"乒乓女皇"邓亚萍访谈

Interview with Deng Yaping

AR: All the training did pay off in the end, but when you at the very top of your career you're 24 years old, you decide to pack it all in. A lot of people were surprised you chose then to retire. Why did you make that decision right then?

DY: Yeah, you're right. It is surprised for most people. I think actually the two most important reasons. The first reason, I got a number of injuries since I was 5 till 24 years old. So 19 years of training I got a number of injuries. And I think for the elite athletes, one day you have to retire, whether early or later you have to retire. So I think that is also the reason why I wanted to retire from table tennis and move to next career. So I think it's a good timing to move, and so I went to the Tsinghua University in China and went to Nottingham University and got my master degree and now doing PhD in Cambridge.

AR: We do hear about some sad stories about athletes who have basically retired, they're basically left on the scrapes straight afterwards. Really highlighted recently by the case of Ai Dong Mei? Who's a champion marathon runner and she had to sell her medals so she could feed her family. Just trying to grasp that concept. Put yourself in the position of Ai Dong Mei. What would it mean to you, if you ended up in such a situation where you had to sell your medals?

DY: This case not only in China, this case, this issue all over the world. Yeah, because in the IUC commission, we always have this discussion about retired athletes, how to move, how to have a good transition. Once you wanted to become elite athletes, and from that time, you have to think in one day when you retired what going to do. So you have to think ahead, rather than "Oh, tomorrow I'm retired. What am I going to do?" no, that is too short. Because we have such a special group of people and we play along, we play a competition, national, international, and you only concentrate on sports, so you definitely miss a lot of opportunity to study, to have a high education. But what kind of an advantage do you have? So we have to think about it. For example, in China, lin lin, you know? Probably you know is a very successful businessman. Also he is the Olympic gold winner. But why he can do that?

AR: You've got a great job now as deputy director of the Olympic Village here in Beijing. Tell us how preparations have been going. You're not worried about any of it?

DY: You know, the worry is useless. You have to work day by day, work piece by piece, and finally you know how will be. So how can you worry about it? So everything is according to the plan. We work and then concentrate to working very hard to the plan, so I think the confidence based on those plans and smoothly going.

AR: Yaping, thank you very much indeed for your time today. And that brings us to the end of this edition of Talk Asia. My guest today has been the four-time Olympic Gold medal winner and the deputy director of the Olympic Village here in Beijing ahead of the 2008 Games, Deng Yaping. I'm Anjali Rao and I'll see you again soon.