Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #30 - Ma Long

Ma Long

China

Table Tennis

Overall Ranks

#1 among Chinese Olympians

#1 among Table Tennis Players

Olympic Results

2012

Team - Gold

2016

Individual - Gold

Team - Gold

2020

Individual - Gold

Team - Gold

2024

Team - Gold

Total

Events - 6

Gold - 6

Ma Long was born on October 20, 1988 in Anshan, China, and won the World Junior Championship singles event when he was just 15. When he was 17, he won a team gold medal in the adult World Championships, the youngest ever to win gold there. He became the #1 player in the world just after turning 21, but fell from that ranking prior to the 2012 Olympics, and was selected to play only in the team event.

China was heavily favored in the team event, so it was a bit of a surprise when Russia beat Ma and Wang Hao in a doubles match, 3 games to 2. China swept their 3 singles matches, however, including one by Ma, so they still advanced 3 matches to 1. They had no trouble with Singapore in the next round, but in the semifinal, world #1 Zhang Jike lost his match to Germany's Timo Boll, but Ma won both of his, and China advanced to the final 3-1.

In the final, they faced South Korea, and won all 3 of their matches easily, only dropping 2 games, and China won the gold medal, though they had a little more trouble than expected along the way, and Ma had the first gold medal of what would become a legendary career.

He really started to put it all together in 2015. He started winning nearly every tournament he entered, including his first singles world championship, and he moved back to #1 in the world in March, a spot he wouldn't relinquish until early 2018. As a result, he finally got a chance to compete in singles at the Olympics.

He was given a bye to the third round thanks to his #1 ranking, and he won his first match easily, 4 games to none. He fell behind 2-0 in his next match, but won the next four games in a row to advance to the quarterfinals. He pulled off another sweep there, then took a 3-0 lead in his semifinal before having to battle it out to win in 6 games. He faced Zhang in the final, and this time he didn't let up, winning in 4 straight games to win his first individual Olympic gold.

That pair was joined by Xu Xin in the team event, and this time, they didn't allow their opponents to have a chance, unlike their run 4 years earlier. They did not lose a match in their first 3 rounds, winning 27 out of 33 total games, which put them in the final against Japan. In the final, Xu lost his singles match, but China won their other 3, including two singles wins from Ma, to take the team gold.

He successfully defended his world championship twice before the next Olympics, making him an easy choice to represent China in the singles event again, even though he was only ranked #3 in the world and the country at the time. He was joined by world #1 Fan Zhendong (#73). Both got byes into the third round due to their ranking.

Ma actually lost a game in each of his first 3 matches, but came through to win each one 4 games to 1. In the semifinal, he faced Dimitrij Ovtcharov of Germany, and the match ended up taking more than an hour, as it kept going back and forth. Ma won the first two games, then Ovtcharov tied it up, Ma won the fifth game, then lost the 6th, and ended up winning 11-9 in the decisive 7th game to reach the final.

Fan had had just as much trouble in his semifinal, but he also won to make the final an All-China event once again. Ma and Fan split the first two games, but then Ma took a 3-1 lead before Fan won another to make it 3-2. In the sixth game, Ma finally got the victory with an 11-7 score to make him the first man ever to repeat as singles Olympic champion.

In the team event, they were joined again by Xu, and looked to dominate with the world's three best players, which is exactly what they did. They won every match, and lost only 7 total games in the tournament, with the win coming when Ma beat Boll 3 games to 1 in the third match of the final, which gave him his fifth Olympic gold, one more than any other table tennis player in history.

By 2024, Ma was no longer the player he had been in his youth, but was selected to compete in his 4th Olympics, this time just in the team event. Ma competed only in the doubles matches throughout the event, paired with Wang Chuqin, and the pair never lost a game on their way to the final, where China faced Sweden. The Swedish were a surprise, coming from the 7th seed to reach the final, but they put up a fight, losing all 3 matches 3-2, by far the closest China had ever come to losing the event, but it was enough for Ma to earn his unprecedented 6th gold medal.

