China's table tennis program has developed to the present, not only China's national ball, but also the level of Chinese table tennis players. It is also one of the best in the world. In fact, if you want to say who first promoted the development of table tennis in China, you have to talk about the Rong Guotuan. But such a pioneer was forced to commit suicide. What's going on?
In 1937, Yung was born into a poor seafarer family in the Hong Kong colony. His father, Rong Mianzhi, was a patriot who had participated in the Guangzhou Uprising and the Provincial-Hong Kong Strike in his early years. After the failure of the uprising, in order to support his family, he became a seafarer of the steamship company.
In 1941, after bombing Pearl Harbor in the United States, Japan then invaded Hong Kong. Rong Mianzhi was determined not to be a slave to the country, so he took his wife and children back to his hometown in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province.
In his hometown in Zhuhai, Rong Guotuan spent his infancy and enrolled in primary school there. Rong Guotuan has been clever and clever since childhood, and his achievements have always been among the best. However, in addition to liking to learn, Rong Guotuan was also exposed to a small table tennis ball when he was 7 years old. Since then, he has developed a great interest in table tennis.
Don't look at Rong Guotuan,000,000,000-tall table tennis, but his talent for playing table tennis is very high. After playing with his classmates a few times, his level improved greatly. In the end, no one in the whole school could beat him, and he was also named "Ping Pong Little Ball King" by everyone at a young age.
After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War in 1945, Rong Mianzhi first returned to the steamship company in Hong Kong to continue to work as a seaman, and when he settled down, Rong Guotuan returned to Hong Kong with his mother to reunite with his father.
At this time, Hong Kong was still a British colony, and the life of Chinese was still in dire straits. Although Rong Mianzhi is a seafarer, he earns very little every month, and his life is getting worse. Even the tuition fee could not be raised, and in desperation, the 15-year-old Rong Guotuan had to drop out of school and go home.
In order to supplement the family, Rong Guotuan went to the society to earn a living at a young age. But because he was thin and young, it was not easy to find a job, and he ended up working as a child laborer at a seafood shop.
The work in the seafood shop is very hard, Rong Guotuan has to get up very early every day, go to the fishing boat on the dock to pick fish and transport shrimp, and his body also emits a smell of dead fish and shrimp for many years. However, although suffering is unbearable, it is human instinct to make fun in suffering. For example, one of Rong Guotuan's favorite things to do is to go to the trade union club where his father is to play table tennis.
There are many workers in the club, including many people who play table tennis. With the help of those people, Rong Guotuan usually likes to figure out how to serve? How to catch the ball... So his technique was well trained there. After several years of practice, he has become one of the top table tennis masters in Hong Kong.
It is gold that always shines. Rong Guotuan's inadvertent behavior actually got the opportunity to show. In 1957, the Hong Kong Table Tennis Championships were held in Hong Kong, and the Federation of Trade Unions also formed a table tennis team to participate in this event. Naturally, Rong Guotuan, who has excellent table tennis skills, became one of them. Unexpectedly, Rong Guotuan won the team, singles and doubles championships in one fell swoop in the competition, and he became famous because of this.
Also in 1957, the Japanese table tennis team represented by world champion Hagimura visited Hong Kong. In the process of communication, it is inevitable to have a "friendship first, competition second" event. As a result, the ignorant Rong Guotuan did not pay attention to the leader's intentions, but instead defeated Hagimura with extremely tenacious will and superb skills when he confronted Hagimura.
After the news came out, hong Kong people all liked Dapu Ben, and Rong Guotuan became an idol-like figure.
However, Rong Guotuan also had his troubles. The Hong Kong Table Tennis Federation once approached him before a match and asked him to play match-fixing during the match, making the opponent a champion in a row, and expressed his willingness to send him a sum of money to compensate. But the upright Yung Kwok Tuan refused the request, and since then, the Hong Kong Table Tennis Federation has been harassing him at every turn, even using his name when he registered for the Asian Table Tennis Championships, so that he finally failed to participate in the competition.
