64-year-old Cai Zhenhua s current situation: He is getting stronger and stronger, and he enjoys retirement with his wife, and his son is a well-known actor

He was the main force of the national table tennis team, an Italian utilitarian coach, and the leader of Liu Guoliang.

After decades of experience, he led the confused Chinese table tennis out of the siege and to the top.

Cai Zhenhua, the godfather of table tennis, you are the national player of men's table tennis. In 2024, Cai Zhenhua, who retired, said in an interview that he devoted his life to sports and that he was born for table tennis.

In recent years, China's table tennis has dominated the world for many years, and even Cai Zhenhua's disciple Liu Guoliang is about to retire.

So how strong is Cai Zhenhua's ability, and what contributions he has made to the Chinese table tennis career?

In 1971, Cai Zhenhua studied table tennis at an amateur sports school. The reason for this decision was not because he loved playing table tennis since he was a child, but because of a world-renowned table tennis diplomacy.

4 months later, he became a monk and entered the market-level table tennis competition and won the championship in the youth group. Only then did people realize that Cai Zhenhua's playing talent was a bit ridiculously high.

Soon, the Jiangsu Provincial Team recruited him. After several years of training, Cai Zhenhua's playing skills have become more and more mature, and his teammates in Jiangsu Province are almost unable to match him.

By 1978, the national team had just recruited a group of table tennis national players, and the strong Cai Zhenhua was successfully selected.

At that time, my country's table tennis level was already in the world's first echelon. Although it did not dominate the list all year round as it is now, it was also a waste of time to win awards.

1981 was Cai Zhenhua's highlight moment. This year, he and his teammates won several gold medals in the World Championships, and he himself became the captain of the table tennis team with his skillful playing skills and good team spirit.

Cai Zhenhua's playing style is very distinctive. He is very good at cutting balls, and the balls he shoots are unpredictable, which often makes his opponent confused.

At the men's table tennis team competition that year, Cai Zhenhua slowly used his superb ball-cutting skills to slowly kill his opponent.

Later, the ITTF made a reform, and Cai Zhenhua's technical characteristics were not as threatening as before, so he chose to retire.

In 1985, 26-year-old Cai Zhenhua officially retired and ended his career as a player. As an athlete, his performance is very impressive. Except for the lack of men's singles championship, he won all other awards.

After losing the aura of athletes, Cai Zhenhua also has his own plans for the future.

In the year of retirement, Cai Zhenhua became a member of the men's table tennis coaching team and was sent to Italy to coach.

European table tennis is not bad, except in Italy. The country's table tennis scores have been in the middle and lower reaches for many years, and there are great problems in player training and coaching the coaching staff.

After Cai Zhenhua arrived in Italy, he made rectifications on the men's table tennis team from the inside out. It took him three years to bring the inconspicuous Italian men's table tennis team to the seventh place in the world. This change that seems like a myth is due to Cai Zhenhua's firm and iron-fisted coaching style.

Just as the Italian men's table tennis team was advancing, the Chinese men's table tennis team encountered the biggest embarrassing period in history.

In 1989, the Chinese men's table tennis team showed signs of fatigue in the World Table Tennis Championships, and the management department began to look for new candidates for men's table tennis coaches.

In response to the country's recruitment, Cai Zhenhua turned down various benefits offered by Italy, insisted on returning to the country, and took over the Chinese men's table tennis team with his continuous decline in performance.

Cai Zhenhua, who has lived abroad for three years, watched the players train hard in the venue, as if he saw himself in his youth.

Now he is about to be in his thirties to realize a problem, and when solving this problem, he also explores the future of the Chinese men's table tennis team.

Cai Zhenhua coaches men's table tennis

As the rules of table tennis are constantly improving, a group of veteran national players have also chosen to retire one after another, and the advantages of Chinese table tennis have naturally been affected.

In order to solve the replacement of new and old as soon as possible and select better players, the first thing Cai Zhenhua did when he took office was to open up the players of the first team and the second team to compete with each other, and whoever plays well will be able to represent the country.

This method similar to the elimination of the last place has ignited the players' competitive spirit and is constantly tempering, which has brought the overall strength of the men's table tennis team to a great level.

Wang Tao and Lu Lin were the first answers he gave after taking over the national team.

The two men played an exciting level at the 1992 Olympics and won the men's doubles gold medal.

Not long after, a number of historical figures such as Liu Guoliang and Kong Linghui also joined the national team one after another, and the Chinese men's table tennis team, which was originally going down, was instantly resurrected with full blood.

In 2000, the match between Kong Linghui and Waldner was one of the most enjoyable games that year.

At that time, Kong Linghui was at his peak. Although his opponent was over 30 years old, his career was particularly long and he did not officially retire until 2016. He can be regarded as an evergreen in the table tennis industry.

In this game, Kong Linghui was very aggressive and played an overwhelming advantage in the first two quarters. During the third quarter, he accidentally sprained his ankle, which not only affected the speed of his body movement, but also changed his feel.

In this state, Kong Linghui lost the subsequent game, and the advantage he had finally established wasted.

In the fifth quarter, Kong Linghui endured the pain of his footsteps and gradually recovered his condition. Under the healthy Valdenel's offensive, he scored one point and won the final victory..

In 2002, Cai Zhenhua resigned from his position as head table tennis coach and was promoted to director of the Table Tennis and Badminton Management Center. The one who took over his original position was his favorite student Liu Guoliang.

Cai Zhenhua did not retreat after leaving the coaching staff, but instead had an increasingly greater influence in politics, and he became the vice chairman of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions step by step.

Cai Zhenhua has been in politics for more than 10 years, so he officially stepped down in 2023 and lived the life of an ordinary person.

Although he no longer trains national table tennis players, his coaching philosophy was well implemented by his disciple Liu Guoliang.

Ma Long, Zhang Jike and Xu Xin are the national players he focuses on training. After these people retired, Wang Chuqin took on the banner of men's table tennis and also performed well in international competitions.

In the game on May 25, 2025, Wang Chuqin fought fiercely with Brazilian player Hugo, and finally won the game with a big score and won the gold medal, which marks that the Chinese men's table tennis team is still at the top level in the world.

When talking about the past, Cai Zhenhua always seemed a little reluctant and sighed that he had devoted his life to table tennis.

In fact, this is true. He started learning table tennis since elementary school, and it was not until 2023 that he completely bid farewell to table tennis, which spanned more than fifty years.

After retirement, Cai Zhenhua was very low-key. He did not participate in sports commentary and would not promote sports events. He is already 64 years old and just stays with his family safely.

It is worth mentioning that although Cai Zhenhua has a great reputation in the table tennis industry, he did not ask his son to work hard to become a kind of person.

Son Cai Yida did not fall in love with table tennis, but was in love with acting. He was admitted to the Beijing Film Academy in 2008 and starred in works such as "The Legend of Chu and Han" and "The Legend of the Knights". Although he was not very popular, he has been in the industry for many years and is also well-known in the industry.

Summary:

As a player, Cai Zhenhua is enough to be called the top national player of that era. As a coach, his influence is enough to be recorded in history.

And now, he is just enjoying life like an ordinary retired elderly person, and his past achievements seem to be buried in the past forever.

Reference materials:

"Cai Zhenhua's latest interview: A life of a clear conscience" Jiangsu Transportation Radio Network

"Cai Zhenhua's sports career: Started with Table Tennis and Final Football" Beijing News