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 dominant in Paralympics
Tuesday, 16th September 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Archer Chen Changjie celebrates his gold medal.
China is tops in seven different disciplines: archery (2 gold, 7 total); athletics (34 gold, 64 total); goalball (1 gold, 2 total); judo (4 gold, 7 total); powerlifting (8 gold, 12 total); table tennis (10 gold, 18 total); wheelchair fencing (5 gold, 9 total).
Unlike in the Olympics, China is a force in the pool at the Paralympics, finishing second to the United States with 13 gold medals to the USA's 17. The hosts actually led the overall medal count in swimming, with 52 to the United States' 44.
Athletics will dominate today's schedule, with 26 of its remaining 31medals to be awarded. Football, wheelchair basketball, wheelchair rugby, table tennis and wheelchair fencing also have gold medal competitions over the next two days.
Chen Changjie image: Paralympic.beijing2008.cn
Tags: archery, athletics, Beijing, goalball, gold medals, judo, Paralympics, powerlifting, table tennis, wheelchair fencing
The Ping Pong Diplomats
Tuesday, 24th June 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
The following was contributed by Beijing resident Michael Pigott. Want to share something going on in your corner of China? Go to our contribute page.Beijing—Foreign diplomats living in Beijing received a taste of China's national sport when they participated in the 2008 Diplomats' Table Tennis Tournament
The Serbian Embassy made it to the semi-finals.
The winner of the women's singles competition was Poland's Beata Sudar and the runner-up was the Philippines' Myca Magnolia Fischer. The team competition was taken out by Indonesia, who defeated the tournament's surprise packet Iran in the hard-fought final. The winning Indonesian team comprised two players, Bambang Purstyadi and Firdaus Amir.
The tournament's draw and its referees were organised by the Chinese Table Tennis Association (CTTA), which gave the tournament a professional touch. The holding of the tournament, which carried the theme 'Rally for friendship and harmony', coincided with the 50th day before the opening of the Beijing Olympic Games.
Tags: Chinese Table Tennis Association, Diplomats' Table Tennis Tournament, ping pong, recreation, table tennis
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
Hu Won?
Sunday, 11th May 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Southern Metropolis Daily, May 9
On a diplomatic visit to Japan last week, 65-year-old Chinese President Hu Jintao played a table tennis match against two of the sport's stars and won. He beat Chinese Olympic champion player Wang Nan and a Japanese player, Ai Fukuhara, who has played for some Chinese teams. In the above photo, Wang is standing to the left of Hu in her red Team China jersey; Ai is shaking his hand.
Hu's match puts a distinctively Chinese twist on the great tradition of political leaders demonstrating their health with displays of athleticism. Today we have President Bush's bike rides and Vladimir Putin's topless fishing trips. And back in 1966, Mao Tsetung (in his early 70s) took a highly publicized swim in the Yangtze River, reportedly finishing 15 km in 65 minutes.
Related: The National Pastime (language lesson)
Image: Danwei.org
Tags: Hu Jintao, table tennis, Wang Nan
The National Pastime
Tuesday, 29th April 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
It's China's national sport, and probably the only game that even the most bookish grade school student here can beat their foreign English teacher at. Since ping pong (aka table tennis or 乒乓球, ping pang qiu) became an Olympic sport in 1988, China has won 90 percent of the gold medals and 60 percent of silvers.For a primer on talking about ping pong in Chinese, check out this lesson from ChinesePod's Olympic series. Warning: This is an upper-intermediate lesson, so it is all in Chinese.
China also exports ping-pong talent all over the world. This article by Christopher Rhoads in the Wall Street Journal discusses how immigrants to the United States have impacted the game there and highlights the mixed feelings that can create among homegrown talent.
Tags: ChinesePod, language study, ping pong, table tennis