.The performance in the stands at Roland Garrosu00e2 $ s Courthouse Philippe-Chatrier was populated with vermillion banners, including a radiance to the presently orangey sky rising off the reddish clay court.These were Mandarin flagsu00e2 $" thousands of themu00e2 $" waving in loud support for Qinwen Zheng, 21, who will quickly take gold by beating Croatiau00e2 $ s Donna Vekic 6-2, 6-3 in the womenu00e2 $ s singles ping pong final.As she lay down on the dust, eyes skyward as well as fists expanded into the Paris fog, the winu00e2 $ s gravitational force appeared to enroll: Zheng had actually only created the kind of record that stretched much past the stadium as well as the second. This was actually Chinau00e2 $ s first-ever Olympic gold award in the sportu00e2 $" as well as Zheng had created no secret of the reality that the Olympics were as, if not even more, essential to her than a Grand Slam.Zheng celebrates her Olympic success on August 3.Image: Getty Imagesu00e2 $ In China, our company regularly strongly believe a countryu00e2 $ s honor is in front of individual excellence, u00e2 $ she claimed over a morning meeting at Nikeu00e2 $ s Athlete Residence, tucked inconspicuously in between the Stade de France and also the Aquatics Centre in Parisu00e2 $ s St. Denis place, the time after her conquest. u00e2 $ I treated [the Games] differentlyu00e2 $" the emotion, the battle, the mentality: It really felt various than every other competition Iu00e2 $ ve played.u00e2 $ Born in 2002 in Shiyan, China, Zheng started playing tennis at age seven. At age eight, she relocated, without her mother and also father, to Wuhan for far better mentoring, and also considering that adolescence she has actually greatly admired as well as mimicked Chinese athletes, such as the tennis star Li Na and the jogger Liu Xiang, that gained gold at the 2004 Athens Games.u00e2 $ It was actually definitely hard, u00e2 $ Zheng pointed out, recalling at those very early times. u00e2 $ My mama made use of to find visit on weekends. When she left, I will keep her leg and cry. When she was actually gone, I will constantly store her coat. This was actually until I was actually thirteen. After thirteen, my mother made a decision to quit her project and also happen visit me full-time, only to possess far better development and far better care. After that, it got easier. And also we transferred to Europe when I was 17. u00e2 $.