Medal Table | Olympic Schedule | Olympic News
PARIS — In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, with no access to the gym, Zhiying Zeng had to find a way to exercise.
The 58-year-old has reclaimed a ping-pong table and rackets that had remained unused for decades at her home in northern Chile.
Zeng was a child table tennis prodigy growing up in China, but trying to be the best table tennis player in his home country is a lot like trying to be the best soccer player in Brazil. In 1986, at age 20, Zeng retired from the Chinese national team, convinced that his childhood dream of representing his country at the Olympics had not come true.
In 1989, when a Chinese coach offered her a job teaching children in Chile, Zeng moved across the world to a country where few could pronounce her name. She became “Tania” to Chileans and coached table tennis for a while, but eventually left the job to pursue a career in business.
Zeng, now 58, laughed Saturday afternoon when asked if she could have imagined competing in the Olympics four years ago when she took up table tennis again. “It wasn’t a big dream” back then, she repeated. Staying in shape was my only mission.
As pandemic restrictions eased, Zeng rediscovered her childhood love of table tennis and became more ambitious. She played local tournaments as a hobby and won with ease. Then she did the same at the national level. By 2023, she was Chile’s highest-ranked player and competing for the South American country’s national team.
Zeng became a sensation in Chile last year when she won the South American Championship and a bronze medal at the Pan American Games. Chileans nicknamed her “Tia Tania.” She gained thousands of new followers on Instagram. Chilean President Gabriel Boric even congratulated her on her “amazing” victory after watching her bounce back from two sets down in the match.
These successes have allowed Zeng to relive a long-forgotten childhood dream.
“Why not the Olympics?” Zeng recalls thinking to himself.
On Saturday afternoon, inside a vast convention center that Paris 2024 organizers have transformed into an arena, Zeng’s dream came true: She walked onto Court 1, raised her hands to the applause of a near-capacity crowd and took on Lebanon’s Mariana Sahakian in a rare Olympic showdown between two athletes over 40.
For a set and a half, this fairytale story seemed destined for a happy ending. Zeng won the first set handily, 11-4, and opened up an 8-4 lead in the second. She deftly slowed the ball, disguised its direction with different spins, and attacked more aggressively when she had the chance to end a point.
But Sahakian gradually grew accustomed to playing against Zeng, and the player who had waited decades to make his Olympic debut grew increasingly impatient, going for winners when extending the point might have been the wise choice.
As the game began to move away from Zen, the Chilean fans in the stands tried to make a comeback.
When she lost two-on-one, they yelled, “Tanya! Tanya! Tanya!”
When she called a timeout after dropping the first three points of the fourth game, they chanted “Chichi, le-le-le.”
Eventually the cheers died down and resignation set in. Zeng lost in five games (11-4, 12-14, 5-11, 3-11, 8-11).
When Zeng and Sahakian spoke to reporters after the match, it was unclear who had won and who had lost. Reporters from China, South America, Europe and the United States crowded together to talk to Zeng. She patiently answered every question, barely missing a smile.
“This day was a gift to me,” she said. “I may have lost, but it doesn’t feel like it.”
For Zeng, the cheers of the crowd and the attention from the international media were a bit of a shock. “I don’t feel like a star,” she protested repeatedly while speaking to reporters.
Still, when asked what her message was to Chilean fans, Tia Tania didn’t hesitate.
“My message is, if you want to do something, you have to do it,” she said. “Don’t wait, don’t think, don’t worry.”
“In my case, I never thought I’d make it to the Olympics, but here I am.”
Zeng’s advice is a reminder that the greatest Olympic winners don’t always have medals around their necks.
For some athletes, just getting to Paris is enough of a victory.
