Researchers have said that the average age of an athlete at the Olympics is 27 years old, so when also viewing when one reaches their peak performance during their mid-to-late 20's, there is one notable competitor, Zhiying Zeng, that has defied the odds.
58-year-old Zeng is representing the country of Chile in this year's Olympics as a table tennis player. That is to say, her dream of becoming an Olympic athlete became a reality after taking a 30+ year hiatus from the sport, which also entailed moving from China to South America, as she transitioned from player to coach.
To note, Zeng's mother was a ping pong coach, so she was destined to compete in the sport, as she joined China's national team at only 16 years old, and was regarded as a table tennis phenom.
Even so, Zeng's career was short lived, she retired back in 1986 at only 20 years old without ever making an appearance at the Olympics for China.
This might be the best Paris 2024 story: Zeng Zhiying made her Olympics debut at 58-years old.
Born in China, she is now representing Chile in table tennis because of an incredible journey.
At age 18, she expected to go to the Olympics for her birth country, China, as one of… pic.twitter.com/k3IQJ4IkQ4
— Adam Ryan 🤝 (@AdamRy_n) July 29, 2024
The reason for her stepping away from the game she loved had to do with something as small as a rule change.
In view of this, apparently Zeng was a trickster back in her day. For those who don't know, the two sides of the paddle are not the same, as they differ in the effect of the speed and power of the ball, as well as the spin. With this in mind, the players used to be allowed to have the same color on both sides of the paddle, so Zeng would use this as a competitive advantage, constantly rotating the paddle to throw her opponents off.
However, in 1986 it was deemed that all players must use a paddle with two colors, and only one side of the paddle could be black.
"The rule killed my game," Zeng admitted. "I felt weak, psychologically and technically."
Considering this, it has been 38 years since this initial retirement.
Notably, Zeng said she made a comeback during the COVID-19 lockdown, picking the paddle back up while buying a ping pong table, which led her to practicing hours and hours everyday.
To point out, at the present day, Zeng told the Guardian that she trains Monday-Friday for three hours a day. As for the reason why she can't train more, she gave her age as an excuse.
"When you're young, nothing hurts," she said. "Now, if I play too much I get shoulder ache."
Ever since entering tournaments, she moved her way up to actually being Chile's top-ranked woman in table tennis, even being regarded as a national hero after helping lead her new country to a bronze medal at the 2023 Pan American Games in the home capital of Santiago.
Although she lost the preliminary rounds at the 2024 Paris Olympics to Lebanon's Mariana Sahakian (4-1), Zeng's aspirations of being an Olympian have already been fulfilled, as she sets a perfect example of 'it's never too late' to follow your dreams.
Zeng talked about how her proud father was able to watch her on TV.
"It was our family's dream, and mine, to play in the Olympic Games... I'm now 58 years old and my dad is 92. I finally made that dream come true for him."
🥹🥹🥹
She may have lost, but Zhiying Zeng's Olympic Games debut will be a moment she and her father will never forget 🫶#PingPong #TableTennis #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/sILzHuQS4F
— World Table Tennis (@WTTGlobal) July 27, 2024
"At my age, you have to play with happiness, not anguish," Zeng said. "I didn't reach my dream in China, and I have here [Chile]. It's important not to give up."
To emphasize that age doesn't matter, Zeng is not even the oldest women's ping pong player competing in the Paris Games, as her former Chinese teammate, Ni Xialin, is 61 years old, and has been representing Luxembourg since 1991, making her sixth Olympics appearance.
Ni Xialian and Zeng Zhiying were once Chinese table tennis teammates but never made it to the #Olympics for the land of their birth. Four decades on, they are both at the Paris Games representing other countries https://t.co/qGrgUp6IsX 1/5 pic.twitter.com/sbaZJWuYGh
— Reuters (@Reuters) July 27, 2024
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