Zhiying Zeng Height, Age, Husband, Children, Family, Biography

Some Lesser Known Facts About Zhiying Zeng

• She owns a furniture trading business in Chile.

• She grew up near a sports complex, where she had access to professional players.

• It was her dream to become an Olympian since childhood.

• Her mother was a table tennis coach and coached her till she was 9 years old.

• She joined an elite sports academy when she was 11 years old.

• She won a national junior championship before becoming a professional at 12.

• She entered the Chinese table tennis team at age 16.

• In 1986, the introduction of a new rule requiring table tennis rackets to have two different colours impacted her gameplay.

• She used to switch to different sides of the racket for different shots and confuse her opponents, but with the new rules, she became predictable.

• She was soon dropped out of the Chinese team because of her poor performance, which resulted in her quitting table tennis when she was 20 years old.

• She moved to Chile, after receiving an invitation in 1989.

• In Chile, she worked as a coach to school children of Arica.

• She got the opportunity to play for Chile in 1996 but she turned it down as she didn’t want to play for another country.

• In 2003, she started to play table tennis again to encourage her son to take up the sport instead of playing video games.

• She won national-level tournaments in 2004 and 2005. Her victories encouraged her son to take up the sport.

• Soon, she quit the sport again after her son became old enough to go to training on his own with his coach.

• She picked the sport again in 2022 as a mode of exercise as, according to her, all she did during the lockdown was rest and eat.

• After she started to play again, she contacted the table tennis federation at Iquique and started playing table tennis at the regional level.

• She soon started to win regional tournaments against men, which gave her confidence.

• Initially, after getting selected for the 2023 South American Table Tennis Championships, she doubted if she would be able to perform well. She entered the championship after her friend motivated her to participate.

• In an interview, she stated that when she started playing again after the lockdown, she found inspiration in fellow table tennis player, Ni Xialian, who was 60 years old at the time.

• In 2023, she became an overnight sensation in Chile after she defeated Eva Pena Brito of the Dominican Republic by 4-2 at the Pan American Games women’s singles tournament. The President of Chile, Gabriel Boric, congratulated her on his social media account.

• In May 2024, she participated in the Olympic qualifying tournament in Lima, Peru.

• After qualifying for the Olympics, she talked about her happiness in an interview as her father, who was 92 years old, and her brother watched her qualify and said,
  

  My dad was able to see his daughter qualify for the Olympics. He used to take me to training and to matches when I was a girl and now at 57, I made it. I made it.”

• She made her Olympic debut in the 2024 Summer Olympics and instantly became viral on social media due to her age. She lost in the preliminary round by 4-1 against the 46-year-old Lebanese player, Mariana Sahakian.
  

  Zhiying Zeng playing at the Olympics

• She talked about being content even after losing the match in the Olympics in an interview and said,
  

  I don’t feel very sad, because this is sport. My husband, my sons, everyone I love and care about were there shouting my name. I feel so content.”

• To perform at an elite level, she works out regularly.
  

  Zhiying Zeng during a workout session

• She enjoys watching Turkish TV shows.

• She prefers to compete in singles competition.

• She drinks alcohol occasionally.
  

  Zhiying Zeng drinking alcohol