His father Yao Kun worked in a foreign company, and his mother Jiang Ying used to work in a state-owned enterprise, but later she resigned and went to sea. Jiang Ying went to work in Meishan, Sichuan when she was five months pregnant, and Yao Yan returned to Shanghai when she grew up in Meishan to 10 months.
Father Yao Xuan likes sports, especially watching Kong Huiling play ball. When I was a child, there were many videos of hole games at home.
Before Yao Yan, the whole family didn't exercise, and Yao Yan accidentally chose table tennis. When Yao Yan was five years old, Hongxing Road Primary School went to her kindergarten to recruit children who learned to play table tennis.
The teacher asked, "Whose dragon is it?" Yao Yan raised his hand.
The teacher then asked, "Who can play table tennis?" Yao Yan raised her little hand again, but at that time she didn't even know what table tennis was.
In this way, Yao Yan learned to play table tennis with more than 70 children, went to kindergarten during the day and played table tennis three or four nights a week.
Yao Yan's passion for table tennis is extraordinary. Everybody line up to practice. Yao Yan was very happy when he picked up the ball. Other children are waiting in line. While waiting in line, Yao Yan couldn't help practicing.
And she never comes for no reason, and she never compromises with her teachers. Most importantly, Yao Yan didn't want to dance in public when she was in kindergarten, but after learning table tennis, she had a particularly strong desire to perform, which also made her family feel that playing table tennis was good.
After practicing for almost a year, Yao Yan will go to primary school. At that time, my family didn't want Yao Yan to become a professional athlete. At most, they want her to exercise, and then people become positive and cheerful.
So I sent her to the Third Central Primary School in Zhabei District, a school with table tennis characteristics. After finishing the first grade, a friend introduced Yao Yan to play in Hongkou Junior Sports School.
So I had an ideological struggle at home, and the final conclusion was: I played for two or three years before, and I can't play for nothing. If you can't do well in the third and fourth grades, you can still make up for it.
Since the second grade, Yao Yan has been transferred to Hongkou District Junior Sports School to study while playing ball. There are many table tennis coaches in Hongkou District Junior Sports School. For example, Wang was the first coach of world champion Cao Yanhua, and Bu Qijuan was a world champion himself.
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After seeing it, Wang felt that the little girl's face was full of aura, and she saw a unique temperament composed of family education and her own nature.
Wang believes that this is an essential quality for an excellent athlete, but a good material for practicing table tennis.
Since entering the junior sports school, Yao Yan has formed the belief of "playing well" in his heart. Seeing that her daughter is so keen on table tennis, her father Yao Xuan has also created better conditions for her from all aspects.
For example, Yao Yan spends thousands of dollars every month to find a sparring partner, and sensible Yao Yan doesn't regard his parents' love as "doting". On the contrary, it makes her more sensible and knows how to cherish this hard-won training environment.
In 2002, Yao Yan entered the Shanghai team. Gui, the head coach of the Shanghai table tennis team at that time, was called the "devil coach", so he began his intensive training in the Shanghai team.
At that time, the most representative women table tennis players in China were Cao Yanhua, Deng Yaping and Wang Nan. Under the arrangement of the coach, Yao Yan tried to imitate the play of these three predecessors.
Thus, it has formed its own world mainstream advanced play style of double-sided anti-adhesive fast break combined with arc coil.
During the Shanghai team, Yao Yan also met a boy from Xuzhou, Jiangsu, who was two years younger than her. That is Xu Xin. Xu Xin came to Cao Yanhua Table Tennis School in Shanghai to study with the coach and joined the Shanghai team in 2003.
But at this time, the two did not have much thought. After all, they are teenagers. More importantly, they have a bigger goal in mind, that is to enter the national team and win the world championship.
In 2005, Yao Yan was selected for the second national team, so Yao Yan's parents sent their daughter to the Beijing national team by train. It was the official Spring Festival at that time, and there was still a festive atmosphere everywhere.
After Yao Yan's parents sent Yao Yan to the national team, they stayed in a hotel near the Tiantan apartment and spent the first few days in the national team with Yao Yan.
