Table tennis player Zeng Zhiying said her "dream came true" Saturday after making her Olympic debut at age 58, despite suffering defeat for her adopted Chile.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/olympics/2024/07/28/zeng-zhiying-olympic-dream/ #olympics #chile #2024parisolympics #zengzhiying #china
'Dream come true' for 58-year-old Olympic debutant despite loss
Zeng represented China, the country of her birth, as a young player but retired at 20 and moved to Chile, where she has lived for the past 35 years.
"she will debut in the Olympic Games at age 58... On Saturday, not only Chileans will be glued to TV to follow a woman they now call their 'Olympic grandmother.' Zeng’s brother and her 92-year-old father also will watch from China.
"'When he found out that I had qualified, he jumped out of his chair, shouting.. Go figure, a 92-year-old man'"
https://apnews.com/article/olympics-2024-table-tennis-china-chile-5edcce30e4dd414887fce9bfc47825b3
—
#china #chile #olympics #ZengZhiying #TaniaZeng
Chinese-Chilean table tennis player makes Olympics debut at age 58 in the Paris Games
Table tennis player Zeng Zhiying left China in 1989, the same year of the Tiananmen Square massacre, to teach the sport in northern Chile. Fast-forward 35 years, she will debut in the Olympic Games at age 58 under the name she adopted in the South American nation: Tania. Tania Zeng, who became famous in Chile after winning a bronze medal at the Pan-American Games in Santiago last year, retired from table tennis long ago. Though the sport brought her to Chile, she stopped playing to have more time to dedicate to a business she opened and eventually start a family. Her dream of becoming a professional athlete returned during the pandemic. Her pinnacle will be reached in Paris.
The Japan Times
John Refior