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‘Don’t fault China for winning’
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CHINA’S dominance has made world table tennis uncompetitive but the only solution is for other nations to raise their games, the sport’s top official said on Wednesday.
The Rio Olympic table tennis competition kicks off tomorrow with Chinese players once again heavily favored to sweep the gold medals in their national sport.
“China has dominated our sport and of course it is better if you have, let’s say, a competition, and it was not (competitive) in the last world championships and the Olympics,” International Table Tennis Federation President Thomas Weikert said in Rio de Janeiro. “But it’s not the fault of the Chinese players that they are so good. So my opinion is that the others have to work very hard.”
China has won 24 of 28 gold medals and numerous silver and bronze since the event’s 1988 Olympic debut, leading to format changes aimed at giving other teams a shot at the podium.
After China’s sweep of all Olympic singles medals in Beijing in 2008, a rule change now limits nations to two contestants per gender, and the Chinese-dominated doubles competition was halted after Athens 2004.
China’s world No. 1 Ma Long and London gold medalist Zhang Jike are favored in men’s singles, while 2012 gold and silver medalists Liu Xiaoxia and Ding Ning are strong on the women’s side.
But Weikert said he was confident that steady improvement elsewhere, particularly Japan, Germany, and South Korea, could see others “close the gap” with China, saying he expected a “real fight” in Rio.
In fact other countries are working hard to close the gap, according to three players.
“Our federation is trying to make table tennis more popular in the country,” Belarus’ Vladimir Samsonov, ranked world no. 9, said on Wednesday.
“It’s very important that more players play table tennis... there’s always a bit of a chance that one of the kids will become one day a superstar who will be able to beat the top Chinese players.”
Brazil, whose women’s team will face the Chinese in the first team round, has made great strides in recent years by hiring a new coach and sending players to train in Germany, said Brazilian player Gustavo Tsuboi.
“From where we came from we have improved a lot,” said the world no. 64. “We now have three players (who are in the) top 100 in the world.”
Japan’s Ai Fukuhara, who trained for many years in China, said that to be as good as the Chinese squad was certainly an aim of hers and her teammates, and she was confident that one day they could beat them.
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