Feature: From paddler to lawyer, Li Yan returns to sports in new role

by sportswriters Zhang Zewei and Yuan Yukuan

TIANJIN, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- During his years as a professional table tennis player, Li Yan was rarely in the limelight.

Though he competed in events such as the National Games and the Chinese Table Tennis Super League, Li never made the national team or won a major title.

Now a senior partner at a law firm in Tianjin specializing in fiscal and tax law, Li has also become an arbitrator with the China Commission of Arbitration for Sports, returning to the world of sports in a new capacity more than two decades after his retirement.

Li first picked up a paddle at the age of six and joined the Tianjin professional team at 14. A left-handed penhold player, he trained alongside Hao Shuai and Li Ping, who later joined China's national team.

"There were hardly any highlight moments in my sporting career," Li admitted.

One of the moments he remembers most vividly came during a national competition, when he and his doubles partner defeated a pair that included Wang Hao, who later became a world champion.

Li's professional career took a turn in 2002, when he suffered a collapsed lung shortly after a CTTSL match. He underwent treatment and surgery and eventually returned to training, but recurring health issues and fierce competition from younger players gradually narrowed his prospects.

In 2004, at the age of 21, Li retired from professional sport.

"Everything ahead was unknown, and I was completely unprepared," Li recalled.

He considered several options, including returning to school, playing overseas, or seeking a job. An opportunity eventually led Li into the legal profession, while also making him more aware of his limited educational background.

Having devoted much of his teenage years to professional training, Li began further studies while working and eventually completed his undergraduate degree. When colleagues around him started preparing for the national judicial examination, he decided to give it a try.

For Li, the first challenge was simply learning how to study.

"When I first opened those thick textbooks, after about ten minutes my eyes would start to ache," he said. "The first stage was about whether I could sit still and settle down."

He spent more than a year working through several thick examination textbooks, studying for at least two hours each day. He then listened to recorded lectures sentence by sentence and wrote down what he heard to reinforce his memory.

In 2010, Li left his court job to focus entirely on the examination. After three and a half years of preparation, he passed the national judicial examination on his first attempt in 2011.

Li attributes his progress partly to clear planning, as well as the resilience and competitive drive he developed during his sporting career.

He later completed his legal internship and began practicing as a lawyer. For years, Li handled a wide range of civil, criminal and administrative cases before deciding to build a more specialized career.

He turned to fiscal and tax law, studying accounting and taxation and obtaining relevant professional qualifications. In 2024, he became director of the fiscal and tax law professional committee of the Tianjin Lawyers Association.

Sports, however, remained close to his heart.

The revised Law on Physical Culture and Sports took effect in 2023, and the CCAS was established that year to handle sports-related disputes. For Li, this development offered an opportunity to combine his experience in both sport and law.

"I felt a natural sense of mission and wanted to become a sports arbitrator," Li said.

Recommended by the Tianjin Sports Bureau, Li went through initial screening, written tests, interviews, and specialized training before being appointed as a CCAS arbitrator.

As a young player, Li had once hoped to move from the Tianjin team to the national team, but never made it. More than two decades later, he has returned to sport in a different role.

"I sometimes feel that all those years working as a lawyer were preparation for this," he reflected.

Looking back, Li says that while retired athletes may face uncertainty when leaving professional sport, their years of training can continue to shape their lives.

"Athletes are not short of the courage to fight," he said. "What matters is to keep learning and keep moving forward." Enditem