Chile's "table tennis grandma", Zhiying Zeng, 58, is training for the Paris Olympics at Portugal’s world-class table tennis training facility Monday to Friday, three hours a day. While her Olympic dream began decades ago in China, where she was born, it wasn’t until this May that she secured her spot in Paris by finishing in the top eight in the Americas region. By 2023, she qualified for a spot on Chile’s national team, winning first place in the Sudamericanos 2023 and bronze in the 2023 Pan-American as part of the Chilean women's team and qualifying to represent Chile in the singles. She has lived in Chile since 1989 when a Chinese coach offered her a job coaching schoolchildren and emerged as a national hero when Chile hosted the Pan-American Games in 2023.
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