Paris Olympics: What to know and who to watch during the table tennis competition
China's Wang Chuqin returns a ball from Hong Kong's Wong Chun Ting during the Table Tennis Men's Singles semi-final match for the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, Monday, Oct. 2, 2023. No. 1 in the men's singles ranking, Wang was an alternate for the Chinese team at the Tokyo Games. Credit: AP/Ng Han Guan
A roadmap to follow for the table tennis competition at the Paris Olympics:
Athletes to Watch
—Ma Long, China: The 35-year-old table tennis icon is the reigning Olympic champion. He also won the Olympic gold medal in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
—Sun Yingsha, China: Sun is the top-ranked woman and helped China win gold at the Tokyo Games in the women's team competition.
—Wang Chuqin, China: No. 1 in the men's singles ranking, Wang was an alternate for the Chinese team at the Tokyo Games.
—Felix Lebrun, France: The 17-year-old Lebrun is considered one of the rising stars in the sport. At No. 5 in the world, Lebrun is the highest-ranked player from anywhere outside of China.
—Timo Boll, Germany: The 43-year-old will retire from international table tennis after the Paris Games, ending a 25-year career. He will become the sixth table tennis player to participate in seven different Olympic Games.
China's Ma Long serves the ball during the table tennis men's team gold medal match against Germany's Timo Boll at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Friday, Aug. 6, 2021, in Tokyo. The 35-year-old table tennis icon is the reigning Olympic and World Cup singles champion. He also won the Olympic gold medal in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. Credit: AP/Kin Cheung
Storylines to Follow
—China aims to increase its dominance of the sport that was added to the Olympic program at Seoul in 1988. Chinese athletes have won 32 of the 37 gold medals so far, and 60 of the 115 total medals. The only other nations to have won gold medals are South Korea (three) and Japan and Sweden (one each).
—Young brothers Felix and Alexis Lebrun have quickly risen through the ranks and could be vying for medals at their home Olympics. Both were ranked over 750th in the world in 2022, and are now in the top 20. They played for France when it lost to China in the world team championships final in February.
—Ni Xialian of Luxembourg will be the oldest table tennis player in Paris at age 61, while Miwa Harimoto of Japan will be the youngest at age 16.
China's Sun Yingsha returns to China's Wang Yidi during the final in the World Table Tennis Cup Finals in Singapore, Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2021. Sun is the top-ranked woman and the defending World Cup singles champion. She also helped China win gold at the Tokyo Games in the women's team competition. Credit: AP/Paul Miller
—One-armed Brazilian player Bruna Alexandre will be competing in both the Olympics and the Paralympics Games.
—India will be making its first team appearance, while there will be first-time players from Madagascar, Maldives, Nepal and Moldova.
Key Dates
The table tennis competition runs July 27 to Aug. 10. The singles events take place in the first week with the women's final on Aug. 3 and the men's final on Aug. 4. The team events are staged in the second week, with men's medals awarded on Aug. 9 and the women's team medals on Aug. 10.
Reigning Champions
Women’s singles: Chen Meng, China.
Women’s team: China (Chen Meng, Sun Yingsha and Wang Manyu).
Men’s singles: Ma Long, China
Men’s team: China (Fan Zhendong, Ma Long and Xu Xin).
Mixed doubles: Japan (Jun Mizutani and Mima Ito).
