Some sad news to pass along as one of China's former table tennis veterans, Zhuang Zedong, died in Beijing on Sunday. He was 73. A multi-world championship, Zhuang is known for his participation in Sino-U.S. ping-pong diplomacy in the 1970s.

Born in 1940, Zhuang started his table tennis career at the age of 14. Zhuang won the world men's singles championship three times between 1961 and 1965.

During the 1971 World Table Tennis Championship in Japan, Zhuang made friends with US table tennis player, Glenn Cowan, and together they started the so called "Ping Pong Diplomacy" which eventually led to the normalization of Sino-US relationships.