2024 Paris Olympics: How a table tennis player became an Olympian after 30-plus years away from her sport

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PARIS — At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Zhiyeng Zeng needed to find a way to get some exercise when going to the gym was not an option.

The 54-year-old dusted off the ping-pong table and paddle that for decades had been sitting unused in her home in northern Chile.

Zeng was a childhood table tennis prodigy growing up in China, but trying to become the best ping-pong player in her homeland is a lot like trying to become the best soccer player in Brazil. In 1986, at age 20, Zeng retired from the Chinese national team, convinced that her childhood dream of representing her country at an Olympics was dead.

When a Chinese coach offered her a job teaching children in Chile in 1989, Zeng moved across the world to a country where few could pronounce her given name. She became “Tania” to the Chileans, coaching table tennis for awhile before eventually giving the job up to pursue a career in the business world.

Zeng, now 58, laughed Saturday afternoon when asked if she could have ever imagined playing in the Olympics four years ago when she started playing table tennis again. She reiterates that this was “not a great dream” for her back then. Staying in shape was the only mission.

Rediscovering her childhood love for table tennis eventually inspired Zeng to become more ambitious once the pandemic restrictions loosened. She entered some local tournaments for fun and won those with ease. Then she did the same at the national level. By 2023, she was the highest-ranked player in Chile and was competing for the South American country’s national team.

Zeng became a sensation in Chile last year when she won first place in the Sudamericanos and earned bronze in the Pan-American Games. Chileans gave her the nickname “Tia Tania.” She gained thousands of new followers on Instagram. Even Chilean President Gabriel Boric watched her rally from two sets down in a match and then congratulated her on a “tremendous” victory.

Those successes revived Zeng’s long-dormant childhood dream.

“Why not the Olympics?” Zeng recalls allowing herself to think.

On Saturday afternoon, inside a sprawling convention center that Paris 2024 organizers have turned into an arena, Zeng’s dreams came true. She raised her hands to acknowledge the applause of a near-capacity crowd as she walked to court one to face Lebanon’s Mariana Sahakian in a rare Olympic matchup between two 40-plus-year-old athletes.

For a set and a half, this fairytale story seemed destined for a happy ending. Zeng effortlessly won the first set 11-4 and jumped to an 8-4 lead in the second set. She deftly slowed the ball and disguised direction with an array of spins and then pounced when she had the chance to end a point by getting more aggressive.

Slowly, however, Sahakian grew more comfortable playing against Zeng and the player who had waited decades to make her Olympic debut gradually lost her patience. She went for winners at times when extending points might have been the more prudent option.

When the match began to slip away from Zeng, the pockets of Chilean fans in the crowd tried to spark a comeback.

“Tanya! Tanya! Tanya!” they chanted when she fell behind two games to one.

“Chi-chi-chi, Le-le-le,” they roared when she called timeout after dropping the opening three points of the fourth game.

Eventually, the cheers slowed and resignation set in. Zeng fell in five games (11-4, 12-14, 5-11, 3-11, 8-11).

When Zeng and Sahakian came to speak with reporters after the match, it was hard to tell who had won and who had lost. Reporters from China, South America, Europe and the U.S. clamored to speak with Zeng. She patiently answered every question, her smile almost never leaving her face.

“This day for me was a gift from God,” she said. “I may have lost, but it doesn’t feel that way.”

The support of the crowd and the attention from international media was a little bit jarring for Zeng. Several times when talking to reporters she protested, “I don’t feel like a star.”

Still, when asked what her message to Chilean fans was, Tia Tania didn’t hesitate.

“My message is if you want to do something, you have to go do it,” she said. “Don’t wait, don’t think about it, don’t worry.

“In my case, I never ever thought I would be able to play at the Olympic Games, but I’m here now.”

Zeng’s advice serves as a reminder that the biggest winners at an Olympics don’t always have medals around their necks.

For some athletes, just making it to Paris is victory enough.