Career
One of China's most successful women's doubles specialists, Zhang has won some thirty international titles, the vast majority of them in partnership with Yang Wei, during the first decade of the 21st century. They have shared world dominance almost equally with their compatriot adversaries Gao Ling and Huang Sui. One or the other pair has captured all of the BWF World Championships held since 2000, with Zhang and Yang winning in both 2005 and 2007 by defeating Gao and Huang in the finals. Zhang and Yang also emerged victorious at the 2004 Olympics in Athens by besting their rivals in a closely contested gold medal match . Conversely, Gao and Huang have had the upper hand in three finals (2003), 2004, 2006) at the venerable All-England Championships. This tourney has been something of an anomaly for Zhang as she has reached the women's doubles final there six times (four with Yang and twice, earlier, with Wei Yili) without winning.
In 2008 Zhang helped China to secure its sixth consecutive Uber Cup (women's world team championship), and won the Swiss, Thailand, and Malaysia Open women's doubles titles with Yang. At the Beijing Olympics where they were top seeded, however, Zhang and Yang were upset in the quarterfinals by Japan's Miyuki Maeda and Satoko Suetsuna. The event was eventually won by another, younger Chinese pair, Du Jing and Yu Yang, perhaps marking a changing of the guard in the Chinese dynasty.
According to some reports, Zhang Jiewen will quit competitive badminton after the 2008 Summer Olympics, when she will marry Malaysian men's badminton doubles star Choong Tan Fook. She is currently coaching with him in a badminton facility in Guangzhou.
Read more about this topic: Zhang Jiewen
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“Work-family conflicts—the trade-offs of your money or your life, your job or your child—would not be forced upon women with such sanguine disregard if men experienced the same career stalls caused by the-buck-stops-here responsibility for children.”
—Letty Cottin Pogrebin (20th century)
“Clearly, society has a tremendous stake in insisting on a woman’s natural fitness for the career of mother: the alternatives are all too expensive.”
—Ann Oakley (b. 1944)
“I seemed intent on making it as difficult for myself as possible to pursue my “male” career goal. I not only procrastinated endlessly, submitting my medical school application at the very last minute, but continued to crave a conventional female role even as I moved ahead with my “male” pursuits.”
—Margaret S. Mahler (1897–1985)