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.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #33 - Sun Yingsha

Sun Yingsha

China

Table Tennis

Overall Ranks

#2 among Chinese Olympians

#2 among Table Tennis Players

#1 among Female Table Tennis Players

Olympic Results

2020

Individual - Silver

Team - Gold

2024

Individual - Silver

Team - Gold

Mixed Doubles - Gold

Total

Events - 5

Gold - 3

Silver - 2

Sun Yingsha was born on November 4, 2000 in Shijiazhuang, China, and was trained in table tennis from an early age in a Chinese sports school. She made the national team at age 16, and competed in the 2018 Youth Olympic Games the next year, where she won gold in both the singles and team events. 

By the time the 2020 Olympics came around in 2021, she was ranked #2 in the world behind Chen Meng (#39), so the pair were selected to represent China in the singles event. After receiving a bye to the third round, Sun swept 4 straight opponents 4-0 to reach the final, but after beating Chen in the first game of their match, she lost 4 of the next 5 and ended up with the silver medal.

The medalists were joined by Wang Manyu, ranked #4 in the world, for the team event, where China had never lost. Out of 40 games played in 4 rounds, the trio lost only 4 games, a win percentage of 90%, and they easily won the gold medal over Japan, who was responsible for 2 of the games lost by China. It was the first Olympic gold medal for Sun.

In February 2022, Sun surpassed Chen to take over the world #1 ranking for the first time. She maintained that ranking long enough to be the #1 seed in the 2024 Olympics, and she was chosen to represent China in the mixed doubles event, along with Wang Chuqin, the #1 ranked male player. The pair had competed together for a while, and were the #1 ranked pair in the world as well.

The doubles competition was closer than they would have liked. After an easy sweep of Egypt in the first round, they fell behind Taiwan 2-1 in the quarterfinals, before winning 3 games in a row to advance. Their semifinal match against South Korea was the same story, with China rallying from 2-1 down in games to win 4-2 to advance to the final. They faced a surprising North Korean team in the final, and this time they never fell behind, but still needed 6 games to win the gold medal.

In the singles event, she was the #1 seed, but there were no longer byes for higher seeds. Instead, she had to face 5 rounds to reach the final, which she did again with 5 straight sweeps, leading to a rematch with Chen. She won the first game against Chen, then fell behind 2-1 before tying it up at 2-2, but Chen finished stronger, and repeated as gold medalist 4-2, while Sun had to settle for another silver.

The same trio returned for the team event, with Wang now ranked #3 in the world, and the top 3 players didn't let anyone else have a chance. This time, they won 36 of 41 total games to sweep every match, defeating Japan 9-3 in the final to repeat as gold medalists.

Sun remained the #1 ranked player in the world until 3 weeks ago, when she was surpassed by Wang, her teammate. She is still in position to compete in the 2028 Olympics, and she would definitely like to finally win an individual gold medal, but with the medals she has already earned, she is one of the greatest Olympians of all time regardless.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #39 - Chen Meng

Chen Meng

China

Table Tennis

Overall Ranks

#3 among Chinese Olympians

#3 among Table Tennis Players

#2 among Female Table Tennis Players

Olympic Results

2020

Singles - Gold

Team - Gold

2024

Singles - Gold

Team - Gold

Total

Events - 4

Gold - 4

Chen Meng was born on January 15, 1994 in Qingdao, China, and made her provincial team at age 9, and the national team when she was 13 in table tennis. She first reached the world #1 ranking in 2018. She finally earned one of the coveted spots on the Chinese Olympic table tennis team in 2020, and she finally made her Olympic debut in 2021, at age 27.

She was the #1 seed in the singles tournament, which meant that she got a bye to the third round. All matches were best of 7, and she started out strong, sweeping the first match, then winning 4-1 in the next. In the quarterfinal against Doo Hoi Kem of Hong Kong, she had a scare as she lost the first two games before rebounding to win 4 straight to move on to the semifinal. She swept her semifinal opponent to move on to the final, against Sun Yingsha, the other Chinese competitor, who was ranked #2 in the world. This match was very close, with Sun winning the 1st and 4th games, before Chen won the next two to end it and take home the gold medal.

In the team event Sun and Chen were joined by Wang Manyu, ranked #4 in the world, so they were the obvious favorites, and they destroyed the competition, winning 36 of 40 total games, and all 12 of their matches, as they swept their way to another gold medal for China in an event that they have never lost.

At the 2023 World Championships, Chen ended up winning the silver medal, with Sun defeating her for the gold. Both were back for the 2024 Olympics, with Sun as the top seed and Chen #2. This time there were no byes for top seeds, so they had to get through all 6 rounds, and Sun got to the final without losing a single game, while Chen lost 2 games early, but still made the final easily. The final went exactly as it had 3 years earlier in Tokyo, with Sun winning the first and 4th games, but Chen coming through by winning 2 in a row at the end to win the gold medal.

