Table tennis star Feng Tianwei on next stage of career: "I hope to repay Singapore"

The three-time Olympic medallist and 2010 world team champion opens up on going from athlete to student as the end of her sporting career approaches

6 minBy ZK Goh
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(Ryan Pierse)

Ask any Singaporean table tennis fan who has done the most for the sport in the country and there's likely to be one consistent answer: Feng Tianwei.

Of Singapore's five Olympic medals, Feng has won three, making her the country's most decorated Olympian; the 36-year-old also has a world title and nine Commonwealth Games golds to her name.

But Feng won't be leading the on-court charge for the nation much longer with her teammates from Beijing 2008, London 2012, and Rio 2016 long since retired.

Tokyo 2020 colleague Yu Mengyu has also quit, and Feng is already looking to the future beyond her own playing career.

A former mainstay of the world top 10, Feng has been cutting back on her tournaments and will finish outside the top 20 in the rankings this year. Instead, she now has a backroom role – working as part of Sport Singapore's sport development group.

"I hope to repay Singapore through my own ways and hard work," she told Singapore's Straits Times (ST) in a recent interview to mark her nomination as one of the newspaper's Singaporean of the Year nominees.

Feng Tianwei's emotional career

Born in the northeastern Chinese city of Harbin, Feng moved to Singapore aged 20 with her mother (her father having passed away when Feng was a teenager) before becoming a citizen two years later.

There have been several ups and downs in that 16-year-period, including a successful medal-laden career and a controversial termination of her employment contract with Singapore's national table tennis association in 2016.

In 2008, Feng was part of the women's team that won silver at Beijing 2008 for Singapore's second ever Olympic medal and its first since 1960.

Two years later, there was more history as Feng and her teammates won the Corbillon Cup – the women's team world championship – before Feng claimed singles and team bronze medals at London 2012.

There was also a total of five golds at the 2010 and 2014 Commonwealth Games. However, the national governing body decided to end its contract with Feng after Rio 2016 under the premise of "rejuvenating" the national team.

Interviewed by Olympic Channel some months later at the 2017 World Championships, Feng said: "My relationship with the association is more co-operative now – they still register me for competitions. So they're still supportive of me taking part in international competitions."

A good thing, too – she would go on to win another Commonwealth Games gold medal in women's doubles at Gold Coast 2018, and also represented Singapore at a fourth Olympic Games at Tokyo 2020 in 2021.

But one of her biggest challenges was yet to come. After receiving a Covid vaccine booster in January 2022, Feng was sidelined from sport by its side-effects, including heart palpitations.

She managed a comeback and won three gold medals at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, including in women's singles where she came back from 3–0 down in games to defeat teammate Zeng Jian.

The emotions after what could be Feng's final international singles title were too much as she broke down on the medal podium.

Her exploits in Birmingham saw her receive the David Dixon Award, given to the most outstanding athlete at each Commonwealth Games since 2002.

"When I was down 3–0 against Zeng, I didn't think I would win in the end," she told ST. "I just persevered and competed hard for every point and eventually I won – this is the best feeling.

"I will continue learning and try to be a good role model for youth. I could not have achieved my results at the Commonwealth Games without the support of various stakeholders and fans, for which I’m grateful."

Feng Tianwei retirement plans

Feng joined Sport Singapore in September as she starts to look beyond her playing career. She skipped October's World Team Table Tennis Championships 2022 in Chengdu, with her time on court looking increasingly like it is in the past.

However, she hasn't officially hung up her table tennis paddle yet, telling ST in September that "if I am given the opportunity, I will continue to represent Singapore".

That said, it is clear looking in from the outside that Feng seems unlikely to return to competition. Besides working part-time for her country's sports development agency, she has returned to the land of her birth to take up a master's degree with an eye on contributing to the next generation of Singaporean talents.

Feng is now a student at the prestigious Peking University in Beijing, working on a master's in sport industry research at the institution's Physical Education Teaching and Research Department.

She said to ST, "Schoolwork keeps me busy, but I still follow what is going on in the world of table tennis and am still keeping up with my fitness. It's quite a big change now that I’m a full-time student. There is homework every day, and it is a different kind of pressure from playing professional table tennis."

By her own admission, her career should not have lasted this long. There were times after she lost her contract with the table tennis association where she would have called it quits, if not for two coaches.

"I would like to thank my coaching team who were there for me at my lowest point, coach Wu Jingping and coach He Keyi – if not for them, I would have retired earlier, a few years ago," she added.

"They helped extend my career. My longevity in sport is thanks to their support and them upgrading my technical level, as well as their accompaniment and encouragement."

In a career taking in three Olympic medals, seven World Championship podium finishes including one world title, 13 Commonwealth Games medals including nine golds, and many more medals at continental and regional events, which prize does Feng value the most?

"It's not my results I'm proud of, but rather my effort and not giving up when I ran into difficulties. I don't think I have achieved anything big. I hope this is just the beginning of life. I just want to adopt a humble attitude and succeed in what's to come in life."

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