Iconic athlete shares art of sportsmanship and perseverance at national gallery

Zhang Ning, a retired Olympic gold medalist, couldn't hold her tears when recollecting her Uber Cup debut in 1994 at which the badminton player lost in a key match, at a recent speech in Beijing. Afterward she suffered a setback in career for nearly a decade, during which she endeavored to be finally back on her feet, and achieved her first world title in 2003, 12 years after she joined in the national team.

She went on to become the first back-to-back Olympic singles gold medalist, in Athens, 2004, and in Beijing, 2008. This spirit of not giving up and persistence with hard work and will at sports games has also been a subject of hailing in works of art shown and housed at the National Art Museum of China.

Part of a diversified program to celebrate its 60th anniversary, NAMOC invited Zhang to give a speech at the museum on Sunday, on the beauty of athletics by reviewing her bitter-and-sweet years competing at world championships.

Zhang's fame reached to another peak when she was inducted to the Badminton World Federation Hall of Fame in 2021. She said currently she has been actively participating in the popularity of badminton playing among children and teenagers, especially accessing those in underdeveloped areas to the sport to nurture their physical and mental well-being; and she believes both sports activities and appreciation of art will help enhance school students' self-confidence.