The depressed Yung Kwok Tuan is very disappointed in the Hong Kong Table Tennis Association, and under the influence of his father, he longs for the mainland that has just been liberated. Therefore, he had the idea of playing table tennis in the interior, and wrote a sincere letter to the Guangdong Provincial Sports Committee, in which he strongly expressed his desire to serve the motherland.
The Guangdong Provincial Sports Committee attached great importance to Rong Guotuan's letter, and after consulting his superiors, in order to let him return to the mainland safely, he sent him an admission letter from the Guangzhou Institute of Physical Education, and when Rong Guotuan received the acceptance letter, it was already after he defeated Hagimura.
Soon, Rong Guotuan packed up his simple packing and took a boat to Guangzhou. In the Guangzhou Institute of Physical Education, he not only saw many athletes, but also some athletes who knew him and welcomed him at the school gate. Thinking that he would train with these energetic athletes in the future, he was very happy in his heart.
Rong Guotuan's record in table tennis is very clear to the national leaders, so they attach great importance to his arrival, and even give him a salary of 86.5 yuan per month.
There are not many athletes who can enjoy this treatment, but Rong Guotuan does not attach any importance to these treatments, and he is bent on getting Chinese sports out of the title of "sick man of East Asia". So he seized the time to train, bent on fighting for honor for the country.
In 1958, Rong Guotuan officially joined the Guangzhou Table Tennis Team and won the men's singles championship in the National Table Tennis Championships, and won the title of "Athlete".
In 1959, at the 25th World Table Tennis Championships, the Chinese team members were eliminated in the competition, and only Rong Guotuan entered the final. The fierce competition also aroused the concern of the national leaders, first He Long sent a telegram to encourage, Premier Zhou Enlai paid more attention to the game every day, no matter how late he worked, he would definitely call the Chinese team to inquire about the game.
It can be said that at this time, the burden on Rong Guotuan's body is very heavy. Putting aside ordinary athletes will definitely affect the performance of the game. However, Rong Guotuan, who has always been eager to serve the motherland, cherishes the opportunity of this competition. Before he was on the field, in front of his teammates who cheered him on, he also clenched his fists and said loudly: "Life is a rare fight." ”
In the final, the team against Rong Guotuan was Hungarian veteran Sido. Xi Duo was also a world champion at that time, whether from the perspective of experience or appearance, Xi Duo was more powerful than Rong Guotuan, but Rong Guotuan was not intimidated by the aura of the other party. At first, he was still behind Cido, but slowly, he found the other side's flaws. Therefore, in the fierce competition, he and Sido's score slowly equalized, and in the end he exhausted Sido's physical strength and won.
After the game, the audience burst into warm applause, and the Chinese present were in tears. As we all know, China's first world gold medal was born. This means that Chinese sports have opened a new chapter, and Rong Guotuan has become the pride of the people of the whole country.
At that time, wherever Rong Guotuan went, people asked him for autographs, and the leaders of the country not only cordially received him, but also when foreign friends visited, he was often invited to state banquets. In short, the Rongguo regiment at that time was really beautiful.
In 1961, the 26th World Table Tennis Championships was held in Beijing, and Rong Guotuan led his teammates to defeat Japan 5:3 to win the men's team championship.
Subsequently, he was appointed as the coach of the women's table tennis team. Under his scientific training, the skills of the women's table tennis team improved rapidly, and almost won the championship in every competition. This also allows Chinese table tennis to have a certain position in world sports.
Nowadays, China's table tennis team is full of talents and is also very influential in the world. But in any case, if there is no Appearance of Rong Guotuan, it is still not easy for Chinese table tennis to develop so fast. As Liu Guoliang said: "Over the past 60 years, the spirit and soul injected into the entire group of our Chinese table tennis team have been endless, and have been passed down to this day, and have flourished in the world table tennis arena for more than half a century, and have become a banner in the Chinese sports industry." ”