At the recent World Table Tennis Championships in Chengdu, an athlete attracted widespread attention. In addition to paying attention to the domestic players, the audience also paid special attention to the women's singles player Ni Xialian of Luxembourg.
Her name suggests that she shares the same pedigree as us, but the most striking thing is that the 59-year-old is still active in the world championship and is known as a national treasure of Luxembourg.
Just in recent days, she scored a huge victory over Japan's Mimato Ito with a score of 3:1.
Ni Xialian is still playing at such an old age, what is the reason why she has been able to represent Luxembourg in competitions for many years?Ni Xialian has many legendary stories.
Ni Xialian was born in Shanghai in 1963, and due to her outstanding athletic talent, she has been exposed to table tennis since she was a child. At the age of 15, she joined the city table tennis team and was successfully selected for the national team after a year of training.
The national team also had a high-profile player named Guo Yuehua at that time.
He was a high-profile star at the time, not only with great skills, having won championships in various competitions, but also with a handsome appearance. Many of the female players wanted the opportunity to partner him in doubles.
Guo Yuehua sent an invitation to Ni Xialian at the 37th World Table Tennis Championships, hoping to partner with her in the mixed doubles competition, and Ni Xialian was very pleased.
The two worked together to defeat another Chinese mixed doubles pair in the match and eventually won the title.
Ni Xialian has only won the individual event once in the national team. She was very excited about the result, saying: "We gave it our all and didn't have any regrets. ”
The reason why Ni Xialian said this is because she conceded too many balls. At that time, the national team adopted a strategy in the competition, and Ni Xialian's left-handed direct shot of the long rubber was very cunning, which made many inexperienced athletes helpless.
Ni is often tasked with beating foreign players in competitions and then deliberately losing them against her own competitors in order to give them a chance to compete for the title.
She has done this with distinction many times and has never lost to a foreign player.
Ni has never complained about this tactic, and she has always been optimistic that she obeys the arrangement and is all for the ultimate championship goal.
However, despite her excellent performance, she chose to retire at the age of 23, and there is a past behind it.
The national team carried out a disciplinary rectification after the end of the 37th World Table Tennis Championships, stipulating that players should not smoke, burn their hair or fall in love, and Ni Xialian announced this rule. As a result, she began to be disgusted by her teammates.
Ni Xialian was very depressed because she was not selected for the next World Table Tennis Championships team competition due to this incident. After the race, she chose to retire and began her academic career.
At that time, Ni Xialian had already married table tennis player Lin Hongwei, and the two studied at Jiaotong University together. Subsequently, due to the table tennis exchange activities at that time, the couple went to Germany and played at a club.
Ni Xialian has been in the sky for a year, and she has won numerous victories in Germany and Europe with her outstanding performances, which has caught the attention of the coach of the Luxembourg national team.
He struggled to convince Ni to go to Luxembourg to compete. A club took a fancy to Ni Xialian's potential and recruited her into its portfolio to become the club's coach and athlete.
Ni Xialian then obtained Luxembourg citizenship and began to represent the country, winning the European Championship in a short period of time, which was a brilliant record that Luxembourg had not achieved for many years, and also made Ni Xialian a hero of Luxembourg.
She went on to represent Luxembourg and won many great prizes. More than ten times, the Grand Duke personally received her and expressed his deep gratitude for the honor she brought to the country.
In Luxembourg, Ni Xialian is a national treasure athlete and almost everyone knows it. Sometimes, when she goes out shopping and buys sports-related items such as knee pads, the shopkeeper will refuse to accept the money, showing his gratitude to her for bringing glory to the country.
In addition, they are always worried that Ni Xialian wants to exercise in her life, such as riding a bicycle or something, worrying that she will fall and so on, which makes her cry and laugh.
Ni Xialian owns a large villa in Luxembourg with an area of 700 square meters, which is quite luxurious in this small country, because land is very valuable.
Despite this, the state still received Ni Xialian with the most privileged treatment, and the construction of the villa was carried out exactly according to her wishes.
In the days of playing in Luxembourg, Ni Xialian gradually learned about the pain caused to her by table tennis in the past.
After becoming a Luxembourg national, the gap between her and Lin Hongwei gradually deepened, and the two sides developed different paths, which eventually led to their divorce.
Their son stayed in Luxembourg with Ni Charian and grew up to become a physiotherapist, supporting and caring for his mother in her sporting career.
Ni Xialian finally found her home, and she was also her coach and comrade-in-arms Tommy. They remarried in 2002 and have a daughter after marriage, and the family of four lives happily ever after in a large house of 700 square meters.
The Luxembourg team led by Ni Xialian played against the Spanish team in this World Championships, but failed to win and stopped in the round of 16, which also announced the end of her journey in this World Table Tennis Championships.
The Spanish team led by Fu Yu included a 43-year-old player.
She has represented Luxembourg for 30 years, competed in five Olympic Games, and made history again by winning a bronze medal in women's doubles at the 2021 World Table Tennis Championships.
Even though she didn't win a medal this year, that doesn't mean it's the end for her, and we're confident that next year we can still see her giving it her all on the field.
She now just wants to go home to reunite with her family, grow vegetables in her spacious house, and live a happy life.