During the Sudirman Cup, the Chinese Badminton Association held a retirement ceremony to bid farewell to some of the players.
At the retirement ceremony, everyone focused on Chen Long. Needless to say, Chen Long is the center of attention, after all, he has won gold, silver and bronze medals at the Olympic Games, as well as gold medals at two World Championships, and many other honors.
However, among this batch of retired players, there is also a player whose achievements are no less than Chen Long, that is, Zhang Nan.
Because of his low-key personality and some unknown "black material", many people subconsciously ignore him.
Let's take a look at the story of Zhang Nan, who has achieved outstanding results throughout the history of the Chinese badminton team, and can even be said to surpass his private life.
An ordinary family in Beijing ushered in the birth of Zhang Nan on March 1, 1990!
Zhang Nan's parents were athletes when they were young, and after retiring, his father, Zhang Yan, became a taxi driver, and his mother, Liu Junqiao, became a factory worker.
Zhang Nanxiao's parents were both former sports practitioners, so they never considered letting their son also engage in sports, because they knew the hard work of sports training.
Zhang Nan was not in good health when he was a child, often had headaches, brain fever, and minor illnesses. In order to make their son physically stronger, the parents finally decided to let him practice Xi sports to strengthen his body.
Zhang Nan loves football, however, his parents believe that football involves more physical confrontation, and considering Zhang Nan's relatively weak body, they rejected this choice. In the end, they helped Zhang Nan choose badminton, a sport without physical confrontation.
After a period of badminton training, Zhang Nan attracted the attention Xi of Meng Xianzhang, a coach specializing in junior badminton training.
Meng Xianxian found that Zhang Nan was relatively tall among his peers, and in addition, Zhang Nan was good at playing, with a quick mind, flexible body, and excellent ball sense. Therefore, he decided to transfer Zhang Nan to his own organization for training.
Under the guidance of Meng Xianzhang, Zhang Nan insisted on practicing Xi for 4 years and won almost all the championships of players of the same age. At the age of 12, he was successfully admitted to Beijing Shichahai Sports School with outstanding performance.
Zhang Nan is in the critical period of junior high school, this age. The school's culture teacher did not approve of him practicing Xi badminton because it might have an impact on his Xi culture.
Zhang Nan's parents are currently hesitant because they only have this one son, and naturally hope that he can have a bright future. At the same time, they are reluctant to let their son live in school (because they have to live in a sports school).
Although they were reluctant to give up, Zhang Nan's parents were worried that they had delayed their son's future because they realized that their son was indeed talented in badminton. Eventually, they decided to leave the issue to their son.
Liu Junqiao's mother asked Zhang Nan if he really loved badminton. If he really likes it, they will fully support him to continue training, but ask him not to give up halfway, and he can't just practice for two days and then can't stand it and go home without practicing.
Zhang Nan did not hesitate about his mother's problems, even if he wanted to leave home from now on and move to Shichahai Sports School, he did not hesitate.
Through this question, Liu Jun and his wife realized that their son really likes to play badminton, so they finally decided to send their son to Shichahai Sports School.
As soon as he entered Shichahai Sports School, considering that Zhang Nan was still young, the coach was worried that he might not be able to adapt to group life immediately, so he arranged for him to train independently for half a month to a month.
After a period of day training, Zhang Nan is about to usher in a real residential life. Although he is 12 years old, as the only child in the family, he has been taken care of by his family since he was a child, and Zhang Nan is still a little nervous about starting to live independently.
Not only did Zhang Nan feel hesitant, but his parents also felt even more hesitant. However, Zhang Nan's behavior the day before his stay at the school made his mother, Liu Junqiao, feel a lot more at ease.
Zhang Nan has always been a "hands-off shopkeeper" at home, no matter what. However, the day before he was to live on campus, he suddenly asked his mother to buy him a washbasin and wash his clothes, and to learn how to do it himself.
Although her son's behavior made her feel very gratified, since Zhang Nan lived in school, Liu Junqiao had to personally bring her son's clothes home every week to wash them, because she was worried that her son would not be clean.
In order for Zhang Nan to participate in group life, he must live with children who are older than him. Liu Junqiao was worried that these players who were older than her son would have a negative impact on her son, so she often secretly ran downstairs to Zhang Nan's dormitory to observe her son's living conditions.
Zhang Nan is a straightforward person who often confides in his mother about his sports school life. For example, once he told his mother about the experience of going to an Internet café with several big players, but was caught by the coach.
