Chinese table tennis queen Wang Nan prepares for 3rd Olympic outing

(BEIJING, June 28) -- Chinese table tennis queen Wang Nan, who turns 30 this October, is now under a 35-day closed training program with her team members in Hebei Province to prepare for the final sprint before her third Olympic this August.

As a veteran table tennis player and a leading member of the Chinese national table tennis team, Wang Nan is no stranger to the Olympic Games. In the 2000 Olympic Games held in Sydney, she collected the gold medals in both the singles and doubles. In the 2004 Olympic Games, she paired up with Zhang Yining to win the doubles, but lost her crown against Zhang in the singles.

Wang Nan started playing table tennis at the age of seven and joined the national team in 1993 to become the youngest member of the squad. She won her first singles championship at the Swedish Open in 1994. She also took the Women's World Cup in 1997, 1998, 2003 and 2007. She drew the world's attention in the 2003 World Championships in Paris, where she claimed the gold medals in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles competitions. It was at that time that she set a new world record by winning 7 world championship titles -- 3 singles championships and 4 doubles championships. The No.1 player in ITTF world rankings between 1999 and 2002, she is the second Chinese player to complete a clean sweep of the Olympic Games, the World Table Tennis Championships and the World Cup, following in the footsteps of her predecessor Deng Yaping, who is regarded as one of the greatest table tennis players in the world.

Closed training aims to mold athletes into having a good mental state to face the coming Olympic Games, said Shi Zhihao, coach of the Chinese women's team. "Wang Nan has shown some ups and downs in her recent performances, which is tracable to her mental state and physcial fitness," Shi said. Noting the veteran's age, Shi admitted that it may be possible for Wang Nan to feel run down somtimes during the competition. However, Shi expressed her belief in Wang Nan to stand her ground as a top-notch player "We'll carry out special training during the closed training period to get her into the best athletic state," Shi said.

Considering that the coming Olympic Games might be her last major match before retirement, her Olympic show this summer is a golden chance for her to draw a perfect curtain on her career.