After retiring from international table tennis, Olympic champion Chen Meng runs affordable, high-quality youth training camps, boosting local consumption and setting an industry benchmark.
Chen Meng’s 20-day table tennis training camp in Qingdao, with a total fee of 9,000 yuan, caused quite a stir in the youth table tennis training community as soon as the news broke.
As a two-time Olympic women’s singles table tennis champion, Chen Meng’s sudden decision to retire from international competition and withdraw from the world rankings after successfully defending her title at the Paris Olympics came as a surprise to many.Previously, she had not only had to endure the intense pressure of competition but had also been caught up in a prolonged storm of negative public opinion due to controversies over inappropriate remarks made off the court and baseless rumors about her private life. At the age of 30, she has already reached a crossroads in her career as a professional athlete.
No one expected her to pivot into the field of youth table tennis training. The table tennis club she established in Ningbo specifically hired distinguished coaches to serve on a full-time basis,The 20-day residential training camp launched in Qingdao includes room and board, averaging just 450 yuan per day. This pricing is widely recognized within the industry as very affordable, bringing youth table tennis training fees in the Yangtze River Delta region back to a reasonable range.During daily training sessions, she often crouches at the sidelines to correct the young players’ technique. The club employs a training model that integrates academic studies with specialized training. Although it has been in operation for less than two years, it has already sent 15 trainees to provincial-level professional teams, and the Ningbo Badminton and Table Tennis Center has become a widely recognized benchmark for youth training in the region.
During the closing ceremony of the training camp in Qingdao this July, all hotels and guesthouses in the surrounding area were fully booked by the families of the trainees, which directly boosted local tourism spending. On July 30, Chen Meng appeared at the Asian Games uniform unveiling event, and views of related topics surpassed 180 million that same day.
Nowadays, it has gradually become an industry trend for top athletes to transition into youth development after retiring. Leveraging her influence within the industry, Chen Meng has established a sports-related business framework and successfully made the transition from Olympic champion to a mentor who passes on her knowledge and experience to the next generation of athletes.
It’s rare for a champion at the top of their sport to give up the easy path to profit that comes with fame and instead dedicate themselves to meticulously refining every technical movement with young athletes on the training court; it’s also rare for someone who has been maliciously slandered by the media to ultimately choose to pour all their passion into mentoring the next generation of young athletes.If you have a child at home who is interested in table tennis, it’s worth paying closer attention to these youth training organizations with a solid reputation. Choosing a reliable mentor to guide your child’s early development is far better than blindly signing up for an expensive training program only to end up disappointed.
