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No, You Can’t Beat an Olympic Table Tennis Player
不，你不能击败奥运会乒乓球选手
Lily Zhang and three teammates from the United States table tennis team were hanging out on a large boat last Friday, making small talk with the N.B.A. star Stephen Curry — as one does at an Olympic opening ceremony — when he asked what sport they played.
上周五，美国乒乓球队的张安和三名队员在大船上和NBA明星球员斯蒂芬·库里闲聊（就像人们在奥运会开幕式上寒暄那样），库里问她们是什么运动项目的。
They told him, and his eyes lit up.
她们告诉了他，然后他的眼睛瞬间亮了起来。
“Can I borrow you for a second?” Curry asked.
“能占用你们几分钟吗？”库里问道。
Moments later, the four table tennis players found themselves engaged in a brief but spirited debate with Curry and his teammate Anthony Edwards about whether Edwards, one of basketball’s brightest young talents, could notch a point against them on the table.
片刻之后，这四位乒乓球运动员与库里和他的队友安东尼·爱德华兹进行了一场简短但热烈的争论，他们在争论爱德华兹，这位篮球界最耀眼的年轻天才之一，是否能在乒乓球台上与她们打球并得一分。
The friendly trash talk was captured on camera and eventually watched by more than 15 million people online.
这段友好的互放狠话交流被摄像机记录了下来，最终在网上被1500多万人观看。
On one hand, the table tennis players said, it was one of those extraordinary, and extraordinarily funny, interactions that can happen only at the Olympics.
一方面，这几位乒乓球选手们说，这段对话是那种只能在奥运会上出现的极其特别又极其有趣的互动。
On the other hand, they said, they have interactions like this all the time.
另一方面，她们说，她们一直都有这样的互动。
Everywhere they go, the world’s best table tennis players meet strangers who believe they can hold their own against them.
无论她们去哪里，这些世界上最优秀的乒乓球运动员都会遇到一些陌生人，这些陌生人认为他们可以与这些运动员一较高下。
They tell them that they play “Ping-Pong,” too.
人们对她们说，他们也玩“乒乓球”。
They wonder aloud what the score would be, or even who would win.
他们会直接说，想知道如果他们比赛，比分会是多少，甚至谁会赢。
They suggest that they should play sometime.
他们还建议找个时间一起比一比。
This, alas, is the table tennis players’ cross to bear.
唉，这就是乒乓球运动员必须背负的十字架（承受的负担）。
“You’ll meet someone, and their first reaction is, “I bet I can beat you, let’s play,’” Zhang said, laughing.
“你会遇到一些人，他们的第一反应是，‘我打赌我能打败你，我们来玩玩’，”张笑着说，
“I don’t think you’d really say that to anyone in another sport.
“如果是其他运动项目，我觉得你不会对任何人说这样的话。
If you saw Michael Phelps, I don’t think you’d say, ‘I bet I can beat you in a race.’”
如果你看到迈克尔·菲尔普斯，我想你不会说，“我打赌我能在比赛中打败你’。”
Zhang, 28, and her fellow players are good sports about it. They have to be.
28岁的张安和她的队友们对此都很大度。她们必须大度。
They know their game doesn’t have a huge following.
她们知道她们的比赛没有很多的人关注。
They know many people think of it only as an idle pastime — and that amateurs tend to overrate their ability in it.
她们知道很多人认为乒乓球只是一种闲暇时的消遣——而且业余爱好者往往高估了自己的球技。
Zhang said that she believed this was an American thing, a bravado rooted in the prevalence of tables in suburban basements and community center rec rooms.
张安说，她认为这是一种美国特色，是一种逞强，因为美国郊区地下室和社区中心娱乐室里普遍都有乒乓球桌。
But players from other countries insisted that none of them were spared.
但是其他国家的乒乓球员坚称，他们中也没有人幸免。
At dinner parties, at the gym, at the Olympics, they said, people are constantly sizing them up.
在晚宴上，在健身房里，在奥运会上，他们说，人们总是在打量他们。
“If I meet someone, they either say, ‘Ah, we can play a match?’ Or they say, ‘And how do you earn money?’” said Sofia Polcanova, 29, a member of the Austrian team.
“如果我遇到某个人，他们要么会说，‘啊，我们可以比一场吗？’，要么他们会说‘那你怎么赚钱呢？’”29岁的奥地利队员索菲亚·波尔卡诺娃说。
“People can be a little … overconfident,” said Kristian Karlsson, 32, of Sweden, picking his words carefully.
“人们可能会有点……过于自信，”32岁的瑞典乒乓球选手克里斯蒂安·卡尔松小心地措辞。
“Some people who don’t play table tennis actually think they have a chance to win a single point,” said Anders Lind, 25, of Denmark, the No. 62-ranked player in the world.
“有些不打乒乓球的人也认为他们有机会赢一分，”25岁的丹麦乒乓球选手安德斯·林德说，他在世界排名第62位，
“It’s cute. But it’s not true.”
“这种想法挺可爱的，但他们赢不了。”
It’s one reason that the players hope their game can grow.
这是球员们希望他们的乒乓球比赛能发展更好的原因之一。
Few laypeople have witnessed a professional match.
很少有外行人亲眼看过职业比赛。
And even if they had, the skills that set professionals apart — the intensity of the spin, the chessboard tactics, the intricate footwork — can be hard at first to perceive.
即使他们看过，一开始也很难看出把专业人士与业外人士区分开的技术：旋球的强度、棋盘战术、复杂的步法。
“They just don’t understand the sport,” said Rachel Sung, 20, an American competing in the team event, who was delighted to meet Curry and Edwards on the boat.
“他们只是不了解这项运动，”20岁的宋家瑜说，她是参加乒乓球团体赛的美国选手，她很高兴在船上见到库里和爱德华兹，
“So it’s hard to see the difficulty level.”
“所以很难看出其中的难度。”
