巴西运动员击败中国乒乓选手
2023-02-17 08:31阅读：
姚明在NBA赛场上闪耀近十年，促使篮球在中国越来越受欢迎。乒乓球需要的恰恰相反：一个引人注目的“外人”将焦点从中国移开。雨果·卡尔德拉诺符合该形象。他来自巴西，乒乓球在那里基本难觅踪迹，但他打败过许多中国顶尖球员，他会说包括中文在内的7种语言，他是一名扩大该运动吸引力的运动员。
“这可能是我们必须解决的最大问题之一。”国际乒联首席执行官史蒂夫·丹顿说。他将中国对该运动的统治描述为一种已经“与我们共处很长一段时间”的状况。“我有点觉得雨果是变化的一部分，这是非常积极的，尤其是在与中国有关的竞争方面。”他说。
眼下，卡尔德拉诺在这项运动中排名世界第五，曾在一年前排名第三，打败过包括排名第一的樊振东等在内的众多中国顶尖选手。他在一次采访时说：“如果我能击中球，我就有很大的机会获胜，即使是对阵最好的中国选手。”他在里约热内卢长大，他的教练和支持团队是法国人，他生活在德国。
“他拥有一个很不寻常的形象，”他的教练穆涅说，“我们开玩笑说，雨果有点像一名参加滑雪比赛的埃塞俄比亚人或刚果人。”中国选手已经赢得90%的乒乓球奥运金牌，拿奥运金牌无异于中国的非官方消遣活动。
丹顿希望中国放弃一些对奖牌的统治优势，转而专注于国际发展、分享专业知识，“他们在技术上非常先进，世界大多数人都没有这些知识”。丹顿表示他与中国乒协主席刘国梁谈过中国在这项运动中的统治地位，“他（刘国梁）非常热衷开发国际明星，因为即使对中国来说，这项运动在中国以外保持与时俱进和盛行也很重要”。
Brazilian beats Chinese at their own game -- table
tennis
By STEPHEN WADE
KAWASAKI,
Japan (AP) — Yao Ming graced marquees for a decade in the NBA,
spurring basketball’s growing popularity in China.
Table tennis needs the inverse: an eye-catching outsider to get the
focus off China. Hugo Calderano fits the profile.
He’s from Brazil — table tennis is largely invisible there — has
beaten many of China’s top players, and speaks seven languages
including Chinese; a player to broaden the game’s appeal.
“It’s still probably one of the biggest issues we have out there we
have to tackle,” said Steve Dainton, the CEO of the ITTF, the
sport’s world governing body. He described China’s domination of
the game as a situation that has “lived with us for quite a
while.”
“I kind of feel Hugo is a part of this change, and it’s been very
positive -- specifically about China,” Dainton added.
Calderano is No. 5 in the sport’s ranking -- he reached No. 3 a
year ago -- and he’s beaten many of the top Chinese including No. 1
Fan Zhendong.
“If I’m hitting my shots, I have a great chance of winning, even
against the best Chinese,” he told The Associated Press in an
interview.
Calderano grew up Rio de Janeiro, his coach and support team are
French, and he lives in Germany. He speaks Portuguese, English,
French, Spanish, and German — and “can communicate” in Italian and,
of course, Chinese.
Playing this month in Japan he was asked if he’s trying to add an
eighth language.
“Not at the moment,” he replied.
“He has a very unusual profile,” Calderano’s coach Jean-Rene Mounie
said. “We joke that Hugo is a bit like a guy from Ethiopia or Congo
competing in skiing.”
Chinese players have won 90% of table tennis’ Olympic gold medals,
and it’s the country’s unofficial pastime. Men have won six of the
last seven Olympic gold medals in singles, and the women have won
every singles gold since the sport was introduced into the Summer
Games in 1988.
China and table tennis have been synonymous since “Ping-Pong
Diplomacy” opened relations between the United States and China
just over 50 years ago.
However, China didn’t invent it. That was 19th century England,
where the parlor game was known as “whiff whaff” and played across
dining tables with wine corks fashioned into balls. Books or cigar
boxes were the “net” and stiff place mats were possibly the first
rackets or paddles.
Dainton wants China to sacrifice some its medal dominance, focusing
instead on international development, sharing expertise, and
financial profits.
“They are so technically advanced and most of the world doesn’t
have the knowledge,” he said. “Now it’s time for them to share the
knowledge.”
An Australian who speaks Chinese, Dainton said he’s talked about
Chinese supremacy in the sport with Liu Guoliang, the president of
the Chinese Table Tennis Association and a two-time Olympic gold
medalist.
“He (Liu) is very keen on developing international stars because,
even for China, it’s important the sport stays relevant and strong
outside China,” Dainton said.
Mounie has coached Calderano for a decade and describes his game as
playing “stronger, faster, and closer.”
“It’s my nature as a person and an athlete to be very aggressive
all the time. I want to impose my game and dominate my opponent,”
Calderano said.
Table tennis exists in two worlds. There’s the recreational, mass
participation game. And there’s the elite version followed across
Asia and hotbeds in Europe; lightning strokes, fidgeting players,
and a small table to magnify the speed.
Calderano varies the attack. One serve -- a high-toss that goes 10
feet up (3 meters) -- is followed by a very low one. He crouches
almost below the table’s edge to begin the serve and, like many
players, continually rubs the table to remove imaginary debris. A
sweaty hand gets dried in a corner by the net.
“Hugo is the strongest player in the world,” French player Simon
Gauzy told the sports newspaper L’Equipe. “He is hyper-aggressive
all the time. When it works, it’s unstoppable.”
Calderano’s dexterity goes beyond table tennis and languages. He
has a personal record of solving the Rubik’s cube in 5.61 seconds,
which is just 2 seconds off what’s listed as the world-record by
the World Cube Association.
His father and mother -- Marcos Calderano and Elisa Borges, both
teachers -- got him started at a local club. He left Rio at 14 to
train near Sao Paulo, moved at 16 to France and, after a few years
back in Brazil to treat an injury, moved to Germany.
“Hugo has the ambition to be on the top of the world, and that
means beating the Chinese because they are the best,” Mounie said.
“The emotion he puts in his game is very special, always trying to
impose his game.”
Calderano described China’s top four players as a cut above.
“Then they have many other players who are just a level below who
are also strong and very dangerous but don’t have the consistency
of the top guys,” he said.
Dainton, the CEO, said he expects the Chinese to again sweep gold
in next year’s Olympics in Paris. But he can dream. Calderano
reached the final 16 at Rio in 2016, and made the quarterfinals at
the Tokyo Olympics.
“We need those magical moments where there are some surprises,” he
said. “Yes of course, if we had an American, a Canadian -- I’ll say
an Australian -- that would be a massive, massive story.”
Or a Brazilian.
