the team; Liu Shiwen was hidden in the snow and came out of the shadows for more than two years; the veteran Li Xiaoxia had to be activated again; and Guo Yan was reused as the "big heart of the team" and promoted to the captain of the women's table tennis team. Since then, women's table tennis has ushered in the "Warring States Era", and there has been no "Great Demon King" until now.
And this is more of an honorary encouragement than a substantial responsibility. After losing his qualification for the London Olympics in 2012, Guo Yan gradually retired and faded out of the national team. Two years later, at the age of 31, she chose to retire.
In fact, Guo Yan has a close relationship with many team members in the team, from Wang Nan Zhang Yining before, to Li Xiaoxia Guo Yue in the middle, to Ding Ning Liu Shiwen later, and even Zhu Yuling, she is willing to make green leaves. Regardless of the results, completely unconditional obedience to the arrangements of the coaching staff, never say a word.
Even the nickname "Xiao Zao" was given by Guo Yan. At that time, Liu Shiwen, who had just joined the national team, looked chubby, her face was red, and Guo Yan, who always liked to joke, called her "red dates". At the beginning, Liu Shiwen, who loved beauty, was still very angry, and there was no rebuttal to the status of the eldest sister, and over time, she slowly accepted this nickname, and Liu Shiwen's fans also liked this nickname.
For Ding Ning, who is generally considered "difficult to make friends", when she first joined the national team, Zhang Yining taught her techniques, and Guo Yan taught her tactics and psychological counseling in her spare time, which was of great benefit to Ding Ning's growth. After Guo Yan retired from the army and transformed into the coach of the Beijing team (later the assistant to the head coach of the national team women's table tennis), Ding Ning still chose her as his head coach, and the relationship was evident.
From this point of view, Guo Yan and Ding Ning still spare no effort to shine after the relationship with Ding Ning from teammates, to opponents, to master and apprentice, which shows how much Guo Yan loves the sport of table tennis. With the retirement of Wang Nan Zhang Yining's marriage to businessman and Guo Yue's Li Xiaoxia, Guo Yan is still active in the table tennis world.
Later, Guo Yan established "Beijing Yanshang Sports Culture Co., Ltd.", acting as the founder (the actual position is a director), which also operates a youth club, a network information company, a cultural industry company, etc., and also opened branches in Jiangsu and other places, successfully transforming into a business female boss, with a lot of money.
Today' Guo Yan in her personal social circle, still spare no effort to promote table tennis, but the 38-year-old is still single, often also broke the news of "forced marriage by her parents". However, Guo Yan, who has a calm heart, is not in a hurry, in her words: everything goes with fate.
【Afterword】
She is not pretty, and even has a bit of a masculine appearance;
However, in her, she always exudes the brilliance of collective honor, sportsmanship, unity and fraternity; perhaps her career is not perfect, but she has achieved the glory of 3 rounds of women's table tennis.
And that's enough.
Bless Sister Guo!