by Simon Daish

Following her late notice withdrawal from the Seamaster 2016 Women’s World Cup which was hosted in Philadelphia, USA Liu Shiwen was handed an international suspension from the Chinese national team and as a consequence she missed out on participating at the Seamaster Qatar 2016 World Tour Grand Finals in Doha.

However, in January of this year Kong Linghui announced that Liu Shiwen’s suspension had been brought to a close and in a Sina Sports report Liu Shiwen spoke briefly about her absence from the international scene and her motivations moving forward.

“These few years I have endured a lot and put in a lot, for my dream (to win an Olympic Singles Gold), I have to fight it out during this Olympic cycle”, Liu Shiwen.

Further on in the interview Liu Shiwen touched upon the importance of the Chinese national team to her, and how she believes that the honour of representing China could not be matched if she were to ever play for a another nation instead.

“I have never thought of leaving China to play for another country. I would rather quit playing table tennis than to do that. To me, even if I win Gold representing another country, it’s meaningless to me, and I won’t feel happy about it. I think I will only find value in myself representing the Chinese team and accomplishing my dream under this kind of competition level”, Liu Shiwen.

Despite being unranked on the ITTF World Rankings table for April 2017, Liu Shiwen has enjoyed a mixed level of success so far in 2017.

She booked her spot at the Liebherr 2017 World Championships with a positive finish at the Marvellous 12 competition in early March before reaching the Women’s Singles semi-finals at the 2017 Asian Championships in April.