As a teenager, Zhiying Zeng dreamed of an Olympic medal for China. Four decades later, now Chilean and renamed Tania, the 58-year-old table tennis player will be competing in the Paris 2024 Olympics.
On Saturday, July 27, under the high ceiling of the Arena Paris Sud, even international table tennis followers will raise a wary eyebrow when they discover her racket in hand (right). But what is this elderly lady - from the generation of her opponents' parents - doing in the 2024 Olympic tournament?
Zhiying Zeng, 58, has earned the right to represent Chile via the qualifying tournaments in her geographical zone. The International Federation ranks her 151st in the world, making her the fifth representative from South America behind two Brazilians, one Argentine and her compatriot Paulina Vega.
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"I'm so honoured to represent Chile in Paris. This country is allowing me to live out a long-forgotten dream from my youth in China. It's nothing but happiness," she tells the British daily The Guardian.
In the 1970s, under the guidance of her coach mother, Zhiying Zeng was one of thousands of children enrolled in China's champion factory. "There were table tennis tables everywhere," she recalls.
At the age of 11, she joined the Beijing Military Sports School. Six years later, she was selected for the national team. Like her partners, she dreamed of Olympic medals. But between the extreme fierceness of the competition and the pace of training, the young woman failed to earn her place in China's elite, and finally gave up in 1986.
"At the age of 20, I gave up on the Olympics...". Three years later, her life took a turn for the worse when she received an invitation from a compatriot living in northern Chile. "I'd almost given up playing, but I agreed to become a coach. A whole new world opened up.
She hardly prolonged her activity with the local club, preferring to specialize in the import of Chinese goods, then started a family in the town of Iquique. In the process, she became Tania. "I chose this first name because the Chileans couldn't pronounce my name. They have problems with Z's."
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The severe confinement caused by Covid-19, the need to move around and keep her son occupied finally put her back on the path of her first love. She bought a table tennis table and practiced assiduously. Gradually, she got back into competition "for fun", winning local and then continental tournaments without forcing herself. Eventually, she said to herself: "Why not Paris?
By training three hours a day, five times a week, she regained her lost reflexes, amazed the South American table tennis players and succeeded in her challenge. "I've hung in there, because I look my age... If I practice too much, my shoulder calls me to order".
In Chile, nicknamed "the grandmother of ping-pong", her humility has won her a growing following. Even the President of the Republic, Gabriel Boric, follows her performances.
(L'Équipe)
