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Deng Yaping
is not a household name in England, but in her home country of China
she was voted Female Athlete of the Century.
Her prize
was a statue of a golden dragon weighing one kilogramme and
valued at more than £10,000.
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| Deng
Yaping |
Deng's accomplishments
make a long and impressive list: four-time Olympic champion
in table tennis, twice in singles at Barcelona and Atlanta,
and twice in doubles with her Chinese partner Hong Qiao, also
in 1992 and 1996.
She has
a total of 18 world and Olympics championships to her credit
in a career that only ended after the Atlanta games. She was
ranked the number one player in women's table tennis in the
world from 1993-98.
Recently
she attended the Sydney Olympics as a member of the International
Olympic Committee's athletes commission, where she ran in the
first election to choose an IOC athletes commission.
Although
she was not successful in her bid to be elected to the IOC's
athlete's commission for another term, she was recently re-appointed
to a seat by the President of the IOC, Juan Antonio Samaranch.
So what
brought her to the University of Nottingham? She was offered
a scholarship to study at the Centre for English Language Education
while at the prestigious Qinghua University in Beijing.
Her English
has improved leaps and bounds as she moves around the university,
helps with coaching of the English national table tennis team,
and travels to events and conferences around the world.
She plans
to return to Qinghua University in the spring to finish her
English degree there. She says
she has enjoyed her time in the city enormously and hopes to
return to the University of Nottingham for further study.
Learn about a Nottingham
Trent University high flyer or designer
Billie Tuttle or photographic
wonder Ikuko.
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18 times world
champion in table tennis