Cao Yanhua, a former top Chinese table tennis player, started her own ping pong school after divorce and lives a life fully under her own control.
Cao Yanhua was one of the top female players in the early days of the Chinese national table tennis team. She displayed extraordinary talent for the sport from a young age and successfully joined the national team at the age of 15. Throughout her career, she won championships in women’s singles, women’s doubles, mixed doubles,women’s team events. At the age of 24, just as she was reaching the peak of her career, she unexpectedly chose to retire and leave the national team.
Her first marriage did not last and ultimately ended in divorce, leaving her friends and family worried about her future.
After the divorce, Cao Yanhua did not seek help from others; instead, she sold her apartment in downtown Shanghai to raise funds and launch a table tennis academy. The early days of her venture were fraught with difficulties,She handled every aspect of the operation single-handedly, gritting her teeth and persevering through it all—never asking her ex-husband for help, nor turning to former teammates to pull strings on her behalf.
Thanks to years of perseverance and dedicated management, the table tennis school—which was initially viewed with skepticism—gradually got on track. Its achievements became increasingly evident, and it even produced world-class champions like Xu Xin.
Now 64 years old, Cao Yanhua still frequently appears on the sidelines at the table tennis school, closely monitoring the students’ daily training—her energy and vigor are in no way inferior to those of young coaches in their prime.
From a star athlete in the national team who captured the public’s attention, to an entrepreneur starting from scratch after her divorce, and now the headmistress of a table tennis school standing on her own two feet, Cao Yanhua has always been the master of her own destiny.
Whether it was her decisive decision to retire at the peak of her career or her swift pivot to a new career path after her divorce, she has always made decisions with clarity and decisiveness—never relying on others, nor dwelling on past successes or failures.
Many have praised her choices; some say she has a clear perspective on life, while others admire her daring and tenacity. In her own view, however, life has no fixed “right answers”—holding the reins of her life firmly in her own hands is what brings her the greatest sense of stability.Both of
her marriages were guided by her heart’s desires, and she has built her entrepreneurial career over half a lifetime entirely through her own hard work—living a life that many aspire to but few have the courage to embrace.
