Table Tennis and the Olympic Games
Posted by Jeff Plumb on August 11th, 2008
Table Tennis is the National Sport of China and hence their most popular sport for the Olympic Games. There are over 19 million registered Table Tennis players in China which is not far from the entire population of Australia. Table Tennis is one of the top 5 televised sports throughout the world during the Olympics. If you are in Australia though unfortunately you won’t see as much of it as other countries. However checkout SBS for some coverage.
China Still the One
China has won an incredible 16 out of 20 Gold Medals that have been fought over since 1988 when Table Tennis first made an appearance at the Olympics in Seoul. The home crowd are expecting a clean sweep this year and this will certainly add some pressure to the Chinese team. Although the Mens team is the strongest in the world, none of them have ever been crowned Olympic Singles Champion. In Athens four years ago, South Korean Ryu Seung Min stunned the world by beating the then 20-year-old Wang Hao to claim the most-coveted men’s singles gold, the third Olympic gold medal for his country. Eight-ranked Ryu said recently that he felt no pressure to defend his gold medal.
Wang Hao Favourite
Wang Hao has shown great form over the last year with some people saying he is unbeatable here in Beijing. However Ryu (defending Olympic Champion) has other ideas. “I know Wang Hao is showing great form. But he is human too, and he can be beaten”, said Ryu. Ryu is famous for his fast footwork, explosive forehand loops and nerves of steel. It was these attributes that enabled him to prevail as victor in Athens four years ago.
However this time around with a home crowd, I believe that Wang Hao is the favourite and Ryu will struggle to back up and become double Olympic Champion.
Other Hopefuls
European champion Timo Boll of Germany and fifth-ranked veteran Vladimir Samsonov of Belarus are also determined to derail the Chinese juggernaut at the Beijing Games. Both of these players have the skills to cause an upset and the Chinese will not take them lightly. The scene is well and truly set for an amazing competition.
Results of the Olympic Games
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Ji-Soo
commented on August 12th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Jeff, I know you represented Australia in the 2000 Olympics and was wondering how you went.
Jeff Plumb
commented on August 12th, 2008 at 11:01 pm
Hi Ji-Soo,
We were pretty happy with our efforts. I played in the doubles with Brett Clarke and our first match was on the morning after the opening ceremony. It was an elimation round to get to the main draw meaning that if we lost we were out of the games. My whole family had turned up to watch and there was an amazing crowd of 3000 people cheering for us. I think that put our Cuban opponents (Francisco Arado/Ruben Arado) off a little and we got off to a great start winning the first set 21-12. I could tell they were a little nervous. In the second set however they settled down and played much better and actually led us 18-20. However thanks to the great support we won the next 4 point and claimed the set 22-20 and the match!
It was the first time Australia had ever won a Mens doubles match at the Olympics so we were both very proud. That put us into the main section which consisted of round robins with groups of 3 countries.
We came up against Yugoslavia (Ilija Lupulesku and Slobodan Grujic) who proved far too strong beating us 21-8, 21-7. And then Germany (Timo Boll and Joerg Rosskopf) who beat us 21-10, 21-10. Timo Boll went on to become the number one player in the World and Rosskopf was the 1989 World Mens Doubles Champion so were still very happy with our efforts.
I’m now really looking forward to see how the Aussie team goes in Beijing. I’m hoping that William Henzell can pull off something spectacular for us but it is going to be tough!