Paris Olympics: Zhiying Zeng – from child prodigy in China to Chile’s grandmother of ping pong

Zhiying Zeng at 58 makes her Olympic debut for Chile in table tennis (AP Photo)

Zhiying Zeng had barely started going to school when ping-ping diplomacy became a global headline. Since Mao Zedong established the People’s Republic of China in 1949, diplomatic relations with the United States of America had been hostile for over two decades. It was the visit of the USA’s table tennis team in 1971 that paved the way for President Richard Nixon to visit a year later.

Zeng was born and raised in Guangzhou, a province whose claim to sporting fame mostly lay in the Evergrande football team that were Asian club champions in 2013 and 2015, but now languish in the second tier of the Chinese league. Her father was an engineer, and her mother coached table tennis. Before she had reached her teens, Zeng had moved to Beijing and an elite sports school. By her late teens, she was a Chinese national player, and seen as an Olympic prospect.

Paris Olympics: Decoding Dhinidhi Desinghu, the 14-year-old swimming sensation

But then, the rules changed. For years, the Chinese had befuddled the rest of the world with their Penhold grip and pimpled paddles. In 1986, when the rules changed to make two-colour paddles mandatory, opponents were able to figure out which side was used to block (often red), and which was employed to impart wicked spin.

According to Zeng, the changes drained her of all confidence and she soon dropped out of contention for an Olympic berth in Seoul. By 1989, she was heading to Chile, across the width of the Pacific Ocean, to coach schoolchildren. Dreams of glory on the big stage faded away as she moved into business, importing and selling Chinese goods, and started a family.

In 2002, she briefly went back to the table tennis table, mostly to wean her son away from his addiction to video games. Those that watched her at the local clubs were stunned by how good she still was. But again, real life intervened and Zeng went back to her day job, until the Covid-19 pandemic struck nearly two decades later. This time, the table tennis table was a means to stay sane during Chile’s stringent lockdown.

Exclusive | 'It's because of my mother I am here today': Tulika Maan, India's lone judoka at Paris Olympics

Known locally as Tania, she was soon winning every tournament she entered. In 2023, she qualified for the national team and won bronze at the Pan-American Games. In Paris, Zeng, who just turned 58, is seeded No. 60, in a field where the top two players will both be wearing the Chinese jersey she once donned. Sun Yingsha is 23, and Chen Meng 30, young enough to be her children.

But no matter what happens once the competition begins on Saturday, July 27, Zeng will finally have her Olympic moment. Back in 1988, when she might have been one of the stars, China swept the medals in the women’s singles, with Chen Jing taking gold, and Li Huifen and Jiao Zhimin taking the lesser medals. Each was once her peer.

Zeng had already been forgotten by then, in a country that has won every single women’s singles title since it became a medal sport in 1988. Now, these years later, ‘the grandmother of ping pong’ will finally get her time under those hallowed Olympic rings.

In exclusive arrangement with RevSportz