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Here’s an article that came out during the 2016 Rio Olympics about China’s dominance in table-tennis at the Olympics.
China is the most dominant a country is in any sport at the Olympics. Kenya in the 3,000-meter steeplechase has a higher “dominance score” but they are allowed 3 entrants per event where as China in singles is only allowed 2. Also, there is no comparison as table-tennis is one of the biggest sports worldwide and steeplechase is far from it. China in table-tennis has won a higher percentage of gold medals than the US in basketball which is the next most dominant country in a sport.
Besides Sweden challenging Chinese dominance from 1989-2000 by winning 4 World Team Championships, China has been consistently dominant. Right now, there could likely be 10 players that would be the best player of any other country but only a limited number of Chinese players are allowed for the World Championships and Olympics. In most years, winning the Chinese Nationals is harder than winning the Worlds or the Olympics. After China won all 3 singles medals in both men’s and women’s singles at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the International Olympic Committee limited the number of singles entrants allowed per country to 2.
At the 2016 Rio Olympics, there were 44 Chinese-born table-tennis players where as only 6 play for China. All the rest were representing other countries. The US is one of the countries that has had an influx of China-born and trained Chinese players and coaches coming here. It’s hard enough to make the Olympics with US-trained players but putting players from China in the Olympic Trials makes it much harder. The Chinese players have trained 6 hours/day from a young age with little schooling competing against US players who have to go to school and train part-time.
I made a big sacrifice by taking 3 years off college (1.5 years directly before trials and time off before then as well) to try for the 2000 Olympic Team and would regularly practice at my home club on weekends during college. I made the final stage of the North American Olympic Trials and then had to face off against former Chinese National Team Member Cheng Yinghua (I lost 3-1 and was the only American to win a game) and former Taiwan’s top junior Kurt Liu (2 points from winning) in my round robin group. Cheng was likely 2800 at the time and top 50 world and Kurt was 2700 and was ranked in the top 200. Cheng said he would have been #1 in the world in the 1980s if allowed to play more internationally for China but he wasn’t allowed to because he wasn’t a pips-out penholder. He would consistently beat 2-time World Men’s Singles Champion Jiang Jialiang in practice and has many wins against the GOAT, Jan-Ove Waldner. In the 2000 North American Olympic Trials, the top 3 finishers were Cheng Yinghua, David Zhuang (former top Chinese player and top 100 in world rankings), and Kurt Liu so the foreign-trained players took all 3 singles spots. I had a chance even with them but if there were no Asian professional players, could I have been on the Olympic Team? I will never know.
In the 2020 Olympic Trials, there will likely be a number of Chinese-trained players attempting to make the US Olympic Team. One point of concern that has been brought up by many US athletes and coaches to USA Table Tennis (USATT) staff is the falsifying of passports and birth documents that is very common in China. In China, if you’re 2700 and 16, it’s not as good as if you’re 2700 and 12 so many players change their age. It’s very easy to get a new passport in China. If someone has changed their age, they should be ineligible to try for the Olympic Team. However, there is no test to accurately prove someone’s age but by common sense, there is no way some of the coaches and players in the US are the age they say. USATT staff knows this but there is no evidence to prove so. Some ages are maybe 10 years off and almost laughable to hear their age. When I was training in China, one kid told me he was 8 and I give him a look like “C’mon, there’s no way” and then he told me he was really 12. There were others who told me they were 17 when they looked closer to 30. This happens in India too as there was one Indian girl that recently won the girls 9 and under at the US Open when she looked like she was 15 so this upset her competitors as they were robbed of a fair chance to win an age medal. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
