By Ben Cohen and Joshua Robinson
July 30, 2024
As she unzipped her jacket, adjusted her knee strap and began stretching for her first table-tennis match of this Olympics, an odd sensation came over the most unlikely player on the floor.
Suddenly, Ni Xia Lian felt nervous.
It was strange because Ni, a former world champion, had seen this all before: the bright lights of international competition, the Olympic rings painted on the net, the raucous crowd ready to erupt for her. But this time, she felt the full weight of a nation on her shoulders. She knew that she would need to summon all of her experience to settle into the match.
As it turns out, she had more of that than anyone in the building. That’s because Ni, the grand duchess of Luxembourg table tennis, is 61 years old.
Ni Xia Lian, the grand duchess of Luxembourg table tennis, is 61 years old. Photo: stephanie lecocq/Reuters
There are other sexagenarians at the Paris Games, but the only athletes older than Ni compete in equestrian, which means she’s the oldest Olympian here who doesn’t ride a horse. When she made her international debut in 1979, almost nobody in this year’s Olympic field was born. Ni won her first world championship in 1983, and her first-round opponent here was born in 1993—which makes her younger than Ni’s son.
“I’m a table-tennis grandma,” says Ni, who is also a six-time Olympian. “I’m not a grandma—yet. I’m waiting.”
She retired and unretired before Michael Jordan. Then she did it again. In fact, she was in her prime before table tennis was even an Olympic sport.
These days, Olympians half her age say they can’t quite believe that Ni is still here.
“It’s absolutely mind-boggling,” says American table-tennis star Lily Zhang.
But to Ni, it makes perfect sense.
“I have double the age,” she says, “and double the experience.”
Born on the Fourth of July in 1963, Ni began playing table tennis in China when she was 7 years old—before the days of ping-pong diplomacy. She was tapped for the Chinese national team as a teenager. If table tennis had been an Olympic sport in 1984, Ni almost certainly would have medaled. Instead, by the time table tennis made its debut in 1988, she was well into her first retirement.
Ni thought she had checked off everything she hoped to accomplish in her sport and was ready to move on. She wanted to resume her studies and eventually become a doctor. “I didn’t want to waste time on table tennis,” the woman who has now played table tennis for a half-century once said. Feeling pressure to leave China as it opened up to the world, she moved to Germany and then Luxembourg, figuring she would stay for one year.
“But one year becomes two, two years become three, and now she’s been here 35 years,” said Tommy Danielsson, who became her coach and then her husband.
“It was not my plan,” Ni said, “but Luxembourg is too nice.”
Now one of the most beloved athletes in her adoptive nation, Ni has collected almost every honor the tiny nation can offer, from Sportswoman of the Year (twice, more than 20 years apart) to carrying the flag in last week’s Opening Ceremony, when she led the landlocked country’s delegation down the River Seine. She was a natural pick.
“Everybody knows her,” said the president of Luxembourg’s Olympic Committee, André Hoffmann.
Which might qualify as the biggest turnaround of Ni’s career. When she moved to Europe, she knew precisely nothing about this tiny nation squeezed between Germany, Belgium and France.
“Coming from China, you don’t know what Luxembourg is,” Danielsson said. “Is it a country? Is it something you eat?”
What she eats has actually played a major role in her longevity. Ni is just as disciplined about her diet as Novak Djokovic. He famously doesn’t eat gluten. She fanatically eats in moderation.
“A little meat, a little fish, a little vegetables, a little nuts,” she said. “Don’t drink—only water. This is the healthy lifestyle. It’s followed me many, many years.”
She admits that she trains less than younger players, but she likes to say that she’s younger today than she will be tomorrow, and it’s clear that she has plenty of stamina: When she was 54, Ni won the longest match in modern table-tennis history.
She does have one contemporary in Zeng Zhiying, who was once her teammate in China. She quit for several decades, started playing table tennis again during the pandemic and just made her Olympic debut for Chile—at 58 years old.
As for Ni, her professionalism remains inspiring to her two table-tennis teammates in Paris—even if her playing style is from a different era and part of the world. Ni uses the old-school penhold grip favored by many Chinese players. If she lacks the physical advantages she had in the 1970s and 1980s, she compensates in the 2020s by forcing opponents to keep up with her mind.
“She has reinvented her game—twice,” says Sarah De Nutte, the 31-year-old who has been Ni’s doubles partner for over a decade. “Her style is less physical, although she can still really move behind the table. And she is able to slow matches down.”
She also slowed her career down after she made her Olympic debut for Luxembourg in 2000. Following her European singles and doubles titles in 2002, she had a daughter with Danielsson in 2003 and skipped the Olympics in 2004. Until 2007, she was retired from international play. But when Luxembourg asked her to rejoin the team, she agreed to serve her country. She qualified for the 2008 Olympics in her native China—and every Summer Games since. “She has survived four or five generations of table-tennis players,” Danielsson said.
Ni’s attempt to survive one more began here on Saturday night as her fans wore “Luxembourg—Let’s Make It Happen” shirts and waved the country’s flag and photos of her. She was the favorite against a 31-year-old Turkish woman and took care of business. The moment she won, she pumped both fists and blew kisses to her adoring supporters. As midnight and her bedtime approached, she was hounded by the Luxembourgeois media and an international table-tennis press corps.
Her reward for beating the young Turk is a showdown with the world’s No. 1 player, China’s Sun Yingsha—the sort of player who can make Ni look her age.
“If it was someone not so strong, maybe I’d have a chance to play again,” Ni said. “But against her, no chance.”
As for her future beyond Paris, Ni doubted she would be back in four years. “You’re joking,” she said. “I don’t think so.” But her coach and husband won’t rule out a trip to Los Angeles in 2028, when Ni would be 65 years old: “She’s quite fit for her age, I must say.”
And there’s another reason she might not hang up her paddle anytime soon.
“Luxembourg is a small country. They don’t have many athletes, and they always want to win more,” Ni said. “So I’m the hope for them.”
Write to Ben Cohen at ben.cohen@wsj.com and Joshua Robinson at Joshua.Robinson@wsj.com
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