SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Table tennis player Zeng Zhiying left China in 1989 during the Tiananmen Square massacre to teach table tennis in northern Chile. Thirty-five years later, at 58, she’s making her Olympic debut under the name she adopted in the South American country: Tania.
Tania Zeng rose to fame after winning a bronze medal in Chile. Pan American Games in Santiago She retired from table tennis a long time ago, last year. She came to Chile for table tennis, but left it to have more time to focus on the business she set up and, eventually, to have a family. Her dream of becoming a professional athlete was revived during the pandemic. She will reach the pinnacle in Paris.
“I went to the Olympics to play sports for fun, so I never imagined (I’d be able to compete in the Olympics),” Zeng told The Associated Press in an interview at China’s Olympic training center. “Playing a lot gave me confidence. I was always winning, so I started to like playing more and more.”
“It’s a big dream to play in the Olympics and I’m very happy to have achieved it at this age,” said Zeng, the oldest player on the country’s delegation.
Born in Foshan, southern China, Zeng is the daughter of a local table tennis coach and accompanied her mother to professional table tennis training as a child. The Chinese-Chilean athlete enjoyed a decade of competitive success.
But her life changed when she received an invitation to teach the sport to young athletes in Arica, in Chile’s far north, in 1989. She soon married and moved to Iquique, also in northern Chile, where it was unthinkable at the time to have Chinese people.
Zeng is currently ranked 151st in the world as a table tennis player. As a member of the Chilean national team, she made her debut in the women’s singles table tennis competition at the Pan American Games, defeating Eva Peña Brito of the Dominican Republic. She lost to Lily Ann Chang of the United States in the next round, but won the bronze medal in the team competition.
Zeng now splits his time between Iquique and Santiago, fuelled by his passion for the game and the love of his fans.
“People know me, they say hello, they want to take pictures with me, and for me it’s just nice,” she said. “I’m already Chilean in my heart, my soul, everything. And they’re going to bury me here.”
Zeng will play in Paris with more experience and the same determination to achieve a lifelong dream, and she hopes that injuries, a concern for all older athletes, won’t affect her performance at the Olympics.
“I’m very worried because if I make even the slightest bad move I could get hurt,” Zeng said.
Chileans won’t be the only ones glued to their TV sets on Saturday to follow the woman they’ve now dubbed “Olympic Grandma.” Ms Zeng’s brother and 92-year-old father will also be watching the games from China.
“When my father found out I qualified, he jumped out of his chair and screamed… He’s 92 years old and can’t believe it,” Zeng said. “And he immediately told me, ‘This has been your lifelong dream, and now it’s come true. Go for it.'”
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AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-Paris-Olympic-Games
