Among the six countries that have always have both male and female representation in the table tennis event of the Olympic Games, Nigeria made the list while others are Canada, China, India, Japan, Korea Republic and the United States… “It’s extremely hard to make it to the national team”. The last time a player from another country won gold in one of the sport’s four categories was at the 2004 Athens Games: South Korea’s Ryu Seung-Min won men’s singles gold, while China’s Wang Hao earned silver and Wang Liqin, also from China, took bronze.
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China has won 24 of the 28 Olympic gold medals awarded in the sport.
The rule has meant several big names will not be in Rio for the August 5-21 Games, including women’s No. 1 Liu Shiwen, who selectors overlooked in favor of Li Xiaoxia and Ding Ning.
Still, the 25-year-old Shiwen – who won gold in team at this year’s World Championships – will get to compete in that competition alongside her Chinese compatriots. Toriola’s biggest achievement at the Olympic Games has been reaching the Men’s Singles Round of 16 final at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, beating amongst others former world number 1 Jean-Michel Saive as well as David Zhuang.
China’s dominance is so pronounced that table tennis bosses worry it discourages other countries from competing, with one International Table Tennis Federation chief describing China’s hegemony as “devastating” for the sport.
For the past years, Kwon said she pushed the athletes with rigorous training, working from 5 a.m.to 8 p.m. Lariba was her top pupil as she worked to move up her ranking into the world top 200.
While China has the top three women’s spots now in the world rankings, there are three Japanese in the top 10, as well as one player each from Germany and Singapore.
For men, China takes the top four spots, but after that comes players from Germany, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Belarus and South Korea.
The United States has never medaled in table tennis, but there is excitement about the future. Kanak Jha, now 16, was the youngest male to qualify for table tennis in Olympic history when he made the US team in April while still 15.
Syria will send its first player to an Olympic table tennis tournament, despite a long, calamitous war. However, China did not let him compete in the singles competition at the London 2012 Games (he still helped his country win gold in men’s team).
The table tennis competitions at the Rio Games will feature hundreds of storylines, but these five are the most exciting.
The 19-year-old is now ranked No. 713 in the world.
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She has competed in worldwide competitions before, including the 2016 Asian Olympic qualifiers and the World Tour Qatar Open.
