In recent years, the popularity of table tennis has soared, and many national players have frequently appeared on the hot search, and even some fans have moved the set of entertainment circles to table tennis players.
For example, if some athletes lose the game or have something that should not be there, his fans will face criticism and even have some "riot operations" such as criticism.
Although it is said that the game always has a loss and a win, and the losing athlete should not be blamed at will, some athletes are not weak and lose, but have a bad attitude.
There are also some athletes whose fame is greater than their strength, but athletes ultimately rely on strength and achievements, and no matter how famous they are, if there is no strong strength and excellent results as a basis, it is still short-lived.
There are many very strong players in the Chinese table tennis team, and their fame is also very large, and the table tennis player we want to talk about today is to "become famous" with a game, he is Liu Guozheng.
Even in those years, there was a reputation of "marrying Liu Guozheng when you marry someone", and we will learn about Liu Guozheng's story today and see why thousands of fans remember him with a game.
One
Liu Guozheng was born on March 7, 1980 to an ordinary family in Wuhan, Hubei Province.
Liu Guozheng's father liked table tennis more, and when Liu Guozheng was very young, he often took Liu Guozheng to the park to watch others play.
Sometimes little Liu Guozheng will also be "invited" by his uncles and uncles to play, who knows that Liu Guozheng is still quite talented in table tennis.
Slowly playing is similar, so some "golfers" who often play with Liu Guozheng's father suggest that Liu Guozheng's father can send his son to a more professional place to learn to play table tennis professionally.
In this way, when Liu Guozheng was 6 years old in 1986, he was sent by his father to the Wuhan Amateur Sports School to practice table tennis, and Liu Guozheng, who had just begun to learn table tennis, was considered an older player among a bunch of children.
Because many children are sent to amateur sports school by their parents at the age of four or five, but there are also advantages in being older, that is, learning things quickly, and understanding the teacher's explanation is also relatively fast.
Therefore, Liu Guo is growing up quickly among the players who are practicing table tennis at the same time, and the coach is also full of expectations for him, and he is also a bit different.
Perhaps because of the coach's special attention, or Liu Guozheng really likes table tennis too much, Liu Guozheng's level has improved rapidly, and some of the children's competitions he has participated in are also among the best.
However, parents are still more worried about Liu Guozheng's future, because although his son's level in amateur sports schools is already the top, he is not a professional athlete after all, and he cannot make a living from table tennis.
However, just when his parents were worried, Liu Guozheng's coach at an amateur sports school was favored by the sports school in Shantou City, Guangdong Province, and then Liu Guozheng followed the coach to Guangdong Province to practice.
Until 1991, at the age of 11, Liu Guozheng entered the Guangdong Provincial Sports School, and it was also in this year that Liu Guozheng was selected for the Guangdong Provincial Table Tennis Team and began his own career as a professional athlete.
After entering the Guangdong Provincial Sports School, Liu Guozheng's training volume was basically several times that of before, and the sudden pressure made Liu Guozheng very uncomfortable at first.
Previously, when he was in an amateur sports school, Liu Guozheng's training was only after the completion of the cultural class, while after entering the Guangdong Provincial Sports School, there were only two cultural classes a day, and the rest of the time it was a training class.
However, the love of table tennis in his heart made Liu Guozheng persist, and he also worked hard to climb upwards, and his strength improved very quickly day by day.
Two
In 1994, at the age of 14, Liu Guozheng was selected for the national second team, and a year later he successfully advanced to the national first team in the first and second team lifting competition.
At that time, the Chinese men's table tennis team had outstanding athletes such as Wang Tao, Kong Linghui, Liu Guoliang, Ding Song, etc., and among the young generation of athletes, there were also Wang Liqin, Ma Lin and other team members, and Liu Guozheng was still a small team member.
After a year in the national first team, Liu Guozheng won the men's singles championship at the 1996 National Youth Table Tennis Championships and began to slowly enter everyone's field of vision.
At that time, the head coach of the Chinese table tennis men's team was still Cai Zhenhua, and after Liu Guozheng won the men's singles championship of the National Youth Championship, Cai Zhenhua and the coaching team also began to slowly and intentionally cultivate Liu Guozheng.
At the 1998 Asian Table Tennis Championships, Liu Guozheng participated in the team competition with the team, and finally won the Asian Championship men's team championship, which is considered to be the main team.
Since 1999, Liu Guozheng, with the help of his coach, has changed his way of serving and embodied a new technical style, which makes many opponents uncomfortable.
Liu Guozheng's status on the men's team has also risen repeatedly, and liu Guozheng participated in the singles competition at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, but finally stopped in the top 8.
