Special Olympics: Beijing table tennis player wins 5 gold medals in two days, Xue Juan achieves personal "Grand Slam"

The 11th National Paralympic Games and the 8th Special Olympics competition are in full swing, and the Beiqing-Beijing Headline Reporter learned from the Beijing Disabled Persons' Federation that in the table tennis competition, the strong Beijing delegation shined. On October 25, he won a good record of 2 gold and 3 silver. On October 26, he continued to work hard and won another 3 gold and 1 bronze. Among them, the combination of Beijing women's team Xue Juan and Yang Zhonghui won the women's TT2-TT3 team championship. After winning this gold medal, wheelchair table tennis player Xue Juan also made up for her lack of winning the team gold medal at the Paralympic Games and achieved a personal "Grand Slam". In the 26th competition, Xue Juan won another gold medal in the women's TT3 singles.

After the game, looking back on the process of winning gold in the team competition, Xue Juan was still a little excited. "It's a close win, 3-2 to win a set." Xue Juan said that after ending the journey of the Tokyo Paralympic Games on September 5 this year, she returned to China for quarantine first, and began practicing for half a month in early October, and then went to Xi'an to participate in the Paralympic Games. She believes she has not fully recovered from her state of the Tokyo Paralympic Games, playing only 60 to 70 percent of the day's matches. 'It's a pleasure to win the game because I'm only one Team Champion of the National Games." It is understood that Xue Juan has won individual and team championships in wheelchair table tennis competitions in major competitions such as the National Championships, the National Paralympic Games, the International Open, the Asian Championships, the Asian Paralympic Games and the Paralympic Games, and only at the Paralympic Games has she not won the team championship, which is considered to have achieved an individual "Grand Slam".

Xue Juan is a sunny and beautiful girl, born in 1989 in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province. When he was less than 1 year old, he suffered from polio and became permanently disabled. Xue Juan only started playing at the age of 18, started relatively late, she knew in her heart that only by working hard and paying more sweat than others could she make up for the gap. At that time, the conditions in the team were not good, there were only two tables, Xue Juan, as a newcomer, could only wait until the evening or even at night to train, practicing until the middle of the night was a common thing, and sometimes even slept in the stadium. It is this little bit of accumulation that makes her gradually become the leader of the team from "zero foundation".

Since participating in table tennis, Xue Juan feels that her biggest change is that her self-confidence has increased. "Before playing ball, I was a very inferior person, who rarely went out and was reluctant to talk to strangers. Since participating in table tennis, I have been in contact with more people and participated in competitions everywhere, and my self-confidence has increased significantly. Xue Juan said.

Xue Juan can achieve such excellent results today, inseparable from the guidance and help of coach Bai Gang for many years. According to Bai Gang, table tennis for the disabled is divided into 10 levels, TT1 to TT5 is wheelchair level, and TT6 to TT10 is standing level. TT1 is the most disabled at wheelchair level and TT6 is the most disabled at standing level. Play table tennis in a wheelchair and not as flexible as a healthy person. Although it is said that wheelchairs are the legs of athletes, there are great limitations after all. In sports, the right hand plays ball, the left hand has to turn the wheelchair, and after years of perseverance, many athletes have calluses on their left hands that are thicker than their right hands.

Bai Gang himself was once a wheelchair table tennis player who represented the Shaanxi team in competitions, from the last place in the country to the world championship. Over the years, from being an athlete to being a coach, Bai Gang has been playing outside all year round, only during the Spring Festival there are a few days to go home to visit, and he owes a lot to his family, but watching Xue Juan and other team members win one championship after another, not only winning honors, but also contributing to the promotion of sports for the disabled, he feels that these efforts are worth it.

Text/Beijing Youth Daily reporter Wang Wei

Editor/Peng Xiaofei