Deng Yaping

Deng Yaping is a Chinese table tennis player, who won six world championships and four championships between 1989 and 1997. She is regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport.

Career

Deng began playing table tennis at age five, and four years later she won her provincial junior championship. She was age 13 when she won her first national championship.

Despite her success, she was initially denied a spot on the national team because she was so short . Her talent, however, could not be denied, and she was finally included on the national team in 1988. She teamed with Qiao Hong to win her first world championship title in the women's doubles competition in 1989. Two years later in 1991, Deng won her first singles world championship.

At the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, she won a gold medal in both the singles and doubles competitions and repeated the feat at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. She also earned singles and doubles titles at the 1995 and 1997 world championships.

When she retired at the age of 24, she had won more titles than any other player in the sport, including four gold medals, and had been 18 times world champion in table tennis. From 1990 to 1997, she retained the title of world No. 1 ranked female table tennis player for 8 years. She was voted Chinese female athlete of the century, and joined the International Table Tennis Federation Hall of Fame in 2003.

Successes

40th Table Tennis World Championship Women's Double Gold.
1st Table Tennis World Cup Women's Team Gold.
41st Table Tennis World Championship Women's Single Gold, Women's Double Gold.
2nd Table Tennis World Cup Women's Team Gold, Women's Double Gold.
25th Olympic Games Table Tennis Women's Single Gold, Women's Double Gold.
42nd Table Tennis World Championship Women's Team Gold, Women's Double Silver.
43rd Table Tennis World Championship Women's Team Gold, Women's Single Gold, Women's Double Gold, Mixed Double Silver.
4th Table Tennis World Cup Women's Team Gold
26th Olympic Games Table Tennis Women's Single Gold, Women's Double Gold.
44th Table Tennis World Championship Women's Team Gold, Women's Single Gold, Women's Double Gold, Mixed Double Silver.

Life after retirement

After retiring at the end of the 1997 season, Deng served on the International Olympic Committee's ethics and athletes commissions. She is also a member of the elite Laureus World Sports Academy, and a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

She gained a bachelor's degree from Tsinghua University, a master's degree from the University of Nottingham, and as of March 2006, was continuing to study for a PhD. in Land Economy at the University of Cambridge . Her research work coincides with her professional focus on the marketing, management and development of the as a member of the Beijing Organizing Committee.

In 2007, she married Lin Zhigang, also a table tennis player, and later gave birth to a baby boy.