The team event featured the same three Chinese players, with Wang ranked #3 by that time, meaning that China had the three best players in the world all competing together. The result was almost exactly the same as in Tokyo as well, with China losing only 5 games out of 41, with 3 of those coming in the final against Japan, but the end result was another gold medal for China.

Chen, like Fan Zhendong (#73), has withdrawn from participation in international table tennis since the Olympics in protest of a new policy penalizing top players for skipping tournaments. She is not retired, and hopes to make the 2028 Olympic team, but it's unclear whether she will be allowed due to her current status. Even if she doesn't compete again, her 4 gold medals in the past 2 Olympics, both of which required a tough win over a top-2 player in the final, have already made her one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #69 - Zhang Yining

Zhang Yining

China

Table Tennis

Overall Ranks

#4 among Chinese Olympians

#4 among Table Tennis Players

#3 among Female Table Tennis Players

Olympic Results

2004

Singles - Gold

Doubles - Gold

2008

Singles - Gold

Team - Gold

Total

Events - 4

Gold - 4

Zhang Yining was born on October 5, 1981 in Beijing, China, and was trained in table tennis from the time she was a child. She first competed in the World Championships in 1999, when she was still 17 years old, and in early 2003, she reached #1 in the world rankings, which she would hold for more than 6.5 years straight.

Her first Olympic appearance came in 2004 in Athens. In the doubles event, she was paired with Wang Nan, who had won gold in 2000 in both the singles and doubles events. They were given a bye to the 4th round as the top seed, then swept their first opponent 4-0 in that round. The next two matches were a little closer, with 4-2 wins over Hong Kong and the other Chinese team, followed by a sweep of the South Koreans in the gold medal match.

In the singles event, Wang was the favorite, since she was defending Olympic champions and 3-time defending world champion. Wang, however, was upset in the quarterfinal round, while Zhang had no trouble with any other her opponents, losing only 2 games in the entire tournament. In the final, against Kim Hyang-Mi of North Korea, she won in a sweep, 44-19 in total points, and only 26 minutes actually spent on the court, making it the most dominant table tennis final in Olympic history.

She won the world championship for the first time in 2005, but came in third in 2007, heading into the 2008 Beijing Olympics. That year, the doubles event was replaced with a team event, in which the Chinese were heavy favorites. They swept their way through the tournament, losing only 4 games out of 49 played, 2 of those coming in the final against Singapore, whose 3 players were all Chinese nationals who had moved to Singapore to play table tennis.

Zhang was the favorite in the singles event, as the defending champion, and she again made easy work of the tournament. She won her first match in a 4-0 sweep, then won each of her next four matches 4 games to 1, including a defeat of Wang Nan in the gold medal match, where Wang won the first game, then Zhang took 4 in a row to take a repeat gold.

Zhang again won the world championship in 2009, then retired to start a family. At her retirement, she was defending World and Olympic champion, and the top-ranked player in the world. She initially indicated that she intended to compete in London in 2012, but that never happened, and she has remained retired. Even with her short Olympic career, she absolutely dominated all 4 events in which she participated, making her one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #73 - Fan Zhendong

Fan Zhendong

China

Table Tennis

Overall Ranks

#6 among Chinese Olympians

#5 among Table Tennis Players

#2 among Male Table Tennis Players

Olympic Results

2020

Singles - Silver

Team - Gold

2024

Singles - Gold

Team - Gold

Total

Events - 4

Gold - 3

Silver - 1

Fan Zhendong was born on January 22, 1997 in Guangzhou, China, and began training to play table tennis at the age of 5, and by the time he was 15, he had won the national youth table tennis championship. He won his first individual world championship medal at age 18, a bronze, followed by a silver in 2017.

In 2021, he was finally chosen to represent China in the Olympics, and making the Chinese Olympic table tennis team is tougher than winning an Olympic medal. Fan was given the #1 seed in the singles event, earning him a bye to the third round. Matches were played in a best of 7 games format, and Fan lost only one game in his first three rounds, putting him in the semifinal.

In the semifinal, he faced Lin Yun-Ju of Taiwan, and it was a close battle, going the full 7 games, with only 2 games not being decided by 2 points, the minimum for a win. It went back and forth, but in the end, Fan won the decisive 7th game 11-8 to advance to the final, where he would face the other Chinese player, Ma Long, who was the #3 seed. Ma won the first game 11-4, before Fan evened it up. Ma then won two in a row, then allowed Fan an 11-3 win in game 5 before finishing him off 11-7 in the sixth game. The upset loss left Fan with a silver medal.

In the team event, the pair was joined by Xu Xin, giving China the three top players in the world in the event. As expected, they never lost a game, winning all 4 of their matches 3 games to 0, sweeping their way to an easy gold medal.

In 2024, Fan was again chosen to be one of China's two representatives in the singles event, and this time, there were no byes for top seeds. He again won his first 3 matches with only 1 game lost, putting him in the quarterfinals. In that round, Tomokazu Harimoto of Japan jumped out to a lead of 2 games to none, forcing Fan to win 4 of the final 5 games in order to advance to the semifinal.

