Recently, China's authoritative media, Xinhua News Agency, officially announced the list of the top ten athletes of the year. Among them, veteran table tennis Olympic champion Ma Long is included in the list. Additionally, Quan Hongchan and Pan Zhanle are also featured on the list. Surprisingly, Sun Yingsha was not selected, which is slightly regrettable!
The list of the top ten athletes published by Xinhua News Agency includes a total of 10 athletes, but only one athlete is listed for each sport. Among them, there are 8 Olympic champions, another athlete is a world champion, and one project is a collective award. These 8 athletes are table tennis Olympic champion Ma Long, women's freestyle BMX park Olympic champion Deng Yawen, women's 10-meter platform Olympic champion Quan Hongchan, women's tennis Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen, women's 20km race walk Olympic champion Yang Jiayu, 10m air rifle Olympic champion Sheng Lihao, swimming Olympic champion Pan Zhanle, and Paralympic champion Jiang Yuyan. A world champion is 15-year-old Deng Zhixuan, who won 2 gold medals at the World Tai Chi Championships. The winning collective project is the Chinese artistic gymnastics team. Because this year is an Olympic year, most of the athletes come from Olympic competition projects.
The election of Olympic champion Ma Long is not surprising. As the only double Grand Slam winner in the world table tennis arena, 36-year-old Ma Long participated in the Olympics this year and helped the Chinese table tennis team successfully defend their men's team championship. With 6 Olympic gold medals, Ma Long has become the athlete with the most Olympic gold medals in the world table tennis arena. Although Ma Long is gradually retiring from the court, his influence remains strong. He recently accepted an invitation to participate in the Old Vase Cup in Europe and even went to the United States recently.
Sun Yingsha's omission may be related to her failure to win the women's singles title at the Paris Olympics. Sun Yingsha has always had a good reputation. Not long ago, a platform voted for the best female athlete, and Sun Yingsha led the votes in a landslide. At one point, the combined votes of all other athletes did not match Sun Yingsha's. In the past year, Sun Yingsha has won 14 gold medals. She has been ranked first in the world for 29 consecutive weeks, with a single-season win rate as high as 91.18%. By the end of this year, Sun Yingsha still holds the highest score and firmly sits atop the world rankings, which is her 127th week at number one. Her performance is really excellent.
A new Olympic cycle has begun, and the challenges facing Sun Yingsha are growing. First, the challenge from opponents. Whether it's teammates or players from other associations, they will all be opponents when facing each other across the net. Second, Sun Yingsha also needs to overcome psychological barriers! It is indeed regrettable that she narrowly missed the singles gold medal at two consecutive Olympics! Sun Yingsha needs to make her heart stronger! Looking forward to more exciting performances from Sun Yingsha in the upcoming competitions!