China’s pingpong team knows what’s at stake: national pride

BEIJING - Pingpong isn’t just a game in China—it’s a matter of national identity and pride for a country of 1.3 billion people. No wonder China’s six-member squad is feeling weighed down as the Beijing Olympics near. Not only are they expected to win, fans in the world’s most populous country expect them to chop, block and smash right through the competition. “Coming in second is the same as failing. That’s what’s so hard about pingpong," said Zhang Yining, who won gold in women’s singles and doubles at the Athens Games four years ago. “It’s the national sport, so that’s why we face the most pressure." Americans generally think of it as a rainy day game for the basement, but table tennis (it’s actually called pingpong here) is an integral part of China’s identity, right up there with the pandas, the distinctive food and the Great Wall. “Pingpong is my responsibility, it’s my job ... Right now the most important thing is that I do it well," veteran women’s team member Wang Nan said during a training camp where athletes had as many as three workout sessions a day. Forehands, backhands, serves, loops—the athletes hit them all with robotic accuracy during a three-hour practice, keeping plastic washbasins filled with balls nearby to move the drills along. Their success is due in large part to the country’s systematic approach, identifying promising kids when they are five or six years old, then training them through a Soviet-style system until they wash out or make the national team. It doesn’t hurt that Chinese players live and practice every day with the best: Their teammates. National team players train six days a week, eating together in cafeterias and living together in dorms. Curfew is at 10 p.m., extended as late as midnight on Saturday. There’s little personal time and most Chinese pingpong athletes have just a few simple hobbies: Watching TV, reading, surfing the Internet. Wang Liqin on the men’s team enjoys watching “Heroes" and “Prison Break"; Zhang keeps a couple of copies of Cosmopolitan magazine on her nightstand. “Being an athlete, you lose a lot and gain very little. If I could do it again, I wouldn’t choose to be an athlete," said 26-year-old Zhang, who started playing table tennis before she even turned 5. “If you slack off just a little bit, you won’t be able to get the result you want." Yet the strict program has created the deepest team in the world. The Chinese Olympic team is so good that in June it held the top four spots in the world rankings for men and women. The group included three-time world champion and Sydney gold medalist Wang Liqin and three-time Olympic gold medalist Wang Nan on the women’s side. Both will be competing in Beijing. The rest of the Olympic squad members are Wang Hao and Ma Lin on the men’s squad, and Zhang and Guo Yue of the women’s team. Former Chinese players also fill table-tennis rosters around the world. Gao Jun, who won a women’s doubles silver for China in Barcelona, will compete for the US this summer. She will be joined by other former Chinese nationals who now play for countries as varied as Spain, the Netherlands, the Dominican Republic and Republic of Congo. History plays a role in table tennis’ popularity. The sport helped open China to the world after more than 20 years of self-imposed isolation. “Pingpong diplomacy" matches with the United States in 1971 eventually led to Communist Party leaders opening up the country again. Now, 37 years later, China will be hosting the world in its capital for three weeks this summer. Pingpong’s also a simple, all-ages game that doesn’t require expensive equipment. Though Chinese cities are wealthy, its vast rural areas are still quite poor. But nearly everyone has the means to play. All that’s needed is a table (sometimes it’s just a slab of concrete), two paddles and a hollow celluloid ball. Bricks or empty cans can easily stand in for a missing net. Competition at the Beijing Olympics kicks off on Aug. 13 and will last 11 days in a brand-new 8,000-seat stadium on the campus of Peking University, built specifically to host the competition. Tickets sold out months ago. China will be looking to sweep all four of the sport’s gold medals, which it has done twice since table tennis made its Olympic debut at the 1988 Seoul Games. The men’s singles will be the one to watch, with the event twice preventing China from completing a gold medal sweep. Potential spoilers include reigning Olympic champion Ryu Seung Min of Korea and top European players Timo Boll of Germany and Vladimir Samsonov of Belarus. There’s no question what’s at stake for the Chinese athletes. When asked whether winning a gold medal was an individual accomplishment or an accomplishment for the country, Wang Nan answered without even blinking. “The country," she said, then nodded for the interviewer to ask the next question. - AP