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