Tania Zeng (57 years, Foshan, China) is a woman who, when he speaks, laughs. And when he laughs, laugh strong. He receives El País a rainy Friday in Santiago, Chile. It is 11 in the morning and has just finished training with the Chilean table tennis team at the National Olympic Training Center, in the Ñuñoa commune. Before the interview, he puts on his red jacket, typical of the national teams and her husband, Arturo Aravena, fixes the neck of his shirt.
The table tennis player captured the attention and, also the heart, of the Chileans by representing the country at the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games. In her first match of the individual competition she defeated the Dominican Eva Brito, born in 1995, tracing a score of 2-0. In the second round, he lost to the American Lily Ann Zhang. In group competition, along with Paulina Vega and Daniela Ortega, she won the bronze medal.
In Santiago 2023 he was the oldest athlete of the National Delegation and, despite having arrived from China at 22, he felt like one more Chilean. On May 18, in the pre -Olympic table tennis tennis played in Lima, he obtained the classification to the Paris Olympic Games and will become the longest athlete that represents Chile in this competition.
On June 29 he travels to Portugal to train prior to the world event, as he has done since his life began as a high performance athlete in 2019, and does not go alone. Her husband, 68, and already retired, follows her: “As marriage we are having a great time and I feel very relaxed to be accompanied by Arturo to the competitions, because she worries about the suitcases, the schedules, of everything,” he says about the man with whom he has been married for 30 years.
Zhiying Zeng was born in the city of Foshan, in the province of Canton, in southern China, on July 17, 1966. From the age of nine to 21 he played table tennis competitively. His mother, who died in 1995, was coach of this sport.
In 1989, Zeng received an offer from an Arica table tennis club, at the northern end of Chile, to train school -age children. With a Spaniard who was difficult to understand, he presented himself: “Hello, I'm Zhiying Zeng.” Confused eyes looked at her and knew that another name was necessary and adopted that of Tania: “Zhiying was a difficult name to remember, even if he repeated one, two or three times, but Tania everyone remembers,” he says. Her husband jokes, and says that Tania is her artistic name.
His work as a coach was only during the afternoons and, for a 22 -year -old girl, the days were slow: “I started touring the city, to meet many Chinese merchants and they asked me why don't you dedicate yourself to commerce?” After a year and a half as a coach, in Arica opened a underwear that later complemented with hardware stores. In 2005 he moved to Iquique – also in the north of the country – and with his only brother, newcomer in Chile, they opened an office furniture store. Between the hustle and bustle of the commercial world and their family life with two children, the table tennis pallets were left behind. In that movement here, the pandemic found it.
In 2020 and 2021, some reopened the puzzle boxes, others accompanied the hours with wool and sticks, and many others occupied their hands to knead the bread. Tania Zeng returned to table tennis. She, an active woman – her husband loves going out to walk daily through the beach of Iquique – did not look sitting.
“I did not play for 30 years and, in Pandemia, I wanted to move and started playing table tennis at my home to do some exercise. And then I said: 'This is mine,” he tells about his return to the sport. After the quarantines, he went to play a club in Iquique: “I entered to have fun, but I never thought about high performance. I was traveling with my husband and my children to the championships and had a great time. I started winning one glass, then another cup and then another cup.”
With his children already educated, one is a lawyer and the other commercial engineer, Zeng entered the high performance sport and could show that potential he always had and that, close to 60 years, he still has. The family business delegated it to his lifetime workers and his brother who from China, where he returned to take care of his 92 -year -old, manages the stock of the store. “I have three people who have worked with me 20 years ago. If there is a small problem, they take care and I am calm.” Neither her employees, nor her suppliers, nor the people who attended her at the bank knew that she played table tennis so well.
Those who are also surprised and see it with other eyes, are their children: “They really feel proud of their mother. Before they always told me 'mom I love you' but now, with the achievements I have had, I feel that they look at me with admiration,” adds Zeng.
The age was doubts, he says: “At first I had fear because I was 56 years old, but when I entered the national team I saw that my body responded well, I could train every day without any problem and then I left the age aside (…) I feel strong, I have some injuries typical of age, but they are mild.” The goals he has in sport also help her overcome: “I have always been climbing little by little and that keeps me strongly and motivated.”
In the Ñuñoa Olympic Center he talks with all those who arrive at the gym, mostly young people between 15 and 25 years: “The relationship with youth has been super good, when training treats me as an equal, they do not say 'care with her that she is older' and on the court they also look at me as a competition.”
High performance sport came with a fans who was not expected, something that lived with special emotion in the Pan American Games last year: “You feel very loved, people motivate you in the games, follow you, ask you photos. All that for me, having achieved that great affection at my age, it is a lot (…) I feel that in Chile it has given me so much, it has given me many opportunities, I gave me a family, a life and now give me a life. Chilean more because I have everything here.
Wait for the Olympic Games happy and prepared: “I dream of winning the first round. If that comes true, I hope you can climb and win the second and the third.”
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