At Paris 2024, he performed a bit half in China successful the desk tennis crew gold. For the uninitiated, following the Video games on tv, he was the unassuming silent one of many doubles pair. He principally sat on the bench with a clean expression. When the coach spoke to the celebrities throughout break, he stood subsequent to them wanting clueless as if the Mandarin they spoke was Greek to him.
However earlier than and after the match, the aloof boy with dreamy eyes would get handled like a rock star. Ladies would confess their love from stands, children would cry for his T-shirt and would nearly faint when he obliged. Rivals, with unadulterated awe of their eyes, would line-up to get footage with him. The connoisseurs would run for his or her lives to catch China’s doubles video games. They might be blind to the opposite three on the desk, each eye on the stadium was mounted on just one man – Ma Lengthy. This was to be the final Olympics for the 35-year-old, who the world agreed was the best TT participant ever.
Just like the contradiction in his identify, that isn’t actually Lengthy, his outward ordinariness hides the actual identification of the person who mastered one of many world’s hottest sport. Anybody who has watched him play – even those that play TT to kill time throughout hostel days or bunking work throughout workplace hours – would discover his majestic presence on the desk. In case a TT desk was used for a sit-in meal at a restaurant, the waiter would at all times stroll to Ma Lengthy with the invoice. His seat is at all times on the head of the desk. No matter whether or not he received or misplaced, the Chinese language legend with neat strokes and Federer-like actions at all times ‘appears to be like’ the higher participant.
China’s Ma Lengthy, along with his teammate Wang Chuqin, performs in opposition to Sweden’s Anton Kallberg and Kristian Karlsson throughout the males’s gold medal crew desk tennis match on the 2024 Paris Olympics (AP)
If he was so good, why wasn’t Ma Lengthy attempting for the singles Gold in his swansong Video games? Who of their proper thoughts would scale back a five-times Olympics gold medallist to a doubles participant that too for the crew occasion? The reply is easy: China, the nation that’s an meeting line of champions and follows a ruthless and unsentimental choice coverage. Round there they don’t go by status. It’s at all times rankings and outcomes. Ma Lengthy’s type had barely light and that was sufficient to downgrade him.
It’s their never-ending expertise pool that offers China the conviction to be the ardent followers of TT meritocracy. Like champions earlier than him, Ma Lengthy would dutifully do what he was requested. His dedication to his crew remained uncompromising, even when he was on the sidelines. Within the singles occasion with China’s Fan Zhendong trailing 0-2, the digicam caught a teary Ma Lengthy within the stands. He didn’t need his nation’s golden streak to finish – so what if he was there only for the doubles. He did his half with scientific effectivity, he would stay unbeaten and get his sixth Olympic gold. No Chinese language in any sport can match this gold haul.
Ma Lengthy epitomises the robust ethos of Chinese language desk tennis. He is an ideal product of a system that appreciates sincerity and values exhausting work. Ma Lengthy didn’t take any quick cuts as a result of there have been none. A video collection filmed by one-time British TT participant Daniel Ives – The Journey By means of Chinese language Desk Tennis – offers a short sneak into the world’s most efficient desk tennis manufacturing unit of champions. The key, he concludes, is not any secret. Relentless coaching and keenness for the game is the explanation the nation retains churning out Olympic gold medalists.
China’s Ma Lengthy, along with his teammate Wang Chuqin, performs in opposition to Sweden’s Anton Kallberg and Kristian Karlsson throughout the males’s gold medal crew desk tennis match on the 2024 Paris Olympics. (AP)
Throughout his quick journey, Ives visited Ma Lengthy’s membership, some TT hubs and in addition China’s coaching centre for its elite gamers. He attracts vibrant footage of the halls pinging with the limitless tak-tak of plastic balls hitting the wood tables. Most public TT golf equipment have over 15 tables and are open 24×7. Gamers within the 6 to 66 age vary play in opposition to one another. They use various kinds of rubbers and lock horns in a number of video games. It’s an ultra-competitive environment the place coaches don’t prolong any particular therapy for stars. Coaches bark directions to world champions as they do to the rookies. Ma Lengthy went by way of the identical grind.
Fame and titles didn’t change him a lot. Regardless of his record-breaking Olympics feat and the Beatles-like mass adulation, Ma Lengthy in Paris behaved like his crew’s fourth-best participant. The GOAT behaved like a calf.
As soon as Ma Lengthy was requested why Chinese language TT stars lacked airs and angle. He stated it was not possible for the sense of superiority to sneak in them. “If you find yourself coaching in China. The juniors round you’re world champions, your coaching companion is a world champion and even your coach is a world champion …,” he stated.
Although they do underplay their prowess, the Chinese language paddlers are fiercely pleased with their staggering superiority over the remainder of the world. Opposite to the Western world’s assumption, the Chinese language have an incredible sense of humour. Perhaps, they don’t get it, since more often than not the joke is on them.
China’s Ma Lengthy, along with his teammate Wang Chuqin, performs in opposition to Sweden’s Anton Kallberg and Kristian Karlsson throughout the males’s gold medal crew desk tennis match on the 2024 Paris Olympics (AP)
In a uncommon lengthy monologue that Ma Lengthy did for TV, even on stage he had a paddle in his hand, the down-to-earth star did take a dig at what he calls ‘foreigners’. “Some inventive overseas netizens have redefined desk tennis’s problem ranges as easy, regular, tough, tougher and Chinese language desk tennis. I need to refute them however on second ideas my energy doesn’t enable me to refute them … after all, it is a joke,” he says with a naughty smile. No, it wasn’t a joke. Ma Lengthy and Chinese language desk tennis are the sport’s final pinnacle.
Go to youtube and take a look at some Ma Lengthy movies. He’s an old-school participant who has a comparatively passive backhand and banks on forehand to assault. His rasping top-spin drive the place he goes low like only a few and lets his hand go up in a frantic arc is a sight to behold. His sudden backhand “flipping flick” with a pretend push motion foxes opponents and makes the specialists shake their head in disbelief.
To be goal, the Olympics didn’t give a becoming farewell to its best champion. At his final Video games, the unpretentious nice didn’t change into the story. It appears Paris was means too busy speaking a few silver-haired pistol man who shot with a hand in pocket, a break dancer who was so dangerous that she went viral and a gold medal successful boxer’s gender. With sporting expertise changing into more and more unimportant for the viewers, the Chinese language champ was leaving the grand stage on the proper time. So Lengthy, Ma Lengthy.
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