In the same year, Liu Guozheng also participated in the 45th World Table Tennis Championships team competition with his teammates, and defeated sweden's famous Karlsson in the final, but the Chinese team eventually lost to the Swedish team and missed the men's team championship.
In 2001, the 46th World Table Tennis Championships were held in Osaka, Japan, which was the first World Table Tennis Championship in the era of big balls, and the last World Table Tennis Championships in which teams and individual events were combined.
Liu Guozheng, as one of the main players of the Chinese men's team, naturally also participated in the competition, first playing the team competition, Liu Guozheng was playing as the third singles occasionally before the semi-finals.
And Liu Guozheng was only 21 years old at the time, still a young player, and not too many people paid attention to him, but before the men's team semi-final China played against South Korea.
China table tennis coach Cai Zhenhua unexpectedly listed Liu Guozheng as the second singles player and personally commanded it, which attracted some people's attention.
Three
In the semi-finals of the 46th World Table Tennis Championships in Osaka, Japan in 2001, the Chinese team played against the South Korean team, with Kong Linghui as the first single, Liu Guozheng as the second single, and Ma Lin as the third single.
But who knew that Grand Slam player Kong Linghui was not in good shape, and even lost two points in a row, but fortunately, Liu Guozheng and Ma Lin both won, so they entered the fifth set of the decider.
In the fifth inning, China's Liu Guozheng played against South Korea's Kim Taek-so, which was played on a 21-point scale, with a total of three innings.
In the first set between Yoo Kwok-jeong and Kim Taek-so, Liu Guo-jeong made more mistakes and soon lost the first set 16-21.
The second game was very fierce, the score was never pulled away, 20-19 Kanazawa Su led by one point, at this time as long as Liu Guozheng lost a point, the Chinese team did not qualify for the men's team final.
However, in the end, Liu Guozheng saved three consecutive match points and won the second set 24-22, and the two sides fought a big score of 1-1.
In the decider, Kim Taek-so took the lead as soon as he came up, and Yoo Kwok-jeong struggled to catch up with the score until 19-15, Kanazawa-soo took the lead, and the game officially entered the climax.
Liu Guozheng first scored 4 consecutive points to chase the game to 19-19, but at this time, Kanazawa Soo won a point and took the lead in getting the match point, and Liu Guozheng was forced to the edge of the cliff.
At such a moment of crisis, Liu Guozheng showed his super psychological quality, and he was never soft in the face of opportunities, that is, calm and bold.
20 draws, 21 draws, 22 draws, 23 draws Kanazawa Soo always took the lead in getting the match point, but after 23 draws Liu Guozheng did not give Kanazawa Soo another chance, took two consecutive points to win the decider, won 2-1 against Kanazawa Soo, and the Chinese team also defeated South Korea 3-2 to enter the men's team final.
After this match, Liu Guozheng immediately became the focus of the Osaka World Table Tennis Championships, and some people in China also posted online: "Marry Liu Guozheng when you marry someone."
Table tennis evergreen Swedish veteran Waldner watched the match between China and South Korea and predicted: "Liu Guozheng will dominate the world table tennis world."
However, after becoming a "reversal hero", Liu Guozheng met teammate Marlene in the men's singles 8-4 match of the World Table Tennis Championships, and he eventually lost to Marlene 2-3 and did not qualify for the final four.
Four
In the 2001 Osaka World Table Tennis Championships Liu Guozheng became famous in one battle, and the Internet circulated that "marryIng Liu Guozheng" can be said to be the top of the men's team whether it is strength or popularity.
However, after the World Table Tennis Championships, Liu Guozheng almost retired, the reason is that after the 2001 World Table Tennis Championships, the International Table Tennis Federation introduced the "no cover serve" rule.
This brought a huge negative impact on Liu Guozheng, and because of the sharp tip of the bull's horn, he once went into a desperate situation in technology.
Just when Liu Guozheng was entering the trough, he met Zhao Shuqi, who was studying freshman year, at a party, and the two quickly established a relationship at first sight.
Zhao Shuqi accompanied Liu Guozheng through the low tide period of life, and those years were indeed more painful for Liu Guozheng.
First of all, in 2003, Wang Hao was born, Qiu Yike became famous in one battle, and in 2004, Chen Xuan's army suddenly emerged, Hao Shuai came and went, and Kong Linghui's state was still stable.
Wang Liqin and Ma Lin firmly sat on the first two chairs, Liu Guozheng even felt suffocated, the people in front of him ran faster, the people behind them chased more fiercely, he didn't know what to do.
At that time, Liu Guozheng's head coach was his former teammate Liu Guoliang, Liu Guoliang said: "Liu Guozheng is now in a more awkward situation in the team, there are people in front and people in the back, just like in the cracks."
