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 The organizer Xie Xingfang.[Photo/China Daily] |
The former women's world champion retired last year, but as an Asian Games gold medalist and girlfriend of China's current top men player Lin Dan, Guangzhou native Xie will still be the most celebrated ambassador for the Guangzhou Asiad.
After she retired last November, she immediately chose to serve the Games in another way when she joined the organizing committee.
"I really feel sorry about missing the Asian Games at home, but an athlete should call it a day sooner or later. My physical condition kept me from being the most competitive player on the court," Xie says of her decision to retire after last year's National Games.
"But as an Guangdong native, I can't let myself be just a spectator. That's why I came back and started working just a few days after officially retiring."
Since leaving Guangzhou for the national team in 1998, Xie has been home for less than three months in total until now. She had thought it would be finally possible to have dinner at home with her family more regularly, but she is still as busy as ever.
She is in charge of recruiting volunteers, and she has lost count of the number of colleges she had visited in the past year, or the number of volunteers she has persuaded to join.
The two-time World Championship singles winner admits the new job was a struggle initially, but it has proved to be every bit as fulfilling as standing on the winner's podium.
"When I was an athlete, I just had to worry about my training and the competition. If I played well, then everything's fine. Working in the volunteer department, I have to learn how to cooperate with my colleagues and manage the volunteer contingent," says Xie, who will be in charge of volunteers in six stadiums during the Games.
"In the past, my only goal was to win the gold. Now I have to make the athletes, the spectators and the journalists proud of our volunteer team."
Xie started playing badminton at 7, and won her first major singles title at the 2005 Anaheim World Championships in the US. She then defended the championship the following year in Madrid.
At the 2006 Doha Asiad, she helped the team win the championship but was defeated by Wang Chen of Hong Kong in the singles semi-finals.
Xie played her only Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008 when she met 33-year-old teammate and defending champion Zhang Ning in the finals, but failed to bag the gold after a three-set match.
Now Xie looks ahead to new challenges, including a post-graduate course on social work at Peking University next year. "I just want to start my new life and prove myself in other ways."
Although she will be on the sidelines this year, Xie will be cheering for boyfriend Lin Dan. A reigning world and Olympic champion, Lin has never won the men's singles gold medal at the Asian Games. In Qatar, he lost to defending champion Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia 2-0.
"We seldom talk about the competition because I have faith in him," says Xie. "He knows he has my full support."
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