Ma Long knocks off ping pong Olympian Wang Liqin
Tuesday, 9th June 2009 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Ma Long in competiton at the 2009 China Table Tennis Open, Suzhou
According to his profile here (in Chinese), Ma started playing at the age of five. Ma was identified as a serious talent at the age of 13, at which time he moved to Beijing to train. He has been on the national team since 2003.
In pre-Olympic warmup matches last summer, Ma Long beat two of China's three 2008 Olympians, with victories over all but Wang Hao, the youngest player on the 2008 team. Two years ago, he beat eventual Olympic gold medallist Ma Lin on the way to his first professional title.
Ma Long on the cover of Table Tennis World magazine
In any other country, Ma Long would have had a spot on last year's Olympic team, but China didn't need him. China swept the table tennis events at the Olympics, with Ma Lin (马琳) winning gold, Wang Hao (王皓) winning silver and Wang Liqin taking bronze.
As an aside, while researching this article, I found out that Ma Long--literally horse dragon--is the Chinese transliteration for retired NBA great #Karl Malone!http://sports.sina.com.cn/star/karl_malone/#.
2009 Table Tennis Open image: Sports.cn
Table Tennis World magazine image: Baidu
Related:
China announces its table tennis team
Tags: Karl Malone, Ma Lin, Ma Long, table tennis, Wang Hao, Wang Liqin
China take men's, women's ping pong team gold
Tuesday, 19th August 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (1)
With last night's men's team table tennis gold medal, and the women's team title the night before, China is halfway to a sweep of the top spots in its national sport.
China defeated Germany in the men's final, which requires teams to play a mix of singles and doubles matches. Wang Hao and Ma Lin each won their singles matches easily, and then Wang Hao went on to win the doubles with partner Wang Liqin.
On Sunday, the women's team denied rivals Singapore an Olympic gold medal, with a 3-0 victory.
The singles competition for the women started yesterday, and for the men it begins today. Anything less than gold will be a disappointment, and China has the talent to sweep all three medals on both sides.
Finally, we'd like to take this occasion as an excuse to share a recent story from Titan Sports newspaper (below) about Wang Hao, whose mother apparently used to dress the ping pong phenom up like a little girl.
Tags: Ma Lin, Olympics, ping pong, Wang Hao
China Announces its Table Tennis Team
Thursday, 19th June 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
China officially announced its Olympic table tennis (ping pong) team yesterday. No surprises here—the three men and three women who will represent China at the Olympics in Beijing are the same six who have been cleaning up at competitions around the world this spring.Olympic table tennis is a 32-team, single-elimination format (with 48 teams competing in a qualifying round for the bottom 16 spots). Matches are best-of-five games. There are four events in the 2008 games—men's and women's singles and team championships.
The Chinese team will be led by Liu Guoliang. At 32 years of age, he's not much older than the players he coaches, but he has won four Olympic medals, including two golds. Liu will lead a table tennis dream team. Each player has at least one Olympic medal—together, they have won nine.
Wang Hao (王皓), silver medalist in singles at the Athens Olympics in 2004, goes into the Olympics as the number one player in International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) rankings. He is 24 years old and comes from Jilin province.
Ma Lin (马林), the world's number two player, won doubles gold in Athens along with Chen Qi (陈奇), who is currently ranked sixth in the world and is an alternate on China's 2008 Olympic team. The 28-year-old Ma comes from Liaoning.
At 1.86 meters (6'1"), Wang Liqin (王励勤) is lanky for a table tennis player. His long reach has helped him to a number-four world rank. He won a gold medal in doubles in the Sydney Olympics in 2000, and won singles bronze at the Athens games in 2004. He comes from Jiangsu and celebrated his 30th birthday yesterday (June 18).
Zhang Yining (张怡宁) is the top female player in the world and won two gold medals in 2004 at the Athens Olympics. She won the singles competition and took doubles gold with teammate Wang Nan. Zhang is a 27-year-old from Beijing.
Guo Yue (郭跃) is the youngest member of China's Olympic table tennis team. Despite the fact that she hasn't yet celebrated her 20th birthday, Guo already has an Olympic medal—she won the bronze in women's doubles in Athens. A left-handed player, she comes from Liaoning province.
Wang Nan (王楠) is the number four player in the world, but still a serious contender for Olympic gold. She has the most gold medals of any active player, male or female. She won singles and doubles gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. In 2004 in Athens, she won the doubles gold with Zhang Yining. She is 27 years old and comes from Liaoning.
The women's team's alternate is Li Xiaoxia, currently ranked third in the world.
The men will spend the next month training in Xiamen and the women will be in Zhengding.
Images: ITTF.com
Tags: Guo Yue, Liu Guoliang, Ma Lin, table tennis, Wan Liqin, Wang Hao, Wang Nan, Zhang Yining