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
Is Chinese table tennis hurting the sport?
Wednesday, 6th May 2009 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
China continued its table tennis dominance at the recent Table Tennis World Championships in Yokohama, Japan, with all events ending in all-China finals. Wang Hao beat Wang Liqin for the men's singles title, and Zhang Yining beat rising star Guo Yue for the women's crown.While China likes gold medals just as much as anyone, its officials realize that such thorough dominance of a sport could be too much of a good thing.
"If one team keeps winning all at the world championships and Olympics, table tennis' Olympic future is in danger," Yao Zhenxu, vice chairman of the Chinese Table Tennis Association, or CTTA (Xinhua).
To address the problem, the CTTA has announced a plan to help elevate the level of play globally, by sending more Chinese coaches abroad and sharing research on techniques and training, as well as welcoming foreign players to China's domestic league. CTTA chief Cai Zhenhua calls this the association's top priority this year.
Related: China announces its table tennis team
Tags: Guo Yue, ping pong, table tennis, Wang Hao, Wang Liqin, Zhang Yining
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
China's Skeleton Squad Tops Medal Standings at USA Diving Grand Prix
Monday, 12th May 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
There was no Guo Jingjing and no Tian Liang. But even with a "B" team, the Chinese diving squad managed to lead the medal count at the USA Diving Grand Prix in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, over the weekend.China took three golds, two silvers and two bronzes. The 16-year-old Wang Hao had a great weekend, winning the women's 10-meter platform competition, and taking the 10-meter synchro with her partner Kang Li. The scaled-down team that China sent allowed other countries' athletes to place in more events—the United States and Australia won five medals each.
Though the American divers had a good meet, it wasn't a sign that they are ready to challenge the hold that China has on the sport. U.S. coach Ron O'Brien told the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel that for the U.S. team, two medals in Beijing would be acceptable and four or five would be "very good." The Chinese, on the other hand, have gold medal contenders (not to mention silver and bronze) in all eight Olympic events.
Here are some first-hand accounts and quotes from various media about the event:
International Herald-Tribune: Chinese fall short on final day of USA Diving Grand Prix
Washington Post: U.S. Divers Can Compete, but Chinese Temper the Excitement
"You have seven or eight [additional Chinese] men -- or arguably more -- who will all be vying for the top three" places in Beijing, said Matt Scoggin, [U.S. national team diver Troy] Dumais's coach at the University of Texas.
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel:
China continues diving dominance in preparation for Olympics
"I am surmising that the goal is for China to win gold and silver in every individual event and win all four golds in the synchronized and sweep the Olympics for the first time ever." (U.S. coach Ron O'Brien)
Tags: diving, Wang Hao