Zhang Nan told her mother about this as a joke, but unexpectedly found that her mother's expression became more and more serious.
Not long ago, a fire broke out at the Blue Speed Internet Café in Beijing, killing many students who were locked inside. This incident made Zhang Nan's mother feel very afraid.
She told Zhang Nan not to go to the Internet café in the future, and since then, the sensible Zhang Nan has never let her mother worry about herself.
Since Zhang Nan's bone age is one or two years older than his actual age, according to the regulations, he can only compete in the same group as children who are one or two years older than him, and it is clear that Zhang Nan cannot beat these older players.
Whenever he loses a game, Zhang Nan is always depressed, and can only rely on hard training to cheer up, and demand himself with strict standards, never lazy.
Liu Junqiao once went to pick up his son, and happened to see several players who lost in the team's game being doing additional training, including Zhang Nan.
Zhang Nan used both hands and feet, crawling silently, and in the end he was the last to complete the crawling race, two or three laps behind others. His mother blamed him for his slow speed, but Zhang Nan said with a wry smile: "They haven't climbed enough."
Zhang's hard work soon paid off, as he was selected for the Beijing team in 2005 at the age of 15, but problems ensued before he could compete.
In order to prepare for the national competition, the Beijing team decided to change Zhang Nan from singles to doubles. Prior to this, Zhang Nan had been participating in singles competitions.
Zhang Nan has a more introverted personality and is not good at communicating with teammates. As a result, whenever he and his partner have problems on the field, they cannot be solved effectively.
In addition, he himself does not like doubles events, so in the early stage of the transfer, Zhang Nan often fell into the dilemma of not knowing how to cooperate, resulting in a chaotic performance on the court.
Zhang Nan was in a rebellious period, and he was unhappy with the forced transfer, so he often had conflicts with the coach because of his gentle personality.
Zhang Nan needs to practice Xi singles and doubles from time to time, and sometimes he has to practice singles just after playing doubles. The coach angrily said to him, "If you don't want to train, just go." ”
Hearing this, Zhang Nan immediately held back his emotions, put away the beat and left. While there are plenty of experienced coaches who can deal with stubborn people, they are helpless when the gentle Zhang Nan gets angry.
Zhang Nan appeared at the training ground on time in the afternoon, ready to be criticized, but unexpectedly, the coach didn't say anything, and the whole thing passed without any waves.
Zhang Nan qualified for the national second team in 2006, and this initial experience is considered the most confusing stage of his career.
Because there are not many members of the Beijing team in the national team, and Zhang Nan has not participated in the national youth or national youth training camp before, he has almost no familiar people in the second team.
Zhang Nan is an introverted and quiet person, so he seems very lonely in the life of the second team.
The intensity of training for the national team and the intensity of training for the local team is simply not comparable.
Therefore, at the beginning, Zhang Nan simply could not adapt to such high-intensity training, his legs would cramp in turn, at least three times a week, and his physical strength was far from meeting the requirements of the national team.
Zhang Jun had not yet retired at the time, and he later became the head coach of the men's doubles team. Under his guidance, Zhang Nan's strength gradually improved, and after more than 3 years of hard work, he gained at least 5 kilograms of muscle.
In 2019, the Chinese badminton team conducted closed training in Qingdao to make final preparations for the World Championships. Zhang Nan formed a team with the rest of the team, although at this time he was mainly responsible for the role of sparring partner.
In 2010, at the age of 20, Zhang Nan joined the team less than a year ago and was selected to participate in the Thomas Cup, where he successfully helped the Chinese team win the championship and won the world championship title for the first time.
According to rumors, at this time, Zhang Nan and Tian Qing, a female player four years older than him, began to fall in love.
Tian Qing was born in 1986 in Anhua County, Yiyang City, Hunan Province, from a family that loves sports. His father, Tian Jianyi, was a former badminton player who became a badminton coach at Anwar Sports School after retiring from the sport.
Tian Qing grew up in a badminton family since he was a child, so he had early contact with badminton. Although her father initially did not approve of her Xi badminton, Tian Qing eventually persuaded her father with perseverance.
Tian Qing has been in the national first team for four years, but when she and Zhang Nan started to fall in love, she did not achieve remarkable results.
In the same year, Zhang Nan and another female player, Zhao Yunlei, began to partner in the mixed doubles competition.
