Two players braved Sino-US frost with landmark '71 visit
(NEWSER) - It wasn't statesmen who broke China's 22 years of isolation from the West in 1971, but rather, Sports Illustrated notes, grown men with paddles. When Glenn Cowan accidentally jumped on the Chinese team bus during world table-tennis championships in Japan, star Zhuang Zedong brushed aside Mao's anti-capitalist harangues to greet the American and start building a bridge that will lead to August's Beijing Olympics. More»
