He Zhili (; born 30 September 1964 in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

),Chire Koyama
Sports Reference. Retrieved 9 March 2011 also known by her married name , is a former

table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

world champion from

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Koyama Chire
International Table Tennis Federation. Retrieved 9 March 2011 who later naturalized as a Japanese citizen and represented

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

under her married name.

Career

Asian Games

Representing China as He Zhili, she was the runner-up in both singles and doubles at the Seoul Games in 1986. Koyama won the

1994 Asian Games The 1994 Asian Games ( ja, 1994年アジア競技大会, ''Senkyūhyakukyūjūyon-nen Ajia kyōgi taikai''), also known as the XII Asiad and the 12th Asian Games ( ja, 第12回アジア競技大会, Daijūni-kai Ajia kyōgi taikai), were held from ...

singles title in

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui h ...

playing for her adopted country.

Asian Championships

She won gold in singles and silver in mixed doubles at the 7th Asian Championships held in 1983 in

Islamabad Islamabad (; ur, , ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's ninth-most populous city, with a population of over 1.2 million people, and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital T ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

World Championships

Representing China, she won the singles and team gold during the 1987 World Championships in

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. However, she left the national team soon after as a result of her decision to not throw away matches to her teammates. The 1987 world championship semi-finals featured 3 Chinese women and the Korean

Yang Young-Ja Yang Young-Ja (; born July 6, 1964) is a retired female table tennis player from South Korea. Table tennis career She won gold medals in women's doubles at the 1987 ITTF World Championships and the 1988 Summer Olympics, together with Hyun Jun ...

. In the first semi-final, China's Dai Lily led 18–12 in the final set but she blew the lead and lost 21–18 to Yang Young-Ja. It is alleged that the Chinese coaches ( Zhang, Xielin) thought that Guan Jianhua had a better chance of beating Yang Young-Ja in the final, and ordered He Zhili to lose the semi-final. She refused to obey the order and won the match. The Chinese coaches had no option but to support her in the final to increase the country's tally of medals. Though He Zhili beat Yang Young-Ja, she left the team because of the incident and migrated to Japan.

Olympic Games

Koyama represented Japan at the

1996 Atlanta Games The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

and

2000 Sydney Games The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

. She reached the quarter final stage (singles) in both games.

Marriage

He Zhili married and later divorced, Hideyuki Koyama, a Japanese national and settled in Japan.Should we pardon Koyama Chire? by Hu Ziwei
Danwei 2007. Retrieved 9 March 2011 She adopted her husband's surname (her given name “Chire” is the Japanese pronunciation of the same Chinese characters of “Zhili”).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:He, Zhili Japanese female table tennis players Living people 1964 births Table tennis players at the 2000 Summer Olympics Table tennis players at the 1996 Summer Olympics Olympic table tennis players of Japan Chinese emigrants to Japan People who lost Chinese citizenship Naturalized citizens of Japan Table tennis players from Shanghai Asian Games medalists in table tennis Table tennis players at the 1986 Asian Games Table tennis players at the 1994 Asian Games Medalists at the 1986 Asian Games Medalists at the 1994 Asian Games Chinese female table tennis players Naturalised table tennis players Asian Games silver medalists for China Asian Games gold medalists for Japan Asian Games bronze medalists for Japan Japanese sportspeople of Chinese descent