If you think of the city of Anshan, you will definitely think of steel. But you may not know that Anshan is also known as the "Famous National Football City" throughout the country.
The reason why Anshan is a "famous player in national football" starts decades ago. In the 1950s and 1960s, Anshan had China's largest steel factory and 400,000 industrial workers. At that time, when we were looking for national self-confidence and national sports, Anshan Iron and Steel workers started a table tennis craze. It is precisely because of this historical foundation that Anshan became a "famous national sports city".
Some of the world table tennis champions we are familiar with come from this city. Guo Yue, Li Xiaoxia, Ma Long and other well-known figures in the Chinese table tennis world have won countless honors for the country.
Let’s take a brief look at the growth history of these table tennis world champions. Guo Yue was born in an ordinary worker’s family in Anshan in 1987. She started playing ball at the age of 6. Originally, her father Guo Xiangsheng wanted her to exercise. She sent her to the sports school with a certain mentality. Unexpectedly, after two years of hard training, Guo Yue became the best among the young players in her age group. When she was 8 years old, she was selected into the provincial sports school with excellent results.
Later Guo Yue entered the Liaoning team at the age of 10, the second national team at the age of 11, and the first national team at the age of 12. After that, she overcame all obstacles and achieved countless successes. She won the women's singles championship at the World Table Tennis Championships in 2007, the women's doubles championship at the World Table Tennis Championships in 2009, the women's team championship at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the women's team championship at the 2012 Asian Table Tennis Championships, and the women's team championship at the 2012 Asian Table Tennis Championships. World Table Tennis Team Championship Champion, 2012 London Olympics Table Tennis Women's Team Champion, and so on.
Let’s take a look at Li Xiaoxia. Li Xiaoxia was born in 1988. She also entered the national first team at the age of 12. Li Xiaoxia became a table tennis player because when she was 7 years old, the Anshan Chemical Textile Factory where her mother Jiang Yan worked organized a table tennis class. Li Xiaoxia saw some children playing there and joined them. I fell in love with table tennis.
Li Xiaoxia’s achievements are equally dazzling, including the 2007 ITTF Finals Championship, the 2008 World Cup Women’s Singles Championship, the 2010 Asian Games Women’s Singles Championship, the 2012 Olympic Games Women’s Singles Championship, and the 2013 World Table Tennis Championships. Women's singles champion at the 2013 National Games, women's doubles champion at the 2009-2013 World Table Tennis Championships, and women's team champion at the 2006, 2008, and 2012 World Table Tennis Championships. Li Xiaoxia, who became the captain of the national female soldiers in 2013, was highly praised by Kong Linghui, the head coach of the Chinese women's table tennis team at the time. He said that Li Xiaoxia had proved with her strength that she was the leader of the Chinese female soldiers.
Anshan’s women’s table tennis is so strong, what about the men’s table tennis? The answer is, of course, equally powerful. Ma Long, who was born in Anshan in 1988, served as the captain of China's national men's table tennis team. The famous actor Lei Jiayin once said that Ma Long is the light of Anshan, which shows Ma Long's popularity in Anshan.
Ma Long started learning table tennis at the age of 5 and is extremely talented. The reason why his father took him to learn table tennis was also to let him exercise his body, and at the same time, this sport is less prone to injuries. Compared with Guo Yue and Li Xiaoxia, Ma Long's road to success was more tortuous. He was almost eliminated by the Liaoning Provincial Team when he was 13 years old. He was spotted by Beijing Xicheng Sports School coach Guan Anhua and was brought to Beijing to continue training. Entering the second national team at the age of 14 and the first national team at the age of 15, Ma Long started his journey to become a table tennis champion.
No one has broken Ma Long’s achievements yet. What is it? He is the first male Super Grand Slam player to win the Olympic Games, World Championships, World Cup, Asian Games, Asian Championships, Asian Cup, Tour Finals, and National Games singles titles. Such results are enough to prove that the level of table tennis players from Anshan is second to none in the country.
In 2020, the National Table Tennis Training Center will be located in Anshan, which marks that Anshan, a "famous national sports city", will cultivate more outstanding table tennis talents for the country in the years to come. It also allows the city of Anshan to be known to more people, going out of China and into the world.