On 30 June, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) released its official guidebook for the Paris Olympic Games. One of the sections lists "athletes to look forward to", and in this chapter, the only Chinese Olympic representative selected is Ma Long, the captain of the national table tennis team. The Frenchman hailed the Dragons as "the dragon king who doesn't let anyone near his territory" and gave a personal note: The Chinese athlete with a dazzling forehand is considered the greatest player in the history of human table tennis, and has been the world No. 1 for five years, three of which are unmatched. With five Olympic gold medals between 2012 and 2020, he is expected to turn the Colosseum du Sud into his new territory. The Dragon Team is not only the face of national table tennis, but also the face of Chinese sports!
The nearly 36-year-old Dragons are living more and more transparently and gently. He is the continuation and inheritance of the spirit of national table tennis, the captain, more like a mentor, especially during the preparation for the Olympic Games, he is really a Dinghai god-like existence in the Olympic team, as long as he stands there, even if he doesn't say anything, he will automatically appease the anxiety and uneasiness of the participants. Sometimes think about it, in China, it is difficult to produce another grandmaster-level athlete like Ma Long, not only the results, but also his upright personality, including his exploration and love for table tennis, in this increasingly impetuous society, it is really very rare.
The 36-year-old Malone is no longer as confined as before, with layers of shackles, he began to take off his armor, becoming more and more comfortable and relaxed. He is warm, like the sunshine in April, not slow or irritable, but can soothe your anxiety and eliminate your anxiety. Off the field, the things released in his eyes are warm, like wind and light, healing your pain. The Dragons have a habit that as long as a child fan wants to sign, he will definitely sign if he can, and the surging father's love at any time makes him unbearable to refuse. Yesterday, Ma Long was at the Sichuan training base, and when he got off the training at noon, some young fans surrounded the Dragon team and wanted to sign autographs, and the Dragon team said to them: "It's too hot outside, come to the house to sign autographs." ”
Some people say that Ma Long is a champion template created under the strict education of national table tennis, and he himself has been constantly polishing himself against the word "perfect", restraining and perfecting those flaws that should exist in human nature and character, and living both self-discipline and restraint. The Dragon Team of the four-battle Olympic Games is undoubtedly the only legend in the table tennis world, there are many champions, but Ma Long has only one.
Ma Long: Ma's father said that he is just an ordinary child, but it is no longer normal to be standardized and sensible every day
Looking back on the growth path of the Dragons, leaving home at a young age, and the twists and turns from Anshan to Shenyang to Beijing, Ma Long's definition of hometown is a little vague. Born in an ordinary family, the economic cost of learning ball is visible to the naked eye. Tuition, equipment, food, clothing, housing and transportation in various places, he has always seen the efforts of his parents. The frequent switching of the living environment has made Ma Long more sensitive to the changes in the people around him. So many people know that Ma Long is heavy-minded, sensitive, and unconfident, and many times, this is a hard flaw of becoming a top athlete.
When Ma Long was selected by the Beijing team, he knew that there was no way back, he had to play and become a world champion. Whether it is technology or character sculpture, he requires excellence, in daily life, there is nothing that can make you discover Ma Long's true personality at once, he does not like to talk, but always laughs. Guan Liang, the coach of the Beijing team, said that he had never seen Ma Long get angry, so he has always been accustomed to suppressing his emotions in his heart and self-consumption.
Ma Long does not have Fan Zhendong's talent for "Ziwei Star Falling from the Sky". His talent depends on his tenacity, and it is his stubbornness that wears out the sleeves of his clothes and still persists. He wants to win, but he is more afraid of losing, so the only way for him to really come to everyone's field of vision is to win the championship, after all, competitive sports, who will love you if you don't win the championship. After experiencing failure, he chose to return to his original beliefs and use the most primitive way - training to accumulate the strength of the erection.
He is eager to win, and he still believes that as long as he practices to the extreme, he can find the answer to break the game in his heart. The ball is practiced one pot after another, and all skills are better than others. Many people know that in the training hall after dinner, you can always see Ma Long with short hair training. When there were few people, Ma Long only turned on a row of lights on the top of the training table, and the teenager who wanted to win the game sweated like rain in the dim surroundings with imperceptible stubbornness. So much so that in the story shared by Liu Guoliang many years later, Ma Long is still a positive example of training. "I went to the table tennis hall on Sunday morning to make a surprise check to see how many people were using Sunday to make up classes. He was the only one in the men's team training, and he hit twenty-nine of his thirty downspins. This is the legendary genius is not scary, what is scary is that the genius works harder than you. "
Everyone in the national team can be called talented, and every world champion must be diligent, but there is only one GOAT in history, probably because people with such pure love are rarer, and such pure people are more rare, so he is more diligent and hardworking than others, and he doesn't need to overcome himself to defeat those fearful swings in human nature, and table tennis will help him do all this. So, sometimes he was torn between "really like to play" and "he liked the feeling of winning", and he clearly chose the latter, and sometimes he "started to expect that he would be able to put aside his desire to win and enjoy training and playing completely." "Entangled people are not good at making choices, and simple people don't need to make choices.
Ma Long: The 27-year-old world champion is not a hero, and it is great to survive the PUBG after surgery and win the "double slam".
In competitive sports, the back wave is always stronger than the front wave, and the predecessors are always used to be surpassed and impacted. Whether it's Zhang Jike's all-time fastest Grand Slam or Ma Long's 2016 "Grand Slam", it will be exciting as soon as possible, but it is not surprising to achieve success in competitive sports at the best of years, and this feeling of success is logical. What Ma Long really admires is that he returned to the arena after major surgery in 2019, improved his original playing system, improved his speed, and defeated Fan Zhendong to win the championship at the Tokyo Olympics. All those who really liked him were in tears the moment he won the championship.
Marlon is not easy. After the operation, his ability has recovered to 70% at most, declining physical fitness, no longer rapid pace, he is no longer the invincible "hexagonal warrior", but he is not resting on his laurels, but is constantly breaking through himself, improving himself, when he can't change others, he can only continue to ask for answers like himself, fortunately, he succeeded. It's worth the days when he went beyond his physical limits and practiced vomiting during his recovery period. This gold medal is really emotional and moving.
In the past three years of the Paris Olympic cycle, he has trudged through hardships, and such a Malone can really be called "great." I have experienced everything, I am still constantly improving, I am still fighting, and I am still trying to find ways to encounter difficulties on the field. You really can't imagine where this endless internal drive comes from, "always in the year of fighting," not that he can always have the best state and achieve the final victory, but that his mental outlook will always be full of vitality and bring people hope.
The god in most competitive sports either leaves a mysterious back to disappear into the crowd at his peak, or finally falls off the altar of the gods, but he never will, because he is the simplest and therefore the most unique, because he wants nothing else to compete. I often say that there is a kind of divinity in Ma Long's body, but in fact, it is just the ultimate confession closest to human nature. Therefore, only he can be qualified to fight four Olympic Games and become a god completely. If there is a myth in the table tennis world, he is the eternal one.
After the Paris Olympics, I really hope that the dragon team will gradually withdraw from the competition and return to the family, and the dragon sister-in-law will give birth to a daughter, just like planting a rose with her own hands, listening to her fetal movements, quietly waiting for her to break through the ground, watching her sprout, little by little thicker and stronger, and then pull out the green leaves, grow beautiful buds, the love of the dragon team is abundant sunshine, let the little rose open its petals little by little, and bloom the most beautiful one with the light.
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