61 year old Ni Xialian, the oldest table tennis player, has never felt out of place in Paris.
This former Chinese world champion, now representing Luxembourg, skillfully utilized his advantage and jumped agilely to ease his emotions when he lost a point. He gave his all in the competition against his young opponent from his homeland, 23-year-old Sun Yingsha. Sun Yingsha, like Ni, did not conceal her skills in Wednesday's round of 16 final.
After losing 0-4 to the current world number one in her sixth Olympic appearance, Ni expressed her heartfelt gratitude to the audience present and said in a post match interview that her dream had come true. She wanted to participate in the Olympics again and compete with this world-class athlete.