Tang Jiuhong

Career achievements

She won the then biennial World Championship in 1991 and was a semifinalist in the 1989 and 1993 competitions . She was a bronze medalist in women's singles at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Her international singles titles included the prestigious All England Championship in 1992, as well as the Belgian (1988), Thailand (1989), Danish (1989, 1990), Swiss (1989), Singapore (1990), Korean (1992), and Swedish Opens (1992); the World Badminton Grand Prix in 1989, the quadrennial Asian Games in 1990, and the Badminton World Cup in 1992. Tang played on Chinese Uber Cup (women's international) teams that won world team titles in 1990 and 1992. In the late 1980s Tang and her fellow countrywoman Huang Hua were touted by some to be China's next generation of dominant female singles players, taking over from Li Lingwei and Han Aiping. Within a few years, however, they were upstaged by an even younger group of precocious badminton talents that included Indonesia's Susi Susanti, South Korea's Bang Soo-hyun, and China's own Ye Zhaoying.

Sports career

Tang Jiuhong was brought up in Hunan by her elder brother Hui Tang and in effect his love of badminton introduced her to the sport. The badminton coach of the school where Hui Tang was training was already impressed by his little 5-year-old sister Tang Jiuhong. He found that the tall little girl's figure was light and in good shape to play badminton. Soon little "Red Nine" as her nickname would become, was part of the County Amateur Sports School team. Four years later she was in the Hunan province badminton team. She won the National Youth Badminton Competition for three consecutive years in the women's singles championships event. She soon delivered more remarkable achievements winning the 1988 women's singles title at the National Badminton Championships. At the peak of her career she won 14 open events in one year, but her success also came at a price. Because she was maintaining such high strength training for a long time, this was leading to severe physical discomfort. In 1992 when she was part of the Chinese team winning the Uber Cup (her second Uber Cup title) she also had severe hematuria. To prepare for the Olympic Games, her coach arranged a base in the Beijing Miyun Reservoir where she could be nursed for a month, but the subsequent training still affected her health. She still managed to reach the semi-finals and receive a bronze medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, even though the hematuria appeared again at the Games and her discomfort was so bad she obviously felt powerless on court. As a favorite for the golden Olympic medal, losing in the semi-final to Korean player Bang Soo-Hyun, she didn't lived up to people "expectations" at home and received such overwhelming domestic negative criticism she wanted to retire immediately. But thanks to the Hunan Province Sports Bureau's support, they insisted she continued. After a period of rest, Tang Jiuhong's body has been gradually restored and in 1993 she took another bronze at the individual World's Championships. Finally she also won the women's singles title at the National Games where she announced her retirement. In 1994 the Hunan Province named her the title of "Most Outstanding Woman".

Personal life

After her retirement Tang Jiuhong opened up a restaurant in her hometown of Hunan, and later also opened some branches in Beijing. In 1996, Tang Jiuhong emigrated to the United States, but soon returned to China, with her husband and child settling in Beijing. Later, because she could not adapt to the weather in Beijing, she returned to Hunan. She was then invited to act as secretary and director of the badminton management center which was established in the Hunan province, and began to engage in her sports management work. At the beginning of 2002, the Hunan Provincial Sports Bureau appointed Tang Jiuhong to the Yiyang City and she became the Chaoyang District deputy mayor, as a grass-roots testing exercise. Later she was promoted to deputy director of the Hunan Provincial Sports Bureau, and she was elected to the National People's congress.