------Program code: CC-080325-02757 (what's this?)

Source: CCTV.com

03-25-2008 12:12

In today’s programme, we’ll be meeting some Chinese Olympians from years past. First we’ll talk to the man who, as one of the youngest-ever coaches of the national men’s table-tennis team, found himself in charge of several former team-mates; then we’ll meet the woman who last year became the first-ever Chinese winner of the London marathon; after that we’ll talk to the first Hong Kong rider to win a major international road cycling championship; and finally, we’ll discover how one young woman combines two seemingly very different talents – playing basketball and playing the piano.

Liu Guoliang was born in 1976, in Xinxiang, Henan Province. He started playing table-tennis when he was just six. He was selected for the national team as a 15-year-old, in 1991. He enjoyed a brilliant career, becoming the first Chinese table-tennis player to achieve a clean sweep of all the major international championships. But when he turned to coaching, he found himself facing some unaccustomed difficulties.