The competition of China table tennis team is definitely more cruel than the college entrance examination, because there may be tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of children of the same age playing table tennis, but only dozens and hundreds can enter the national team training, and only a dozen or twenty can stay in the national team.
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Yao Yan's skills are excellent and comprehensive, so he joined the first team after more than a year in the second team and became the first disciple of Kong, who had just retired as a coach.
As soon as he became a coach, Kong was very interested in it. It is conceivable that a good athlete meets a good coach. At the same time, in the national team, it is also known as the "king".
This is because Yao Yan and Rainbow Li Qin are also horizontal strokes with their right hands, and they can draw circles on both sides. Although strength and speed can't be compared with Wang, it represents the advanced style of play and is the top mainstream style of play in the world.
Lu, the former head coach of the national women's team, also commented: "She is relatively tall, with a wide range of care on the table, and her backhand and serve are good. Her serve is very similar to that of former Shanghai player Xi Minjie, with her right hand hooked back and obvious Shanghai style. In addition, her forehand attack still has a lot of room for improvement. Overall, this player's ability in all aspects is very good. "
In 2006, Cai Zhenhua, who had just been promoted to deputy director of the State Sports General Administration, commented on Yao Yan: "If you train normally, Yao Yan will become a truly excellent athlete in four or five years." .
After Yao Yan entered the national first team, Xu Xin also entered the national first team with him through the weightlifting competition, so it is natural that two former Shanghai teammates meet in China and have more topics.
At the same time, Yao Yan also got to know many players of the women's team. Ding Ning, who is not much different from her age, has become her best friend. She has also established a deep friendship with Zhang Yining, who is already the main force of the No.1 women's team, except her teammates.
Before the World Table Tennis Championships in Zagreb in 2007, Guo Ping held a "through Zagreb" trial, and Yao Yan took part in the third stage with a wild card, and finally won the championship, successfully winning the singles place in Zagreb World Table Tennis Championships.
At the World Table Tennis Championships, Yao Yan's mentality was very peaceful and there was not much pressure. After all, she is only a teenager of 19 years old. In the first two rounds, she beat her opponent 4-0, and in the third round, she beat Lin Ling of China, the former runner-up of the World Table Tennis Championships, by a narrow margin.
However, in the eighth final, Yao Yan met teammate Guo Yue. At that time, although Guo Yue and Yao Yan were the same age, their status and strength in the women's team were completely different. As expected, Yao Yan lost to Guo Yue with 16.
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In the daily life of the national team, Yao Yan and Xu Xin gradually developed feelings, but table tennis has always had strict management rules in China. Xu Xin and Yao Yan are not allowed to fall in love at their age.
At the same time, Yao Yan has become a favorite athlete of many fans because of his figure and face value. This is because Yao Yan is tall and fair-skinned, and because he is from Shanghai, he speaks softly.
But the most important thing is that the World Table Tennis Federation has begun to let women players wear skirts, and it has been the ITTF's wish for many years to let girls wear skirts.
Table tennis is China's national sport, and most of the players who have the opportunity to show it in the international arena are China players, so skirts naturally take the lead in targeting China athletes.
In 2009, Shi Zhihao, then head coach of China women's table tennis, went to the East Asian Games and said, "Wearing skirts can attract people's attention. Tennis has done this, we can try table tennis. " .
Therefore, at the ceremony of the East Asian Games, all the members of the China women's table tennis team changed into dresses, and at the same time, they all wore dresses during the competition.
Yao Yan has become one of the most popular female athletes in East Asia this year, and her voice in table tennis is even higher than that of Japanese "porcelain doll" Fukuhara Ai.
This is not only because Yao Yan won the women's singles championship in this East Asian Games, but more importantly, her new clothes are pure and beautiful, which highlights her slim figure, especially her long legs, and makes her feel soaring.
Yao Yan's height is relatively high in the women's table tennis team. She 1.75 meters, even compared with many boys, is not short, so the skirt she wears is the shortest, but there are leggings in it, otherwise there is a real risk of "running out".
