2024-07-31 04:51:43
A 61-year-old grandmother player is a hot topic after she defeated a Turkish player who is 30 years younger than her in the round of 64 of the women’s table tennis singles and advanced to the round of 32.
The grandmother athlete in question is Li Xia Lian, a Chinese-Luxembourgish player.
His opponent in the round of 32 is China’s Sun Yingxia, currently ranked world number one and a strong contender for the title. The match will be held on the afternoon of the 31st.
He played for the Chinese national table tennis team in the 1980s and won four medals at the World Championships.
After retiring from the Chinese national team in 1986, he worked in Germany before settling in Luxembourg in 1991 and becoming a member of the Luxembourg national table tennis team.
When he represented China, table tennis was not an official Olympic sport. Table tennis was adopted as an official sport starting from the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
He never competed in the Olympics for China, but he competed six times for Luxembourg.
He became widely known in Korea after competing against 17-year-old Korean table tennis player Shin Yu-bin in the second round of the women’s singles at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
At the time, it was a hot topic as a match between players with the largest age gap in the Olympics (41 years and 1 day). He ended the competition in the second round, losing 4-3 to Shin Yu-bin.
He also participated in the Paris Olympics and advanced to the round of 32. There is almost no chance that he will beat Sun Yingsha, who is currently ranked number one in the world. However, he has taken the record for the oldest participant, excluding horseback riding.
This proves the fact that ‘age is just a number’.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on the 29th (local time) that there is a very high possibility that he will advance to the next Olympics as well, as there is no table tennis player in Luxembourg who has yet been able to beat him.
He is one of the most beloved athletes in Luxembourg. He is known to the whole country and has been named Sportswoman of the Year twice.
He led the delegation as flag bearer at the opening ceremony last week, and he enjoyed almost every honor a small country can offer.
“It was an excellent choice to choose Luxembourg as my second home,” he told the WSJ.
(Seoul = News 1)
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2024-07-31 04:51:43