時尚雙語:美國奧運乒乓代表隊的中國球員 回祖國備戰奧運

Inside a massive building on a university campus, 20 Ping-Pong tables stretch across a hardwood floor. There are locker rooms, showers and a coach's office, and guests have to remove their shoes before entering. The great hall clicks and clacks -- all day long and often until dark -- with children, teenagers and adults who dedicate hours to training.

Gao Jun, a U.S. table tennis player and former Gaithersburg resident, practices in that building. But the facility is not located in Maryland or even the United States; the U.S. team doesn't have a national training complex. Gao, 39, lives and trains full time in China.

For the first time, Coach Doru Gheorghe said, the U.S. table tennis team is composed entirely of China-born athletes. So when it came to training for these Olympics, many of them decided to return home.

"They keep training in China because they realize these are [better] options than they have in the U.S.," Gheorghe said. "This is a special case; they want to train hard. They understand they have to go to China and sacrifice and train all year long. Usually, if the athletes believe they don't have a good chance, they won't go to China. These girls, they want to play well and do the best they can."

U.S. women's player Crystal Huang recently joined Gao in China. Their U.S. teammate, Wang Chen, also has trained in China in anticipation for the Olympics. The lone U.S. men's player, David Zhuang, is 44 years old, married, has two girls and lives in suburban New Jersey, but even he has taken time over the past year to practice in Beijing.

In the United States, table tennis is Ping-Pong, a hobby sport often relegated to suburban basements. In China, Gao and her teammates returned to a table tennis haven: palatial facilities that double as shrines to the sport, all filled with training partners capable of making them sweat through an extended volley.

"That's the best way to make me have the good performance," said Gao, who is 25th in the latest world rankings. "If you want the best results, China is the place for the players to train."

Gao grew up in Baoding, China, where she practiced table tennis for five hours every afternoon. She outpaced her grade school of 1,000, defeated competition from throughout Hebei province and eventually earned an invitation to start training in Beijing with the national team.

She rose to near the top of the world table tennis rankings. Shoppers noticed her in stores and people stared as she walked through the streets. She appeared regularly on television. Gao won silver in women's doubles at the 1992 Olympics but soon afterward decided to step away from the sport.

She moved to Gaithersburg in 1994. It took only three years before she returned to table tennis and, as a U.S. citizen, ended up joining the U.S. team in 1997.

But for the past few years, Gao has lived at East China University of Science and Technology, where she has studied economics and practices four hours daily. She resides with some of the world's best table tennis players and walks less than five minutes from her dorm to practice against them.

"If I want to play good, I have to go to China to train," Gao said. "In U.S., nobody was training with me. Nobody practiced with me. In the U.S., there's not many good players. We have some, but we don't live together, so it's very hard for us to train in the U.S."

USA Table Tennis is in flux, with its board of directors recently pared from 14 to nine members and its chief executive officer serving on an interim basis. Because there is no central training facility, players are left to practice overseas or at one of the nation's 260 table tennis clubs.

"That's one of the arguments, that we need to develop our kids, identify them at an early age, make sure they have the right training and right competition and make sure they go to school," said Mike Cavanaugh, interim CEO of USA Table Tennis.

Practice abroad has been a boon for the U.S. team, especially Gao. Working against dozens of highly skilled players has sharpened Gao's game, a unique style that keeps her cozy up against the table. She is all finesse, employing wide-angle and drop shots and forcing her opponents into movement.

With nine days before Opening Ceremonies, Gao still is readying for the Games. And she's doing it not in the United States but in China, in a facility filled with the world's top players.
"They need to go where the partners are," Gheorghe said. "It's cheaper than to bring the partners here."

