The captain of the National Table Tennis Team for the Tokyo Olympics is still the man we are familiar with, Ma Long. This is the third time in the Dragons’ career that they have participated in the Olympics, and he is still the anchor of the national team. At the same time, he also shoulders the important task of competing for the men's singles and men's team championships. As a 32-year-old veteran, it is really not easy to remain competitive today.

June 2, 2019, is a day worth remembering in the Chinese table tennis world. In the men's singles final of the China Table Tennis Open that day, Ma Long defeated Lin Gaoyuan 4:0 and won his 28th career Open singles championship. At this point, Malone surpassed Belarusian legendary player Sam Thorop, breaking his record of 27 open singles championships, and officially became the first person in history. Looking at the world of sports, there are athletes like Malone who have already reached the number one spot in history while still in active service. Every spectator watching Malone's game has unknowingly become a witness to history.

All this is particularly magical for Malone, who was almost eliminated by the provincial team. It seems like a dream. Ma Long was born in Anshan, Liaoning Province on October 20, 1988.

Neither of his parents were athletes, so they asked Ma Long to practice table tennis simply because he was in poor health, and table tennis skills would make it easier to get injured.

Although his congenital conditions are slightly inferior, Ma Long is very hard-working, hard-working, flexible and makes rapid progress.

He has had a calm personality since he was a child, and he is born with the air of a general.

In 1999, Ma Long entered the Liaoning Provincial Team. At that time, there were many table tennis conflicts in Liaoning, especially Anshan. After all, Anshan is the city of table tennis. In comparison, Malone seemed to be missing. After two years of training, the provincial team decided to give up on Malone. Although he was only 13 years old at the time and still had strong plasticity, that's how competitive sports are. It is impossible to waste too many resources on a small player who is not outstanding.

Fortunately, the coach of Beijing Xicheng Sports School went to Liaoning to select young players. Coach Guan Huaian saw the quiet Ma Long in the corner and brought him to Beijing for training. This story is also a good story about Bole and Chollima.

I faced being eliminated once. When he arrived in Beijing, Ma Long practiced twice as hard. The coach recalled that even if Ma Long cried, he would not lose his temper randomly. Hard work always pays off. Ma Long's skills improved day by day. In 2003, he joined the national team. In 2004, Ma Long officially participated in the competition and won the men's singles and mixed doubles championships in the Asian Youth Championship.

Many people think this is a genius boy, and only he knows it. In order to get a chance to play, he struggled to swing the racket in the training hall for ten years.

In 2006, 18-year-old Ma Long went to the Bremen World Championships team competition with the Chinese table tennis team and won his first world championship title. After that, Malone entered the main force and became better and better as he played, winning more and more championships.

In the 2009 Asian Championships, Malone won four individual gold medals in singles, men's doubles, and mixed doubles.

In 2011, at the 24th Table Tennis Asia Cup, Malone won three consecutive championships in 34 days. It was also the Slovenian Open from August of that year to the end of January 2012. Malone continued to win 45 games in 224 days. Defeat record.

Ma Long's ability to become more courageous as he fights mainly relies on three major weapons. The first is mentality. He has a calm personality, neither arrogance nor impatience, and a stable mentality. Second, self-discipline training only involves working harder and harder. The third is will. This is the scariest thing about Malone. Every opponent who defeats him will only make him stronger. 2014 was Malone's lowest period.

This year, he defeated Zhang Jike in the World Cup and defeated Fan Zhendong in the National Championships. Some people say that Malone's peak period is about to pass. When he was extremely frustrated, Malone came up with the idea of ????retiring.

But this idea was quickly abandoned by self-denial, and it was easy to stop being Malone there.

As mentioned before, defeating Malone will only make him stronger.

After losing to Zhang Jike, he reflected that facing a strong opponent like Jike, one must fully relax his technical mentality and not be too rigid.

After losing to Xiaofan, he reflected on the serious points lost on his backhand, so he strengthened his backhand. The result was that in the 2015 World Table Tennis Championships, Ma Long defeated Xiaofan 4:1. Defeated Jike 4:0 at the 2016 Rio Olympics. As Nietzsche said, those who cannot defeat me will eventually make me stronger. This is the case with Malone. There is no doubt that Malone is the player who has maintained a world-class level for the longest time.

From entering the main city in 2006 to leading the team in the Tokyo Olympics, he is still the backbone of the national team. So far, Malone has won 124 national-level championships in his career. Among the 124 championships, he has an unbeaten record of winning 56 games from 2011 to 2012. Has a history-making 28 Open singles titles. There are 21 world championship titles with the largest number of male table tennis players so far, which lasted for four and a half years, and they won all the foreign matches in 1658 days. It is a legend that no one has come since. The fifth Olympic World Championships, World Cup Tour Finals, Asian Games, Asian Championships, Asian Cup, and National Games Championships are all in one super Grand Slam.

By the way, Malone also created and maintained the record of being ranked first in the world cumulatively and continuously for the longest time in the history of Nanping. And this long list of honors is still unfinished at the end. We are lucky to have such a historical athlete and high-quality idol. For the sport of table tennis, Ma Long is no longer an athlete.

It is a state, a height, and a direction for Chinese athletes in the new era.