Editor's note: The Year of the Dragon coincides with the Olympic Games. In the Chinese Olympic team, there is no shortage of elite athletes who belong to the dragon. When the natal year meets the Olympic year, Paris 2024 undoubtedly has a very special meaning for them. On the occasion of the Spring Festival, this newspaper grandly planned to launch a series of character reports on "Dragon Man Makes Olympic Wishes". Record the Olympic aspirations of these Chinese athletes who are sweating like rain in winter training to prepare for the Paris Olympics. I also wish them all the best in the Olympic year.
Time flies, time flies. In the blink of an eye, we are about to say goodbye to the Year of the Rabbit and usher in the Year of the Dragon in the lunar calendar. In the Chinese sports circle, athletes born in the Year of the Millennium Dragon in 2000 also ushered in their own "natal year". For Chinese, the arrival of the "Year of Destiny" not only means a new beginning and hope, but also full of opportunities and challenges.
Among the dragon athletes, the most representative are the "post-00" players Sun Yingsha and Wang Chuqin of the Chinese table tennis team. At the age of 24, athletes are at the peak of their careers, and their New Year's resolution is clear: to reload in their "natal year" to meet new challenges and tests, and to turn pressure into motivation to move towards the top podium of the Paris Olympics.
2023 will be a fruitful year for the Chinese table tennis team. In this year, there have been many wonderful competitions and unforgettable moments in the world table tennis arena, and the demeanor and strength of Chinese athletes are also remarkable. At the end of all the events, Sun Yingsha undoubtedly became the brightest star, and she bagged all the glory of the year with her superb skills and stable performance.
Sun Yingsha has won a total of 7 women's singles titles in 2023, including the three major championships with the highest points: Singapore Grand Slam, Durban World Table Tennis Championships, and Nagoya Finals; In the final battle of the domestic arena, she helped the team win the women's team championship of the Table Tennis Super League. In addition to her fruitful results in the women's singles event, Sun Yingsha also performed well in the women's doubles and mixed doubles events. She partnered with Wang Manyu in Women's Doubles and won the Singapore Grand Slam and the Nagoya Finals. In mixed doubles, she and Wang Chuqin formed the "Shatou Combination" to continue to dominate the mixed doubles world No. 1. The tacit cooperation has become the magic weapon of the two, and they have reached the top in many competitions such as the World Table Tennis Championships and the Asian Games, and have become the well-deserved mixed doubles main force of national table tennis.
On January 30, 2022, Sun Yingsha reached the top of the ITTF World Rankings for the first time, and thus became the first "post-00" world No. 1 in the world table tennis world. In the past two years, Sun Yingsha has not only sat firmly on the throne of the world's No. 1, but also shown strong strength and dominance. At present, she continues to rank first with a fault advantage of 8,800 points, and has more than 4,000 points more than her teammate Wang Yidi who is in second place.
Looking back on her fruitful 2023 season, Sun Yingsha used two key words to describe it as "perfect" and "satisfied". "When Coach Qiu was in charge of me, my results were not very good, although I could basically maintain the top 4, but at the same time, I could only reach the top 4 level, and I was always a little worse than my goal. After more than a year, I can now say that Coach Qiu and I cooperate very well, especially on the training ground, he can know what I want to practice at this moment, or whether I am tired or so on. In 2023, I have indeed gained results, but behind the results, the main gain is that the head coach and I have really established enough confidence and tacit understanding in each other's hearts. Sun Yingsha said.
See you next time! It is the most frequently used sentence by Sun Yingsha. She admits that she never gets bored of the game, and her ability to motivate has improved. "When you really want to win a championship, you don't feel like you're playing too much, you don't feel tired. Coach Qiu will let me keep myself in good shape in the competition, and I hope that my good form can continue for a long time. She said.
According to the calculation of the "Selection Measures for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games in Table Tennis" issued by the Chinese Table Tennis Association, Sun Yingsha has a points advantage in the women's singles and mixed doubles events. If nothing else, Sun Yingsha will appear in the women's singles and mixed doubles venues of the Paris Olympics. On her championship map, the Olympic singles and mixed doubles titles are honors she has yet to achieve.
Bidding farewell to the fruitful 2023 season, Sun Yingsha is back to the starting point. This time, she's going to make an impact on the Paris Olympics. "When I'm tired, remember my goals, what I often say to myself is to always believe in myself, and if I have a championship, there is nothing to say, and when I tell myself that I have to win the championship, I don't have to say a second word to myself, just go all out to win, go and win the championship. Sun Yingsha said.
Text: Beijing Youth Daily reporter Zhou Xueshuai.
Edited by Xu Zhao.