In fact, after the 2001 Osaka World Table Tennis Championships, changed the uncovered serve, Liu Guozheng has not been able to put himself in the right position, although the technology has reached the peak, but he himself has always felt that his ball is OK, did not try new technology.
When he found out the problem, it was already after the 2003 World Table Tennis Championships in Paris, where Liu Guozheng was eliminated by Czech athlete Kerber in the men's singles competition.
Perhaps it was the fiasco that made him reflect, and through the communication with the head coach at the time, Liu Guoliang, he found that his main problem at that time was the backhand position and the ability to get started after the serve.
After changing the irregular serve, if Liu Guozheng loses the serve to rush the attack, he will directly enter the stalemate stage, and his stalemate level is not the most prominent, so if he cannot form a new technical style, it is difficult for him to return to the top.
In this way, after Liu Guoliang served as the head coach of the men's team, Liu Guozheng was assigned to Xiao Zhan's group, and with the help of Xiao Zhan and Liu Guoliang, Liu Guozheng slowly changed his skills.
In the men's singles competition of the 2005 World Table Tennis Championships, Liu Guozheng once again staged a big reversal to defeat the world table tennis rising star Pol at the time, but in the quarterfinals, Liu Guozheng once again lost 2-4 to Marlene.
This is Liu Guozheng's last peak, not only that, in this year Liu Guozheng also lost love.
Five
At the end of 2005, Liu Guozheng was accidentally injured in a training, the first operation was unsuccessful, and a second operation was performed, after the operation, Liu Guozheng basically could not adapt to high-intensity training, and it was basically impossible to return to the table tennis game.
That is, during the recuperation period, Liu Guozheng and his girlfriend Zhao Shuqi began to quarrel frequently, and finally for various reasons, the emotional road between the two of them also came to an end.
After this, Liu Guozheng basically stopped training, until liu Guozheng officially announced his retirement after the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, after which he chose to stay in the national team and began as a trainee coach, assisting coach Wu Jingping to coach Ma Lin, Wang Hao and other players.
It was also in this year that Xiao Zhan's wife, Jia Beibei, introduced a girl to Liu Guozheng, Lu Lu of the Beijing table tennis team.
At that time, Lu Lu was only 19 years old, was a straight board playing style, Zhang Yining's sister, known as the "straight board little princess" of the Beijing team, in 2003, because the national team needed a special straight board play, had the honor to enter the national team.
However, after training with Wang Nan, Zhang Yining, Guo Yue and others at the peak, Lu Lu, who was only thirteen or fourteen years old, had difficulty adapting, so she was soon withdrawn to the Beijing team.
For Liu Guozheng, Lu Lu naturally knows, and she has also watched the semi-final of the men's team at the 2001 World Table Tennis Championships, and has also heard that "marrying someone to marry Liu Guozheng" has also been heard.
But her first impression of Liu Guozheng was not good, thinking that Liu Guozheng was not tall, and her imaginary boyfriend should be tall and tall.
But Liu Guozheng's impression of Lu Lu is very good, but he does not talk about love, so Xiao Zhan helps him send a message to Lu Lu, and Xiao Zhan's wife urges Lu Lu to go on a date.
Lu Lu, who came and went, found that Liu Guozheng did not have a little shelf, would not hold a shelf because she was a world champion or a little famous, and her mother also thought that Liu Guozheng was very reliable.
In this way, in 2010, the 30-year-old Liu Guozheng married the 21-year-old Lu Lu, and after marriage, Liu Guozheng still served as an assistant coach in the national team, and Lu Lu served as the coach of the background table tennis women's second team.
In 2012, Liu Guozheng officially became the head coach of the Chinese table tennis men's second team, and he stayed in this position for 5 years, until 2017, when the national team coach competed again, Liu Guozheng officially entered the men's first team as a coach.
In 2017, Liu Guoliang, who was the head coach of the Chinese table tennis team at the time, became the vice chairman of the Table Tennis Association for some special reasons, while the head coach of the men's team Qin Zhijian and the coach Ma Lin left the national table tennis team due to the withdrawal incident.
After that, although there was no formal appointment, the basic work of the men's team was managed by Liu Guozheng, until the end of 2018, Liu Guoliang became the chairman of the Table Tennis Association, Qin Zhijian returned as the head coach of the men's team, and Liu Guozheng served as the leader of the teaching and research team of the men's first team.
Now Liu Guozheng's supervisor Wang Chuqin is the best rising star of the men's team, regarded as another leader of the men's team after Fan Zhendong, and Liu Guozheng himself is also a strong contender for the next men's team coach.
Time has cause and effect, although in the athlete period " a battle to become famous", but in the end due to technology and injury failed to have better results, I believe That Liu Guo is in the coaching position will have more brilliant achievements.