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PARIS — At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, going to the gym wasn't an option for Zhiying Zeng, so she needed to find a way to exercise.
The 58-year-old dusted off a table tennis table and paddle that had sat unused for decades at her home in northern Chile.
Zeng was a table tennis prodigy from an early age growing up in China, but trying to be the best table tennis player in your homeland is a lot like trying to be the best soccer player in Brazil. In 1986, at the age of 20, Zeng retired from the Chinese national team, convinced that his childhood dream of representing his country at the Olympics was gone.
In Saturday's preliminary round, Chile's Zen Ziyin will face Lebanon's Mariana Sahakian. (Reuters/Kim Hongji)
When a Chinese coach offered her a job teaching children in Chile in 1989, Zeng moved across the world to a country where few people could pronounce her name. She became “Tania” to Chileans and coached table tennis for a while, but eventually quit her job to pursue a career in the business world.
Tseng, now 58, laughed when asked on Saturday afternoon whether he could have imagined playing in the Olympics when he started playing table tennis four years ago. She reiterates that this was “not a big dream” for her at the time. My only mission was to stay in shape.
Rediscovering her childhood love of table tennis ultimately inspired Zeng to become more ambitious once pandemic restrictions eased. She participated in several local tournaments for fun and won easily. Later, she did the same at the national level. By 2023, she was Chile's highest-ranked player and earned a spot on the South American national team.
Zeng became a sensation in Chile last year, winning the Sudamericano and taking bronze at the Pan American Games. The Chileans gave her the nickname “Tia Tania”. She gained thousands of new followers on Instagram. Chilean President Gabriel Boric also watched her rally from two sets down in the match and congratulated her on the “amazing” victory.
These successes have revived Mr. Zeng's long-dormant childhood dreams.
“Why not have the Olympics?” Zeng remembers thinking to himself.
On Saturday afternoon, inside the vast convention center that Paris 2024 organizers have turned into an arena, Tseng's dream came true. As she headed onto Court 1 to face Lebanon's Mariana Sahakian in a rare Olympic showdown between athletes over 40, she raised her hand to the applause of the near-capacity crowd.
For a set and a half, this fairy tale seemed destined for a happy ending. Tseng easily won the first set 11-4 and took an 8-4 lead in the second set. She deftly slowed down the ball and used a lot of spin to mislead her direction, before becoming more aggressive and jumping at the chance to finish points.
However, Sahakyan gradually became more comfortable playing against Zen, and the athlete who had been waiting for decades for his Olympic debut gradually lost patience. She went for the winner when going for points might have been the wiser option.
As the match began to lose momentum for Zen, Chilean fans in the crowd tried to spark a counterattack.
“Tanya! Tanya! Tanya!” they cheered as she trailed by two games to one.
When she called a timeout after losing three points early in the fourth game, cheers went up, saying, “Tsk, tsk, tsk.”
Eventually, the cheers died down and resignation began to set in. Zeng was eliminated in five matches (11 wins, 4 losses, 12 wins, 14 losses, 5 wins, 11 losses, 3 wins, 11 losses, and 8 wins, 11 losses).
When Zeng and Sahakian came to talk to reporters after the match, it was difficult to tell who had won and who had lost. Reporters from China, South America, Europe and the United States requested talks with Zeng. She patiently answered any questions and the smile rarely left her face.
“This day was a gift from God to me,” she said. “We may have lost, but it doesn’t feel like that.”
The crowd's cheers and the attention from foreign media were a bit jarring for Zeng. While talking to reporters, she protested several times, saying, “I don't feel like a star.”
Still, Tia Tania did not hesitate when asked what her message would be to Chile's fans.
“My message is that if you want something done, you have to do it,” she said. “Don't wait, don't think, don't worry.
“In my case, I never thought I would be able to play in the Olympics, but here I am.”
Zeng's advice is a reminder that the greatest Olympic winners don't always wear medals around their necks.
For some athletes, just arriving in Paris is victory enough.
