Deng Yaping Winning the Bid for China

About Deng Yaping

Deng Yaping won four gold medals in two successive Olympic Games in 1992 and 1996. She was presented one gold medal by Juan Antonio Samaranch in Atlanta at the 1996 Olympic Games.

Deng has studied at Tsinghua University and University of Nottingham, receiving a bachelor's degree in English Language and Literature and a master's degree in Contemporary Era of China.

In 2003, Deng began doctoral studies at Cambridge University, with a research emphasis on Olympic Branding. She is now the deputy director in charge of the management of the Olympic Village.

 

Deng, a four-time gold medallist in table tennis at the Olympic Games, is now responsible for the management of the Olympic Village in Beijing. Deng shares her experiences during Beijing's two bids for the Olympic Games.

 

Beijing 2008: You chose to retire when your sports career was at its peak. Why did you make the decision to quit and to go back to school?

Deng Yaping: After being an athlete for a long time, I had suffered many injuries. I had to think carefully about my future life. Actually, there are very limited things one can do as a retired athlete if they don’t choose to be a coach. I thought a lot, and decided to go on to further study. It happened that at the time the Chinese Olympic Committee had recommended me to a member position on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Athletes Commission, which made me more determined that I needed to learn more.

Did you realize how difficult it would be?

When I first studied at Tsinghua University, it was very stressful, because all the students there were very talented. Fortunately my former experience as an athlete gave me a strong will. I asked my teachers to be more patient when I fell behind others. I couldn’t even remember all the 26 English letters at the beginning.

Now you can communicate with foreign journalists without the help of interpreters.

It’s true, thanks to the hard work at school. I felt quite lonely and it was difficult then, but the long training as an athlete helped me to make it. I can still remember what my teacher said to me when I graduated from the University of Nottingham. He was shocked that I could get my degree in such a short time.

You participated in the two bids for the Olympic Games. How did you feel?

I had just begun my additional studies when I was told to say a few words on behalf of Chinese athletes in the last statement during the bidding for the 2000 Olympic Games in 1993. It was about one month before the statement was to be made, and I was very nervous, since I could hardly speak English at all.

Do you still remember what you said?

Not really. Liu Beisi from the Beijing Bidding Committee for the 2000 Olympic Games wrote the words for me and taught me pronunciation. I forced myself to memorize it word by word. I was too nervous to fall asleep the night before the bid, as I knew that if I forgot, I couldn’t even read the words on the paper. However, I managed to calm down, like when I was competing at sport events, and I made it.

What was your reaction when China failed in the first bid?

We were looking at each other and didn’t know what to say. It was really sad. We worked really hard, but we failed. Many Chinese cried. The more impressive thing was we won in the second bid, and we cried as we were too happy. I can still remember the scene. 

Did you feel very confident in the second bid?

I felt that the whole team, including me, was very confident, as we had studied all the details we needed to pay attention to, and the IOC officials were touched by us. According to IOC regulations, the officials couldn’t go to the bidding cities before the host city was selected. It was not good for Beijing, as many of them hadn’t been to Beijing before and didn't know much about the city.

One thing was very impressive. One official directly told us that he wouldn’t vote for Beijing. Though we were shocked, we thought it understandable and still met him to visit China. Later when he visited Guangzhou, we welcomed him at the airport and helped him take care of some trivial things, which left him with a deep impression. He was very surprised at everything he saw in China, which was totally different from what he had thought.

After the failure of the first bid, how were the preparations for the second attempt developed?

It was very hard, and no one was thinking about themselves. My job was to communicate with the 11 members of the IOC Athletes Commission, most of who were in Europe. So I had to shuttle between different countries. I once flew round-trip between Los Angles and China in three days. Many people on the team had even heavier tasks, but nobody complained. We felt it was our responsibility.  

We heard that you wrote the speech of the second bid by yourself.

Yes. And I can still remember part of it. With the first bid experience, we paid great attention to every detail in our preparations. To better reflect the real feelings of Chinese athletes, the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Bidding Committee asked me to write the speech by myself.

Many regarded your speech as the most personal one. It must have taken you a lot of time to prepare.

It was just a two-minute speech, but I revised it many times until finally got it right.

"Today, we are here representing China’s athletes and the 400 million Chinese young people...Let me share with you an experience I had when I joined the torch relay in Sydney. People were cheering and laughing with great joy. A little boy came up to me. His eyes lit up when he touched the torch. I felt at that moment his life was changed. How wonderful it would be if the Olympic flame could come to China and light up the hearts of all Chinese young people." This is part of your speech. Your English was already very good then.

Yes, and I was very proud of that. People like Yang Lan and He Zhenliang were surprised at my progress. What made me much happier was that we finally won the bid. Our efforts were not in vain. It was our great passion that moved the world. It was totally different from an athlete or a team winning a competition. It was not just a sport victory: it was more than that.

What is the focus of your current work as the deputy director in charge of the management of the Olympic Village?

Winning the bid was a first step; more important was how to honour our promises. We had to ensure that everything here met IOC requirements, while trying to save as much money as possible. In addition, we adhered to the principle of holding two Games [the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games] with equal splendour in the construction of the village, which will be open on July 20, 2008.