[Ricordami]Xiao Dai was the first Taiwanese women’s singles player before! She touched countless fans with “one foot to win the championship” – Dynamic Chi

In recent years Taiwanese badminton has excelled in various international competitions. In addition to several well-known Olympic-level players, there are also many other young players who have won medals at all levels of the Badminton World Federation (BWF). When it comes to badminton players, especially women’s singles, I believe almost everyone who comes to mind is “Little Dai” Tai Tzu-ying. However, during the Eastern Olympics last year, some netizens posted on PTT to discuss today’s protagonist. Zheng Shaojie, the “Spirit of Badminton”.

Zheng Shaojie, born in 1986, grew up in a badminton family. Her father was the coach of the badminton team at Elementary School, a famous badminton school at the time. However, she Zheng Shaojie never forced her children to play badminton. because she Zheng Shaojie learned the game of badminton as a child. For fun, so I learned from my father since I was a child. With badminton genes and talent, she was promoted to Group A when she was in fifth grade and became the youngest ball in the country at age 17 in the 2003 National Badminton Ranking Tournament. With a short stature of only 158 cm, he is still as flexible as an elf flying on the court, so he won the title of “Badminton Spirit”.

In 2004, under the age of 18, Zheng Shaojie attended the Olympic party for the first time in his career, defeating then-Korean sister Quan Zaijuan in the second round, and finally taking fifth place at the Athens Olympics, setting the record for Taiwan best in badminton Olympic event. Subsequently, she also rose to her world rankings to 19. In the same year, she won Taiwan’s first gold medal in women’s singles at the World Youth Badminton Championships. Not only that, she has also competed in mixed doubles and team events. And she won 3rd and 4th place respectively. At that time, she wrote Taiwan’s best result in the World Youth Championships. In addition, Zheng Shaojie first participated in the Badminton World Championships in 2005 and won the bronze medal all the way.

After becoming famous in a short period of time, the expectations of the fans, the responsibility of conquering glory for the country and the unyielding personality of Zheng Shaojie, made her accumulate a lot of pressure subconsciously. At the same time, she was also trapped by a knee injury in 2006. The physical and psychological effects of her made her performance not as good as she was before.

She, who was highly anticipated before the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, faced Xie Xingfang in the first round and was eliminated, which made her very frustrated and fell into a low ebb. She didn’t even touch the ball for a while, but there was a phrase that she went ahead of her, encouraging her in her ear saying that “opportunities are not reserved only for those who are ready, but also for those who are not. surrenders “.

After experiencing a low ebb, Zheng Shaojie gave herself the opportunity to start over and changed her attitude towards the game to become more enjoyable at the time of the match.No matter who the opponent is, it is the most important thing to play every ball well and play happily. In 2009, at the age of 23, she became the first Taiwanese ball at the Taipei Badminton Open, but what impressed fans the most must have been her fighting performance in the 2010 Taipei Badminton Open Championship the following year.

At that moment, Zheng Shaojie, who was about to win the second consecutive championship, faced the famous South Korean player Pei Sheng in the championship match. The two fought for a draw in the first two rounds. However, in the decisive, crucial turn, she suffered a relapse of her knee injury, which also caused her to walk the same way.A crutch, every time she scored a point, saw a painful expression on her face, but even so , he insisted on continuing the game. When the score came at 13:17 behind, she scored 8 points in a drama series to reverse the throne after successfully winning and defending the ball. When she won the game, she was exhausted and fell to the ground. She had to rely on the support of her sister and the coach to leave the pitch. This scene moved the audience and became one of her most iconic battles.

👉Good motivational health is here again! What don’t you know yet?

The following year, Zheng Shaojie refreshed his previous successes at the 2011 World Championships and won the silver medal, which is also the best result of Taiwanese local players. The last silver medal in Taiwan’s history was won by Chen Feng, a naturalized Indonesian player, in the men’s singles in 1999, and this best result was not equalized by Tai Tzu-ying until 2021. In the same year he also won gold, silver and bronze in the three events of women’s singles, women’s doubles and mixed teams at the World University Games. Interestingly, Zheng Shaojie’s partner in women’s doubles, Bai Xiaoma, is her in doubles. women The single championship opponent and her world rankings also reached number 7 in her career that year.

In 2012, Zheng Shaojie, who was only 26, participated in the Olympic Games for the third time, but his results at the London Olympics stopped in the top 8. After that, he underwent surgery for hernia, knee and other injuries. Although she still occasionally participated in competitions, her body had not fully recovered, so her results were not ideal. In 2015, she passed away from badminton due to her recurring right knee injury.

After retirement, Zheng Shaojie is very discreet and rarely attends public events. In 2017 she went to Taitung to open a breakfast restaurant and enjoy a slow paced life. According to reports from people in the badminton industry, Zheng Shaojie has now returned home to help and take over the home sports equipment business.

And her last public appearance was three years ago at the 2019 Sports Elite Awards ceremony. At that time, she was invited to present the Best Female Athlete Outstanding Award. During the ceremony, he also encouraged the new generations: “If you like this, then enjoy the moment, do not leave any regrets, even if you withdraw or cannot walk into the future, you will still be very moved when you think about the struggles of those years. “.

👉Good motivational health is here again! What don’t you know yet?

When Zheng Shaojie said this, she herself was a little choked, I think as she said, whether it’s about herself or the fans, as long as she remembers the aspect where she played hard on the pitch, she will still be moved. That’s why fans continue to argue and miss him.

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