Zhao Yunlei, who was born in 1986, is the same age as Tian Qing and four years older than Zhang Nan. Like Tian Qing, Zhao Yunlei also comes from a sports family, but her father is a basketball player and her mother is a tennis coach.
Zhao Yunlei's parents have a laissez-faire attitude towards their daughter's future in sports, and she grew up in the courtyard of a sports school, so she eventually fell in love with the sport.
Tian Qing joined the national first team in 2006, while Zhao Yunlei did not join the national first team until shortly after the 2008 Beijing Olympics, so it can be seen that Zhao Yunlei's early performance may not be as good as Tian Qing.
However, Zhao Yunlei's results far surpassed Tian Qing. On August 22, 2009, in the latest world rankings released by the BWF, the combination of Zhao Yunlei and Cheng Shu reached the first place in women's doubles for the first time.
Zhao Yunlei is undoubtedly a doubles talent, having won the All England Open in mixed doubles for the first time, and after the victory, Zhang Nan kissed Zhao Yunlei with excitement.
The two were originally inseparable partners, and they kissed again after the game, which made many people mistakenly think that they were in a relationship, but in fact, at that time, neither of them had such thoughts.
In the women's team final of the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games, due to the strength of the Chinese team, Zhao Yunlei and Cheng Shu were arranged to play in the fifth, but because the Chinese team was too strong, the two did not have the opportunity to play.
However, just as the women's doubles match was about to start, Zhao Yunlei's partner Cheng Shu was unexpectedly injured.
So, under the arrangement of the coach, Zhao Yunlei and Tian Qing partnered to start the game, and finally they successfully defeated Yu Yang and Wang Xiaoli, who were called "strong combinations" by the coaching staff, and won the championship.
Since then, Zhao Yunlei and Tian Qing have become regular partners in women's doubles, and Zhang Nan has become regular partners in mixed doubles. Over time, feelings developed between them.
Zhang Nan and Tian Qing had not established a deep relationship before, so this incident did not have much impact on them.
Zhao Yunlei and her partner Tian Qing won the women's doubles titles at the 2011 Asian Championships, the 2012 London Olympics and the 2015 World Championships.
Zhang Nan and his partner won the mixed doubles title at the 2011 Asian Championships, the World Championships, the 2012 London Olympics and the 2014 Asian Games.
The relationship between Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei has always been very stable, but during the relationship with Zhao Yunlei, Zhang Nan also had subtle eye contact with Tian Qing, especially when there was a relationship between the two, which made the resolute Zhao Yunlei unable to tolerate it at all.
Therefore, in the next many matches, Zhao Yunlei and her women's doubles partner Tian Qing and mixed doubles partner Zhang Nan did not communicate at all.
Zhao Yunlei completely occupied the initiative in the partner, so before the start of the 2016 Rio Olympics, she gave up the Olympic women's doubles competition on the grounds that she was too tired to do the part-time, which led to Tian Qing's four-year Olympic preparations in vain.
Zhao Yunlei and Zhang Nan have long had a gap in their hearts, so there is almost no tacit understanding between the two in the Rio Olympics. In the end, the Chinese team's "strongest mixed doubles" only won the third place, while the Chinese team's "strongest women's doubles" failed to participate in the Rio Olympics. And that's not all.
It is worth mentioning that Zhang Nan also partnered with Fu Haifeng and won the men's doubles championship at the 2016 Rio Olympics, which can also be said to have saved them some honors.
Zhao Yunlei and Tian Qing successively announced their pregnancy, and Zhao Yunlei also announced her breakup with Zhang Nan at the same time, which was announced after the Rio Olympics.
Due to a series of chaotic incidents, the head coach of the national badminton Li Yongbo was forced to step down after the Rio Olympics, and even the national badminton coaching staff fell into a reorganization.
After that, Zhang Nan also partnered with Liu Cheng to win the 2017 World Championships men's doubles championship and the 2018 Asian Games men's team championship and other honors.
In 2018, Zhang Nan and Tian Qing took the lead in getting married, and then Zhao Yunlei also tied the knot with her younger brother Hong Wei, who was three years younger than her, in the same year.
As the years passed, Zhang Nan's form gradually declined, and he officially announced his retirement in August 2022.
Many people believe that Zhang Nan is a scumbag, and his "flowery" behavior has led to the scandal of Guoyu and indirectly led to the loss of two Olympic gold medals.
It is difficult for outsiders to comment on the relationship, and only the person concerned knows the specific development of the story.