On May 14th, Beijing time, the China Table Tennis Association officially announced the entry list for the Paris Olympics. Among them, Liang Jingkun and Wang Yidi won the p-cards for the men's and women's teams respectively. Because Wang Yidi has been relatively poor in foreign competitions recently, netizens are quite controversial about her taking a p-card. Some fans pointed out that Wang Yidi is the worst p-card player in the history of national table tennis. Others said that Wang Yidi should not be allowed to take the p card regardless of whether the players can use it this time. What the author wants to say is that even this p-card was created by Wang Yidi. It is also an honor to be the quasi-Olympic champion.
Let’s work backwards from this topic. If Wang Yidi doesn’t get the p card, who will? The most likely candidate is Chen Xingtong, who is currently ranked 6th in the world in women's singles. Looking further down, there is only Qian Tianyi, who is ranked 17th in the world. The National Table Tennis Team's Olympic strategy is a mature system. The p-card is not a mascot but a real spare tire. It can be used but must be used once a situation arises.
As the Olympics approach, the National Table Tennis Team's Olympic chariot has been fully launched. The core lineup of the women's team is Sun Yingsha, Chen Meng, Wang Manyu, Wang Yidi, and Chen Xingtong. The first three were the last Olympic champions. In the past three years, Wang Yidi only "stirred up the situation" through his own efforts. Although he did not make the Olympic lineup in the end, it was not easy to reach the p-card position.
Before the Paris Olympic cycle, Wang Yidi's position in the national table tennis team was even inferior to that of Chen Xingtong. Chen Xingtong relied on his own performance in the team trials to qualify for the World Cup team competition at the beginning of 2018 and became the world champion early. Many netizens and fans will guess that it was Ma Lin who gave Wang Yidi many opportunities. The coach first needs a reason to give you an opportunity, and secondly, when the opportunity is given, you must prove yourself with results.
Wang Yidi and Chen Meng were the women's doubles champions at the Durban World Table Tennis Championships last year. This is her most proud achievement in recent years. From Wang Yidi's perspective, you can't match whoever you want in doubles, but who are you? All three of them are Olympic champions. The coach arranged for Wang Yidi and Chen Meng to play doubles. The starting point was the needs of the Olympic strategy. More importantly, the two people's abilities, status, personality and temperament must be compatible. Wang Yidi was embarrassed at the Busan World Table Tennis Championships, but she didn't want to have such a scene. She only blamed herself for not playing well.
Wang Yidi is annoying, mainly because he loses a lot in foreign wars. But have you ever thought about it, she has struggled and worked hard in the past three years, but she failed to seize the opportunity at the last moment, but this p card is already a good consolation for her hard work in the past few years. At present, it seems that neither Chen Xingtong nor Qian Tianyi is as suitable as Wang Yidi. Chen Xingtong and Qian Tianyi have hardly played doubles with the three main Olympic players. If they really have to replace them, wouldn't it be a rush to get on the shelf?
The core players of the Japanese team, Hina Hayata, Tomokazu Harimoto and others, have had ups and downs in the international arena, and there are many cases where they lose consecutive games that they should not lose in foreign games. National table tennis fans only like us to win and hate to see our main players lose. Wang Yidi's next major goal should be to compete well in the Doha World Table Tennis Championships trials at the end of this year and early next year, strive to qualify for the World Table Tennis Championships, and continue to fight for the Olympic dream in the new Olympic cycle.