Ma is still playing in tournaments, and even winning some, but he withdrew from the world rankings at the end of 2024, meaning that he is most likely done with Olympic competition, not that he needs to compete again. He has participated in 6 Olympic events, and won gold in all 6, two more gold medals than any other table tennis player in history, and he is the only man to win the singles title twice. He is definitely one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

NFL Rankings - 15 Oct

The two top teams both won last weekend, but both games were much closer than they would have liked, so neither has as good a rating as before, but they still maintained the top 2 spots. Dallas is now the favorite to win the terrible NFC East, while Green Bay came shooting up out of the basement with their blowout of the Bears, but is still short of a wild card spot. Here are my full current rankings and playoff picks:

				Actual		Proj
Rank	LW	Team	Rating	W	L	W	L	Seed
1	1	Jacksonville	-11.07	4	1	14	3	A1
2	2	San Francisco	-9.381	5	0	14	3	N1
3	5	Minnesota	-8.68	5	0	13	4	N2
4	3	Kansas City	-8.627	4	0	13	4	A2
5	11	New England	-7.68	3	2	11	6	A3
6	4	Chicago	-6.147	3	2	10	7	N5
7	9	Cincinnati	-4.907	3	2	11	6	A4
8	8	Carolina	-4.058	2	2	10	7	N3
9	15	Buffalo	-3.818	4	1	11	6	A5
10	12	Seattle	-2.73	3	2	10	7	N6
11	17	Pittsburgh	-2.458	3	2	10	7	A7
12	13	Atlanta	-1.47	2	3	8	9
13	7	Denver	-1.422	3	2	9	8	OUT
14	21	Detroit	-1.412	3	2	9	8
15	28	Green Bay	-1.196	3	2	9	8
16	6	Las Vegas	-1.044	3	2	9	8	N7
17	16	Baltimore	-1.04	4	1	10	7	A6
18	10	LA Rams	-0.175	2	3	8	9	OUT
19	14	Cleveland	0.0455	3	2	9	8	OUT
20	24	Tampa Bay	0.277	1	4	7	10
21	22	NY Jets	1.3141	2	3	7	10
22	18	Indianapolis	2.9426	2	3	8	9
23	29	Houston	2.9785	1	4	7	10
24	19	Dallas	3.3435	2	3	8	9	N4
25	25	New Orleans	3.9264	1	4	6	11
26	27	Philadelphia	5.1041	2	3	7	10
27	20	Miami	5.517	0	5	4	13
28	23	NY Giants	6.6423	3.5	1.5	8	9	OUT
29	30	LA Chargers	9.4226	0	5	3	14
30	32	Washington	9.8602	1.5	3.5	5	12
31	26	Arizona	10.353	1	4	4	13
32	31	Tennessee	13.055	0	5	2	15

Playoff Picks

Wild Card

(2) Chiefs over (7) Steelers

(3) Patriots over (6) Ravens

(4) Bengals over (5) Bills

(2) Vikings over (7) Raiders

(3) Panthers over (6) Seahawks

(5) Bears over (4) Cowboys

Divisional

(1) Jaguars over (4) Bengals

(2) Chiefs over (3) Patriots

(1) 49ers over (5) Bears

(2) Vikings over (3) Panthers

Conference

(1) Jaguars over (2) Chiefs

(1) 49ers over (2) Vikings

Super Bowl

(1) Jaguars over (1) 49ers

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #31 - Jesse Owens

Jesse Owens

USA

Athletics

Overall Ranks

#10 among American Olympians

#7 among Track & Field Athletes

#7 among Male American Olympians

#5 among American Track & Field Athletes

#5 among Male Track & Field Athletes

#4 among American Male Track & Field Athletes

Olympic Results

1936

100m - Gold

200m - Gold

4x100m Relay - Gold

Long Jump - Gold

Total

Events - 4

Gold - 4

James Cleveland Owens was born on September 12, 1913 in Oakville, Alabama, and moved to Cleveland with his family when he was 9 years old. He went by his initials, JC, when he was young, but his new teacher in Cleveland misunderstood his southern accent when he gave his name, and from then on he was known as Jesse.

