.The scene in the stands at Roland Garrosu00e2 $ s Courtroom Philippe-Chatrier was actually dotted with vermillion banners, including a radiance to the actually orangey sky rising off the reddish clay-based court.These were Mandarin flagsu00e2 $" thousands of themu00e2 $" swing in loud help for Qinwen Zheng, 21, who will very soon take gold through defeating Croatiau00e2 $ s Donna Vekic 6-2, 6-3 in the womenu00e2 $ s singles ping pong final.As she lay down on the gunk, eyes skyward as well as fists stretched right into the Paris haze, the winu00e2 $ s gravitation seemed to sign up: Zheng had merely built the kind of record that extended far past the arena as well as the instant. This was Chinau00e2 $ s first-ever Olympic gold medal in the sportu00e2 $" and Zheng had created obvious of the truth that the Olympics were as, if not more, important to her than a Grand Slam.Zheng celebrates her Olympic success on August 3.Photo: Getty Imagesu00e2 $ In China, we consistently think a countryu00e2 $ s honor remains in front of individual results, u00e2 $ she mentioned over a morning appointment at Nikeu00e2 $ s Professional athlete Home, tucked discreetly in between the Stade de France as well as the Aquatics Facility in Parisu00e2 $ s St. Denis region, the day after her accomplishment. u00e2 $ I dealt with [the Video games] differentlyu00e2 $" the feeling, the battle, the way of thinking: It experienced various than every other competition Iu00e2 $ ve played.u00e2 $ Born in 2002 in Shiyan, China, Zheng began participating in tennis at grow older 7. At age 8, she relocated, without her mother and papa, to Wuhan for better mentoring, and due to the fact that teenage years she has actually profoundly marvelled at and also followed Chinese athletes, such as the ping pong superstar Li Na as well as the jogger Liu Xiang, who succeeded gold at the 2004 Athens Games.u00e2 $ It was actually truly challenging, u00e2 $ Zheng pointed out, remembering at those early times. u00e2 $ My mother used to come go to on weekend breaks. When she left behind, I would certainly keep her lower leg and also weep. When she was gone, I will regularly hold her jacket. This was actually until I was thirteen. After thirteen, my mommy made a decision to stop her job as well as happen stick with me full-time, just to possess better growth and also better treatment. After that, it got less complicated. And our team moved to Europe when I was actually 17. u00e2 $.