在一所大學校園裏的一座大型建築物內，硬木地板上四處排放着20臺乒乓球桌。這裏有更衣室，浴室和一間教練員辦公室，客人們進來前要脫下鞋子。由於有很多小孩子，青少年和成年人來這裏練球，而且一練就是幾個小時，大廳裏乒乒乓乓的聲音會持續一整天而且通常直到天黑。

高軍（Gao Jun）是美國乒乓球選手，以前住在蓋瑟斯堡，目前就在這個建築裏訓練。但是這個訓練場並不位於馬里蘭州，甚至也不在美國；美國國家乒乓球隊沒有自己的訓練基地。39歲的高軍全天候吃住和訓練在中國。

教練多魯.喬戈（Doru Gheorghe）說，美國乒乓球隊頭一次完全由在中國出生的運動員組成。所以考慮此次奧運會的訓練時，他們中的很多人決定回到祖國去。

“她們堅持在中國訓練是因爲他們知道在這裏比在美國有更好的機會，”喬戈說道。“這是一個特例，她們想要更艱苦的訓練。她們懂得必須去中國，做出犧牲去訓練整整一年。通常來說，如果這些運動員認爲自己機會不多，是不會去中國的。這些姑娘們確實想要打好比賽，並且全力以赴。”

美國女子選手黃瑤西（Crystal Huang）前些日子也來到中國和高軍會合。她們的隊友王晨（Wang Chen）也在中國受訓，期待着奧運會上有所作爲。美國唯一的男子選手莊永祥（David Zhuang）今年44歲，已婚而且是兩個女兒的父親，家在新澤西的郊區。就連他也在去年抽出時間到北京訓練。

在美國，乒乓球是一項普通愛好，人們只在不起眼的地下室裏隨便玩玩。在中國，高軍和隊友們則回到了乒乓球運動的天堂：很多訓練設施都寬敞明亮，像是一座座乒乓球的聖殿。所有這些場地裏都有高水平的陪練，能和她們奮力拼殺很多回合。

“這是讓我打出成績最好的辦法，”高軍這位最新世界排名第25位的選手談到。“如果想要最好的成績，選手們應該來中國培訓。”

高軍在中國保定長大，那時她每天下午都要練習五個小時的乒乓球。上小學時，她從1000多名學生中脫穎而出，後來拿到了河北省冠軍，並最終被國家隊選中到北京開始集訓。

她的名次逐漸上升，一度接近乒乓球世界排名首位。逛商場時有人認出她來，走在街道上也有人盯着她看。她經常上電視。1992年奧運會上高軍贏得女子雙打銀牌，不過那以後她決定退役。

1994年她到蓋瑟斯堡定居。僅僅過了三年，她又揮舞起球拍，直到作爲美國公民於1997年加入美國隊。

但是在過去幾年裏，高軍一直住在華東科技大學，在那裏學習經濟並堅持每天練球四個小時。她和一些世界上最好的乒乓球手住在一起，只需不到五分鐘就可以從宿舍走到訓練場地和那些好手們一起練球。

“如果我想打得好，就必須去中國訓練，”高軍這樣說。“在美國，沒有人和我一道訓練，也找不到人陪練。在美國，好的球手不多。我們有些好手，可是都不住在一起，所以在美國訓練很難。”

美國乒乓球理事會正處於低谷，前一陣理事會的成員由14位縮減到現在的9位，首席執行官也採用臨時管理的方式。由於沒有集中訓練設施，選手們只好到海外訓練，否則只能在全國260家乒乓球俱樂部裏訓練。

“這是爭論的焦點之一，有人提出我們需要培養自己的孩子，從中及早發現好苗子，並保證他們得到良好的訓練，多打一些有益的比賽，也要保證他們的學校教育。”美國乒乓球理事會臨時CEO邁克.卡凡諾（Mike Cavanaugh）說道。

到國外訓練對美國隊來說是件好事，對高軍更是如此。通過與幾十位高手過招，高軍的打法變得更加犀利，這種打法很特別，可以讓她穩穩地站在臺前。她手法高超，利用大角度斜線球和扣殺迫使對手疲於奔命。

隨着奧運開幕僅剩九天，高軍還在爲比賽做着準備。而且她不是在美國，而是在中國一個滿是世界頂級選手的訓練場裏做着準備。

“她們需要找有陪練的地方，”喬戈說。“這比帶陪練過來要便宜得多。”