Table tennis, known as pingpong in China, is China's national sport, which is a source of pride right up there with the Great Wall and pandas.
乒乓球是中国的国球，就如长城与熊猫一样，代表着这个国家的自豪与荣耀。
The Chinese have played a major role in transforming table tennis from a pastime of Victorian gentlemen to a sport of the masses.
乒乓球从维多利亚时代绅士们的一项娱乐活动变为了今日的一项大众体育运动，中国人在这个过程中起到了重要的作用。
The Dominance
压倒性优势
China owns table tennis like the United States once dominated men's basketball.
中国在乒乓球上的优势就如同昔日的美国在篮球运动上的压倒性优势一样。
China has won every gold medal in four Olympics, and eight years ago in Beijing, it swept all possible medals.
在过去的四届奥运会中，乒乓球项目的每一块金牌全部被中国包揽。而在八年前的北京奥运会上，中国更是狂揽所有的奖牌。
The Chinese teams do not have a weak link. If you take away any of the team members, they remain very strong. As a matter of fact, they could even enter two teams and still win a gold and a silver medal.
中国队可以说无懈可击。无论你带走其中哪一位队员，整支球队仍旧实力超群。实际上，即便将这支球队分成两队，他们仍能摘金夺银。
China's supremacy even prompted the International Table Tennis Federation to alter its rules, hoping to give a few others a chance.
中国在乒乓球上的实力如此强大，以至于国际乒联为了给其他国家一些机会多次修改规则。
A look at national table tennis teams in various countries over the last few decades shows hundreds of Chinese players who took their superior game abroad. More often than not, they became the best players wherever they landed.
纵观过去几十年里，不同国家的乒乓球国家队成员，可以发现，数以百计的中国乒乓球运动员远赴他国发展，而无论这些球员走到哪里，他们往往都成为了当地最出色的乒乓球健将。
The dominance of the Chinese players has caused some consternation in Canada, where three of the four members of the Olympic table tennis team are Chinese born.
华裔乒乓球运动员在这项运动上的压倒性优势甚至曾在加拿大国内引起过一些非议与担忧，因为加拿大国家队中的4名队员中有3位都是出生在中国的。
Even though table tennis is played all around the world, not many nations can even compete with China. Japan and South Korea probably present the strongest challenge from Asia, with Germany the top threat from Europe.
尽管乒乓球是一项全球各国都参与的运动，但能与中国哪怕是相持对抗的国家都很少。在亚洲，也只有日本和韩国应算是对手，而德国是来自欧洲的最强对手。
Secret to Success
成功背后的秘密
With China's undeniable dominance on the pingpong table, some might wonder what the secrets are to China's success.
中国在乒乓球运动上所显示出的绝对的压倒性优势令很多人不解并试图探究中国乒乓球成功背后的秘密。
The Chinese are often criticized by the Western media for running Soviet-style sports mills, in which children are selected for particular sports based on their physique. But with table tennis, there seems to be a large enough reservoir of enthusiastic talent in the population of 1.3 billion.
西方媒体经常批判中国的竞技体育训练体制，称其为苏联式的“体育工厂”，即为了培养奥运人才，运动员年龄很小时就被国家根据个人条件挑选出来，并专门接受某一项运动的长期集中训练。但就乒乓球这项运动而论，在中国13亿的庞大人口中，似乎人才很是充盈。
"It was a perfect sport for the Chinese physique," said Liang Geliang, a former world champion and a professor at Peking University Health Science Center. "It is not important if you're strong. You have got to be smart and you've got to have good nerves."
前世界乒乓球冠军、北京大学医学部教授梁戈亮认为，乒乓球这项运动与中国人的体质是绝配。运动员是否体格强壮并不重要。这项运动需要的是机敏灵活与快速反应。
Bettine Vriesekoop, a two-time European champion from the Netherlands who lives in China, said that when she first came to China to play, she was curious about the secret of the Chinese players.
曾两度夺得过欧锦赛冠军的前荷兰乒乓国手弗里斯库普曾长年在中国生活。她说，当自己第一次来到中国打球时，她对中国乒乓球运动员是如何训练的感到很好奇。
"Well, there was really no secret," she said. "They have a very simple and practical way of training. They do three or four basic exercises, and then they play until they learn to play without making mistakes."
“嗯，确实没有什么秘密可言。”弗里斯库普道。“中国运动员的训练方法非常简单，也非常实际。他们做三四组基本训练，然后就是一直不停地训练，直到可以控制自如而不失误为止。”
Chinese sports legend Deng Yaping is considered to be one of the greatest table tennis players of all time. When she retired at the age of 24, she had won more titles than any other player in the sport, including four Olympic gold medals, and had been World Champion 18 times.
前奥运冠军邓亚萍曾被认为是中国最出色的乒乓球运动员。她24岁退役前曾摘得4块奥运金牌并18次夺得世锦赛冠军。她所获得的荣誉是与她同时代的其他乒乓球运动员都无法比拟的。
When asked what the secrets are of being so good at table tennis, Deng replied: "Practice."
当被问及她在乒乓球上的成功秘诀是什么时，她回答道：“不断训练。”
（作者厉振羽，系国际主流媒体双语体育专栏作家、中国日报网特约专栏作家）
来源：人民网
