The night before yesterday, the ITTF World Table Tennis Team Championships in Busan came to a successful conclusion. With the 36-year-old double-lap Grand Slam winner Ma Long defeating Simon Goetz 3-1, the Chinese men's table tennis team defeated the French team 3-0 to achieve 11 consecutive championships, and Ma Long personally achieved 9 consecutive championships. Ma Long said after the game that this was a memorable trip to the World Championships, and it was not easy to win along the way, "Thank you to the team and my teammates for trusting each other, and thank myself for being able to end with a victory as the last game of the World Championships, which is quite successful." ”
From Bremen in 2006 to Busan in 2024, Ma Long participated in the team competition of the World Table Tennis Championships 9 times in a row, because he had played exactly 8 times before, and he gave himself a new nickname "Bajie". In the previous 8 trips to the World Table Tennis Team Championships, Ma Long and different teammates won the Swaythling Cup as they wished. It can be said that Ma Long's name is closely associated with the World Table Tennis Championships champion. Talking about his journey to the team competition of the nine World Table Tennis Championships, Ma Long sighed: "The nine World Table Tennis Championships feel very long, but looking back, in fact, time flies quite quickly, 18 years have passed in a blink of an eye, so people can't look back." ”
In 2006, Ma Long, who was only 18 years old, went to the World Table Tennis Championships in Bremen with the team and won his first world championship and the youngest world champion in the history of the Chinese table tennis team. On the podium, standing beside him were the "two kings and one horse" Wang Liqin, Wang Hao and Ma Lin in the table tennis arena that was in full swing at that time.
In 18 years, the number of world championships has accumulated to 29. He has become the athlete with the largest number of table tennis world champions, Olympic champions, three-major singles champions, team World Table Tennis Championships champions, singles champions in the Tour Finals, open singles champions, continental singles champions, and Asian Cup champions to date. In 2016, he became the fifth men's Grand Slam winner in the world table tennis at the Rio Olympics. At the Tokyo Olympics, he became the first person to defend the men's singles title in the history of Olympic table tennis. After winning the men's team title, he successfully unlocked his fifth Olympic gold medal.
Behind the honors, there is a daily effort, and the legend of Malone has inspired countless young athletes. Wang Chuqin has regarded Ma Long as a model and role model on his table tennis road since he was a child, saying that he will be attracted to Ma Long both inside and outside the court, and the "Dragon Team" does not need to be defined by the victory or defeat of the game. In the eyes of Fan Zhendong, the leader of the men's table tennis world in the Tokyo and Paris cycles, the passage of time does not seem to have left any traces on Ma Long, and he is getting stronger and stronger.
At the press conference after winning the championship, when asked when he decided that this was his last World Championships, Ma Long said that in the past two years, he often has the idea of "the last competition", "The World Table Tennis Championships are held every two years, and the singles are played every year. If you join the group again in the next session, it will definitely be two years later, and you should not stick to it until two years later. If it is a single World Table Tennis Championships, it may not persist as the winner to the end. It's not bad to use such a victory as the perfect ending to the World Table Tennis Championships journey. ”
Malone is still the team's anchor. Wang Hao, a member of the team champion of the 2006 World Table Tennis Championships and the current head coach of the national table tennis men's team, commented. But Ma Long had his own choice, and after winning the last point, he struck the table with his right fist a few times, which reminded people of the scene of touching the table several times after he lost 1-4 to Wang Chuqin in the men's singles semifinals of the World Table Tennis Championships in Durban last year. In fact, he had already thought about it, cherished the last few opportunities to compete, and then turned around and left freely.
Reporter Zhou Xueshuai.
Photo courtesy of Xinhua News Agency.
Beijing Youth Daily).