As I looked more closely at Chinese table tennis, one thing kept bothering me. Chinese athletes often seemed extraordinarily hard on themselves. They trained heavily, pushed through exhaustion and pain, gave up large parts of ordinary life, and sometimes talked about those experiences with remarkably little complaint.
Elite sport everywhere demands sacrifice and rewards toughness. But in China, pushing through hardship often seemed to carry an extra layer of meaning, almost as if endurance proved you deserved whatever came next.
Wang Chuqin is an obvious example. For years, he has carried an unusually heavy training and competition load across singles and doubles, often with little room to recover or adjust. At some point, outside expectations can work their way inward. Eventually, nobody has to stand behind you every day saying, “Push harder.” You may already be saying it to yourself.
