The World Team Table Tennis Championships (World Team Table Tennis Championships 2022) are currently taking place 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. 59-year-old Chinese-American veteran Ni Xialian, who previously attracted a lot of attention due to her “age” at the Tokyo Olympics, represented Luxembourg. She was still very young and performed super brave. You led Luxembourg to defeat South Korea. 3: 1 in the group stage The second and fourth points are the key figures to help the team win.
In this match, Luxembourg lost the first point first, and the second point was Ni Xialian, the “grandmother of billiards”, against Tian Zhixi, who is ranked 16th in the world. Ni Xialian still relies on his strength. You win with experience. On the fourth point, she defeated Li Shiwen, who was “33 years younger” than her in 5 rounds, and won her first group stage win.
Ni Xialian, born in Shanghai, China in 1963, joined the Shanghai table tennis team at the age of 15. world-renowned players all the way and won the championship with his outstanding performances.The runner-up in the women’s singles, was selected for the national team in the same year and won the women’s team gold medal and mixed doubles ai 1983 World Snooker Championships, securing the leading position of the national team.
As Chinese billiards is among the best in the world and there are too many competitors around, it was ultimately not selected for the 1988 Seoul Olympics, when billiards was first listed as an official event. Shortly thereafter, Ni Xialian married Luxembourg coach Tommy Danielsson and, after “traveling the world for love”, she settled in Luxembourg with her husband. Accompanied by her husband, Ni Xialian finally realized her Olympic dream at the age of 37, representing Luxembourg at the Sydney 2000 Olympics, and then at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the 2012 London Olympics, the 2016 Rio Olympics and at the Tokyo Olympics this year. Ni Xialian, in fact, had the opportunity to become a “veteran of the seven dynasties”. She was also able to participate in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, but since childhood he has nourished himself with Chinese sports resources. she, she thought it was a betrayal of China, only at the age of 37, having overcome the peak of physical fitness, she completed the first Olympic experience.
Last summer, she participated in the fifth Olympic Games of her life in Tokyo, which made Ni Xialian the oldest pool player in Olympic history. Around that time she met Shin Yubin, a 17-year-old South Korean who may be her granddaughter. . Gap “became a topic of discussion at that time.
After the Eastern Olympics, Ni Xialian continued to compete in the world as a player. In the top 8 of women’s singles at the New Mesto station in Slovenia at the WTT World Billiards Regular Challenge, she met 24-year-old Chinese Wang Yidi. Wang Yidi had just beaten Chen Meng and Sun Yingsha, gold medal in women’s singles at the Chinese National Games, and had won the women’s singles championship on behalf of Liaoning province. single, but Ni Xialian was not afraid. In the match with 3 wins in 5 matches, the first two matches were won with 11: 8. Although they were forced into the decisive match, 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 have a record of 2 wins and 1 loss in the group stage of the World Snooker Team Championship and have a good chance of progressing to the next round of competitions. Ni Xialian can definitely be called the spokesperson for “Happy Billiards”. He said in an interview after his defeat at the Eastern Olympics: “I really like the current state, I feel very happy every day, I enjoy playing and every day is spent. It is very fulfilling.” It always maintains a positive attitude and good physical condition, coupled with her sincere love of billiards, continues to fight on the best stages in the world at this age and is not only determined to participate, but also can beat many opponents who are around 30 years younger than her and whose abilities are at their peak.
It seems that this grandmother Ni, who is not old with the sword, is very likely to participate in the Paris Olympics at the age of 61 in 2 years, and continue to carry on the obstacles she has created, but no matter what, the his spirit and attitude are already a model for everyone.
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