In the semifinal, he faced Felix Lebrun of France, a 17-year-old who had just burst onto the scene. He quickly put him away in 4 games, which put him in the final against Truls Moregardh of Sweden. Moregardh won the first game 11-7, but then Fan beat him in 4 straight games to take home the individual gold medal, with only 5 games lost in the entire tournament. 

In the team event, Fan and Ma were joined by Wang Chuqin, who was ranked #1 in the world at the time of the Olympics. As usual, the Chinese dominated, winning all four matches 3 games to zero, and giving the team another totally expected gold medal.

Immediately following the Olympics, Fan announced his retirement from international competition in protest of a new rule that fined top players for skipping major tournaments. He has not ruled out an attempt to compete in the 2028 Olympics, however, but he would have to face the Chinese Olympic trials without facing outside competition for 4 years. No matter what happens for him going forward, he has already proven in the past 2 Olympics that he is one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #133 - Li Xiaoxia

Li Xiaoxia

China

Table Tennis

Overall Ranks

#9 among Chinese Olympians

#6 among Table Tennis Players

#4 among Female Table Tennis Players

Olympic Results

2012

Singles - Gold

Team - Gold

2016

Singles - Silver

Team - Gold

Total

Events - 4

Gold - 3

Silver - 1

Li Xiaoxia was born on January 16, 1988 in Anshan, China, and began her training in table tennis as a young girl at one of China's national sports schools. She made her first World Championship appearance at age 18, and by 2008, at the age of 20, she became the #1 player in the world for the first time, not long after that year's Olympics had passed.

Even ranked #1, she only managed to take 3rd place in the 2009 World Championships, and second place in 2011, but she still qualified for the 2012 Olympic team. She entered the singles event as the #2 seed, and after being pushed to 6 sets by her first opponent, Ariel Hsing of the USA, she rolled through the remainder of the tournament, culminating with an upset of #1 seed Ding Ning in the gold medal match in 5 sets.

After that, the two medalists teamed up to sweep through the team event without losing a single set, earning her a second gold medal. The next year, she won her first World Championship, and she continued to be ranked among the world's best clear up until the following Olympics in 2016, where she again made the cut for both events.

This time, she was seeded #3 for the individual event, but that didn't stop her at all, as she didn't lose a single set on her way to a rematch with Ding Ning in the gold medal match. She led the final match 3 sets to 2 before Ding won the final two sets to take the gold, leaving Li with the silver even though she lost only 4 sets total in the entire tournament.

The team event went exactly as expected, with the dominant Chinese team blanking all opponents on the way to yet another gold medal, the third for Li in her 2 Olympic appearances. She announced her retirement soon afterward, but even with just 4 Olympic events, she easily established herself as one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #147 - Ding Ning

Ding Ning

China

Table Tennis

Overall Ranks

#10 among Chinese Olympians

#7 among Table Tennis athletes

#5 among Female Chinese Table Tennis Athletes

Olympic Results

2012

Singles - Silver

Team - Gold

2016

Singles - Gold

Team - Gold

Total

Events - 4

Gold - 3

Silver - 1

Ding Ning was born on June 20, 1990 in Daqing, China, and by the age of 5 had begun training for a career in table tennis. She was assigned to study at Xiannongtan Sports School, and by age 19 had made the national team.

She had her first major individual victories in 2011, when she won both the World Championship and the World Cup of table tennis. She entered the 2012 Olympics as the #1 ranked player in the world, and the favorite to win the gold medal, with her Chinese teammate Li Xiaoxia picked to win the silver.

Individual matches in the Olympics are played in a best of 7 format, and Ding lost only 3 games on the way to the final, while Li lost 4. In the final showdown, Li won the first two games by a small margin, then lost the third to Ding, before taking the final two games to take the gold and leave Ding with the individual silver.

The two finalists teamed up with Guo Yue in the team competition next, and the three Chinese swept through the entire tournament without losing a single game, earning the trio gold medals, the second for Guo and Li, but the first for Ding.

Leading up to the 2016 Olympics, Ding again won the World Championship in 2015, and was again the #1 seed in the singles tournament, where she dominated the competition on her way back to the gold medal match, losing only a single game along the way. The final was a rematch with Li, and it was an extremely close match, going all the way to 7 games, with Ding winning the final 2 to take the gold medal 4-3.

The two finalists again competed in the team event with a new teammate, first-time Olympian Liu Shiwen, but the result was exactly the same, with the Chinese winning every single game on its way to another gold medal.

Ding won another World Championship in 2017, but did not make the Chinese team for the 2020 games, as only 2 are allowed from each nation. She retired in 2021 to pursue a masters degree in physical education, and last year she was appointed the principal of the same sports school she attended as a child.

China has dominated the table tennis events at the Olympics since they were added, and Ding Ning is one of the best athletes to come from the country during that time, with her only loss coming in an Olympic final to a fellow countryman, making her one of the greatest Olympic athletes of all time.