NI Xia Lian

Grip
Penhold (ITTF, 02 Aug 2016)

Style of play
Attack (ITTF, 02 Aug 2016)

General
FROM THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA TO LUXEMBOURG
Born and raised in Shanghai, People's Republic of China, she moved to Beijing as a child to continue her table tennis development. She made the Chinese national team in 1979 at age 16, and won two gold medals at the 1983 World Championships in Tokyo, Japan, but left the team in 1986. "In China there was a very high level of competition. I wanted to go study, I didn't want to waste time on table tennis." She moved to Germany in 1989, and settled in Luxembourg two years later, where she gained citizenship. "I came to Luxembourg, but I never thought, 'I want to play in the Olympics'. It was my goal at one time, but I never thought I could make it. Luxembourg wanted me to coach and I was 26 at the time. Then they realised I could play, and I too realised I could still play, so I just continued and after 10 years I was really good." She has represented Luxembourg at the 2000, 2008, 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games. (olympicchannel.com, 04 Sep 2019; sportskeeda.com, 27 Nov 2015; ittf.com, 01 Feb 2019; SportsDeskOnline, 20 May 2020)

EXPERIENCED COMPETITOR
Speaking in 2019, at age 55, she said that although there are disadvantages to being considerably older than most of her opponents, she believes her experience is a valuable asset in matches. "You have injuries, you tire easily and don't recover easily. But with age, you have an advantage. You have to find [it], focus on what you can do and what you have. I am short, I am old, I have an old-fashioned style of playing, but I believe I have a good attitude, which helped me to get this far." (eurolympic.org, 30 Jun 2019; olympicchannel.com, 04 Sep 2019)

RECORD MATCH
Her match against Japanese player Honoka Hashimoto at the 2017 Austrian Open lasted for one hour, 33 minutes and 42 seconds. After Ni eventually won the contest, the International Table Tennis Federation [ITTF] declared the match to have been the longest in the history of modern professional table tennis. "I am really speechless. It was an unforgettable match and wonderful to win. I had so many match points but apparently I lacked the necessary experience. You're never too old to learn something. I had to learn to be patient in this match." (lessentiel.lu, 22 Sep 2017; scmp.com, 22 Sep 2017)

OCCUPATION
She manages a hotel in Luxembourg along with her husband Tommy Danielsson. (tokyo2020.org, 16 Dec 2020)

She became the first female athlete to represent Luxembourg in any sport at four Olympic Games, when she competed at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro after appearances in 2000, 2008 and 2012. (SportsDeskOnline, 01 Dec 2020)

At the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing she became the first table tennis player to represent Luxembourg in the sport at more than one Olympic Games. She would go on to become the first table tennis player representing Luxembourg to compete in the sport at three [2012] and four [2016] Games. (SportsDeskOnline, 01 Dec 2020)

At the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney she and doubles partner Peggy Regenwetter became the first athletes to represent Luxembourg in table tennis at an Olympic Games. She also became the first table tennis player to represent Luxembourg in the singles event at an Olympic Games when she took part in the 2000 Games. (SportsDeskOnline, 01 Dec 2020)

She became the first athlete representing Luxembourg to win a medal at the European Games when she claimed bronze in singles at the 2019 edition in Minsk, Belarus. (SportsDeskOnline, 20 Aug 2019; chronicle.lu, 27 Jun 2019; gouvernement.lu, 26 Jun 2019)