At the World Championships in the same year, Yao Yan also made a history, that is, she met Park Young-sook of South Korea in the first round and was eliminated by the other side, which is rare in the history of table tennis.
After all, all the players who can be selected for the World Championships are excellent players of the national table tennis team, and Yao Yan's reputation in the national table tennis women's team at that time was relatively high.
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The failure had a great impact on Yao Yan. After the game, she left the gym directly without going through the mixed interview channel, hiding in the room and crying alone.
The competition of China table tennis team is very fierce. At that time, the women's group Wang Nan retired. After winning the women's singles title in this World Championships, Zhang Yining basically ended her career by participating in the National Games.
However, there are Guo Yan and Li in the women's team, and teenagers Ding Ning and Liu Ye are ready. Yao Yan's defeat also made her lose the opportunity to compete in many subsequent competitions.
Most importantly, the relationship between Yao Yan and Xu Xin was discovered by the coaching staff in Guo Ping. Generally speaking, coach Guo Ping has three ways to deal with the relationship between male and female players.
The first kind is to break up directly, and the typical representative is Zhang Jike Liu.
The second is that you can not break up, but one party may have to leave the national team and not develop in China. After all, it is already the level of the national team. If you develop in China, you will return to the national team sooner or later, typically Mr. and Mrs. Liu.
The third is that you can still not break up, but one side must retire and the other side will continue to play for the national team. Typical ones are Xin Xu and Yao Yan.
A key factor in the choice was that the women's table tennis team didn't have her position at that time, and Ding Ning and Liu were getting better and better.
And at that time, she and Xu Xin had a very good relationship, and it was impossible for them to break up directly. Another point is that Xu Xin is the best backhand among the young players in the national table tennis men's team, and the coach can't let him retire or play abroad.
Then only Yao Yan can choose. Compared with playing abroad and retiring, Yao Yan chose to retire, so on 20 12, Yao Yan ended his six-year national team career and retired from the national team.
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Yao Yan's retirement is her own choice, but the most important thing is her relationship with Xu Xin. After all, if she didn't fall in love with Xu Xin, she wouldn't choose to retire at the age of 24.
But at this time, she and Xu Xin are just boyfriend and girlfriend, and there is no other constraint between them. We have to say that their feelings are really good.
After retiring, Yao Yan enriched his life by reading, while Xu Xin continued to struggle on the field. Sometimes Yao Yan returned to the national team to train with Xu Xin, and Xu Xin also went to Shanghai to accompany Yao Yan when he was on vacation.
The relationship between the two is not clear to the outside world, only teammates and relatives of the national team know about it. Until 20 16 Rio Olympic Games, China won the men's team championship. When Xu Xin returned to the mixed zone, she couldn't help hugging Yao Yan who had been with her and kissing her deeply.
At this point, their love affair was revealed to the world, and fans who knew their story were very moved. This may be love in two directions.
Shortly after the Olympic Games, Xu Xin sang a song with Aska Yang at the concert of idol Aska Yang. Finally, the camera at the scene was aimed at Yao Yan sitting in the audience.
Everyone realized that something was going to happen. Xu Xin walked up to Yao Yan, got down on one knee and took out the ring that had already been prepared. In the face of this scene that has appeared countless times in the dream, Yao Yan told herself to be calm, but it was still difficult to hide her tears of excitement.
He got married four days after proposing marriage. Xu Xin told everyone that he had failed Yao Yan's trust in him.
On 20 19 and 16, Yao gave birth to the crystallization of her love with Xu Xin, but at this time, Xu Xin was participating in the Asian Championships abroad, and there was no complaint about it. After all, she is also an athlete, so it is difficult to understand the athletes in this situation.
It can be said that at the moment when Yao Yan chose to retire, she knew that this day would come. It can be said that Xu Xin can participate in the competition without any worries because of Yao Yan's support.
These two have known each other since childhood, and the love in two directions is definitely the envy of countless netizens!