The World Team Table Tennis Championships (2022 World Team Table Tennis Championships) currently being held in Chengdu, China. Although this event is called a “team” championship, the competition between teams is played in “singles”. The team that wins by 3 points is the winning team. The 59-year-old Chinese-American veteran Ni Xialian, who had previously attracted much attention because of her “age” in the Tokyo Olympics, represented Luxembourg. She was still very young and performed super bravely. She led Luxembourg to defeat South Korea 3:1 in the group stage. The second and fourth points are the key figures in helping the team win.
In this game, Luxembourg first lost the first point, and the second point was Ni Xialian, the “grandmother of billiards”, against Tian Zhixi, who is ranked 16th in the world. In the face of the top players in the class, Ni Xialian still relies on her strength. Win with experience. In the fourth point, she defeated Li Shiwen, who was “33 years younger” than her in 5 rounds, and won the first victory of the group stage.
Ni Xialian, who was born in Shanghai, China in 1963, joined the Shanghai table tennis team at the age of 15. In 1979, the 16-year-old Ni Xialian became a dark horse at the Chinese National Games that year. She defeated world famous players all the way and won the championship with her outstanding performance. The runner-up in women’s singles, was selected to the national team in the same year, and won the women’s team and mixed doubles gold medals at the 1983 World Snooker Championships, securing the main position of the national team.
Because China’s billiards are among the best in the world, and there are too many competitors around, they finally failed to be selected for the Seoul Olympics in 1988, when billiards were listed as an official event for the first time. Soon after, Ni Xialian married Luxembourg-born coach Tommy Danielsson, and after “traveling the world for love”, he settled in Luxembourg with her husband. Accompanied by her husband, Ni Xialian finally fulfilled her Olympic dream at the age of 37, representing Luxembourg in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, and then in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the 2012 London Olympics, the 2016 Rio Olympics, and this year’s Tokyo Olympics. In fact, Ni Xialian had the opportunity to become a “veteran of the seven dynasties”. He was also eligible to compete in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, but because he was nurtured by Chinese sports resources since he was a child, he thought this was a betrayal of China. It was only at the age of 37, who had passed the peak of physical fitness, that he completed the first Olympic experience.
Last summer, she participated in the 5th Olympic Games in her life in Tokyo, which made Ni Xialian the oldest billiard player in Olympic history. At that time, she met Shin Yubin, a 17-year-old South Korean who could be her granddaughter. Gap” became a topic of discussion at the time.
After the East Olympics, Ni Xialian continued to compete in the world as a player. In the top 8 women’s singles at the New Mesto Station in Slovenia at the WTT World Billiards Regular Challenge, she met the 24-year-old Wang Yidi of China. Wang Yidi had just beaten Chen Meng and Sun Yingsha, the gold medalist in women’s singles at the Chinese National Games, and won the women’s singles championship on behalf of Liaoning Province. It can be said that he was one of the main players in China’s women’s singles, but Ni Xialian was unafraid. In the 3-win game in 5 games, the first two games were won by 11:8. Although they were forced into the decisive game, Ni Xialian managed to win 11:9 at the critical moment, knocking out Wang Yidi and reaching the top 4.
Time goes back to the present, Luxembourg, with Ni Xialian in the squad, currently has a record of 2 wins and 1 loss in the group stage of the World Snooker Team Championship, and has a good chance to advance to the next round of competitions. Ni Xialian can definitely be called the spokesperson of “Happy Billiards”. She said in an interview after her defeat in the East Olympics: “I enjoy the current state very much, I feel very happy every day, I enjoy playing time, and every day is spent. It’s very fulfilling.” She always maintains a positive attitude and good physical condition, coupled with her heartfelt love for billiards, she continues to fight on the world’s top stages at this age, and not only is determined to participate, but also She can beat many opponents who are about 30 years younger than her and whose skills are at their peak.
It seems that this grandma Ni, who is not old with a sword, is really likely to participate in the Paris Olympics at the age of 61 in 2 years, and continue to push forward the obstacles she created, but no matter what, her spirit and attitude are already A model for all.
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