He grew up in a poor family, so he had to work after school to help support his family, but the junior high track coach allowed him to practice before school. During his senior year of high school, he tied the world record in the 100 yard dash. He later went to Ohio State, where he won 8 NCAA titles in just 2 years, which is still the most NCAA titles by any athlete in history.

While at Ohio State, he also had what has been called the greatest 45 minutes in sports history. At the Big Ten Championships, he set 6 world records in less than an hour, going straight from one event to the next, including the 100 yard dash, long jump, 220 yard dash, 220 yard hurdles, 200 meters, and 200 meter hurdles.

The next year, he represented the USA at the Berlin Olympics. His first event was the 100m, where he showed his skill by outrunning the entire competition, with teammate Ralph Metcalfe coming in just 0.1 second behind, but Owens' time tied the Olympic record, and earned him his first gold medal.

He was the favorite in the long jump, where he was the world record holder. He had the best qualifying jump at 7.64 meters, then took the lead immediately in the final with a jump of 7.74 meters. His next jump of 7.87 would have been enough to win gold by itself, but he beat that jump 2 more times, finishing up with a leap of 8.06 meters, destroying the old Olympic record of 7.76 meters and winning a second gold medal.

The next day, he competed in the 200m, where he was now the favorite after what he had done the previous 2 days. He broke the Olympic record by 0.5 seconds, and set a new world record as well, finishing 0.4 seconds ahead of Mack Robinson, who is best known as the older brother of Jackie Robinson. This was his third gold medal in 3 days.

He was initially not expected to run in the 4x100m relay, but the coach decided to switch up the lineup at the last minute by removing a couple of Jewish athletes from the event. Jesse ran the lead-off leg in both the heats and the final, and they set world records in both rounds, finishing with 39.8 seconds in the final, and they beat Italy by 1.3 seconds to take an easy gold.

Owens faced a lot of struggles after returning to America. Despite being honored by a parade and reception on his return, he was still forced to enter the hotel where the banquet was held by the back entrance due to his race. He later had to resort to racing against horses, motorcycles, and cars in exhibitions in order to earn money. He began smoking during the 1940s, and it eventually led to his early death of lung cancer in 1980.

In his lone Olympic appearance, Owens won gold in all 4 events he entered, and he did the whole thing right in front of Adolf Hitler, who considered black athletes to be inferior to whites. Not only did he win gold in each event, but he set Olympic records in each event, and world records in two of them. His cultural impact may be the largest of any Olympic athlete ever, but his athletic achievements easily make him one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #32 - Toyokazu Nomura

Toyokazu Nomura

Japan

Judo

Overall Ranks

#4 among Japanese Olympians

#1 among Judoka

Olympic Results

1972

Half-Middleweight - Gold

Total

Events - 1

Gold - 1

Toyokazu Nomura was born on July 14, 1949 in Koryo, Japan, into a family of judoka. His father owned a local judo dojo, and his brother was a coach. He won silver medals in the lightweight division at the World Championships in both 1969 and 1971, then won the Japanese championship in half-middleweight in 1972, which earned him their spot on the Olympic team.

It was only the second time that judo was being contested at the Olympics, after it debuted 8 years earlier in Tokyo. Some people weren't sure whether he would be able to win the gold, as he had recently moved up a weight class, and had never won the world title at the lower weight. 

He was given a first-round bye, and in his first match, he beat his Taiwanese opponent by ippon, the highest score possible in judo, in just 57 seconds. His next two matches each took over 3 minutes each, but he won each by ippon as well. That moved him to the semifinal, where he scored his 4th straight ippon, this time in 3:39, which put him in the final. The final wasn't even a contest, as he threw his opponent in just 27 seconds to secure the gold medal to earn his first major international title and his first Olympic gold medal.

He won the world championship the next year, further legitimizing his Olympic gold, then retired to become a schoolteacher. He is the only judoka in Olympic history with a perfect record of winning every bout by ippon, the equivalent of winning every boxing match by knockout, which makes him one of the greatest Olympians of all time.