Category Archives: Table Tennis

Basketball, Diving, Football, Olympics, Swimming, Table Tennis, Volleyball

China Still Out in Front After First Week at Tokyo Olympics

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In this week’s Olympic round-up, I will go over all the golds that China has won so far, up to the end of Day 8. I’ll start with the golds (from most to least per sport), because that’s what China cares about, even if we get periodic messages from the leadership about moving away from a “win at all costs” mentality. In fact, it feels more like we’re moving back towards that gold obsession these days.

Then I’ll look at some other good performance, as well as some disappointments, and finish with a few other developments – including some significant Winter Olympic news and the launch of the China Sports Insider podcast!

Continue reading China Still Out in Front After First Week at Tokyo Olympics →
Olympics, Table Tennis

43 Weeks To Go: Ping Pong Diplomacy & Canadian’s Chinese Dream

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Do we really have another 43 weeks of boycott talk to go before the Beijing Winter Olympics? As the peerless China watcher Bill Bishop wrote this week, a boycott is “highly unlikely”, but it’s connected to so many other China issues du jour that the column inches just keep flowing. As always, there’s a round-up below, but plenty of other stuff, too, including Ping Pong Diplomacy, which happened exactly 50 years ago today (April 10). If you have any questions or specific topics of interest you’d like to see covered, please feel free to comment or email me at mark@chinasportsinsider.com

Weekly Roundup

  • 50th anniversary of Ping Pong Diplomacy
  • Canadian heptathlete gains Chinese citizenship in Olympic bid
  • How legitimate are the rescheduled Olympic test events?
  • US discusses a boycott with allies – then backtracks
  • More boycott news from around the world
  • Other features and stories in the build-up to Beijing 2022
Continue reading 43 Weeks To Go: Ping Pong Diplomacy & Canadian’s Chinese Dream →
Table Tennis

Ping pong boss to China: starting losing please!

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It used to be that sports were run by sportsmen and women. But then, as is often the case, money got in the way and sports became more “professional”, so “professionals” were hired to run the sports.

For example, the head of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) used to be former star Chinese player Xu Yinsheng, until he was replaced in 1999 by a “professional”, an electrical engineer called Adham Sharara. The Egyptian-born Canadian also played on the national team for three years, but his biography makes it clear he is a career administrator who played, rather than top player-turned-administrator.

15 years later, Sharara is still in charge and coming out with gems like this:

Continue reading Ping pong boss to China: starting losing please! →

Diving, Golf, Table Tennis, Tennis

Why you should never strive for perfection

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I’ve just spent a few days in Korea, where the country’s female golfers are perhaps as dominant on the world stage as any team in sports today. Comparing different teams in different sports brings to mind apples and oranges, but 35 of the world top 100 players are from a country with a population of under 50 million. South Koreans have won six of the past eight major championships, and came second in the other two.

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Korean golfers winning…again

What do they get for this? “Boring”, “faceless”, “robots”, “predictable” etc. Inbee Park has won three majors this year and gets fewer column inches than Hunter Mahan’s new baby. Today’s Sports Talk column looks at why sports stars might be better off striving for one level below perfection: become perfect and the fans and media will turn on you – or worse – just ignore you.

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Baseball, Basketball, Football, Table Tennis

Weekly Wrap: Taiwan, Guan Tianlang, a ludicrous claim and a hot WAG

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In this week’s round-up, Taiwan takes centre stage on the world sporting map, golfing teen sensation Guan Tianlang explores America, the most ludicrous claim you’ll hear this decade and a hot sporting WAG.

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Basketball, Table Tennis, Tennis

Catfight between China and Japan over basketball player

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Citizenship is always an issue in China, or more specifically, changing your citizenship. For one thing, you tend to need a lot of money. Chinese movie stars have taken up residence in other countries and faced accusations of being a traitor, but crossing borders in the sports world can be even more controversial.

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Olympics, Table Tennis

Levelling the playing field

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In recent years, Japan and China have had a, shall we say, “strained” relationship, but the Japanese may have just pulled one over their rivals in the most unlikeliest of places – table tennis, currently China’s most watched sport. Image

China has won 24 of a possible 28 gold medals in Olympic ping pong history, adding another 15 silver and 8 bronze. Japan, in contrast, has won a solitary silver medal in seven attempts since the sport was first included in the Olympics in 1988.

But, in perhaps the most sneaky sporting move since Myanmar handpicked most of the sports for this year’s Southeast Asian Games, Japan has moved to level the playing field, by doing exactly that – literally, making sure that the playing field is level. Confused? Continue reading Levelling the playing field →

Cycling, Table Tennis

Weekly Wrap Pt 2: AFC elections, cycling, table tennis

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China’s Zhang Jilong seeking permanent AFC role

May 2 could be a significant day in the Chinese football calendar. The Asian Football Confederation, or AFC, will elect a full-time president, and current interim boss, China’s Zhang Jilong, is among the favorites. Zhang has been head of the AFC since Mohamed Bin Hamann was suspended by FIFA in May 2011.

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Continue reading Weekly Wrap Pt 2: AFC elections, cycling, table tennis →

Football, Table Tennis

Weekly Wrap: Football, football, table tennis and more football

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Huddersfield Town in China farce

This is just ridiculous. English football club Huddersfield Town has announced plans to “make its first foray into China as part of the Club’s wider International Development plan.”

From what I can work out from their convoluted press release, the club, who currently sit 18th in the Championship (i.e. near the bottom of English football’s second tier) are taking a delegation of businessmen to China for a week in April to explore opportunities because, you know, everyone loves football.

Continue reading Weekly Wrap: Football, football, table tennis and more football →

Badminton, Table Tennis, Tennis

Friday Fun: Myanmar stacks the deck with wildcards

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It’s normally Myanmar’s politics that get the international spotlight, but this week it has been their bizarre sporting choices. The new Burmese capital Naypyidaw will host the 27th Southeast Asian Games later this year and, perhaps fittingly, they’ve chosen some new sports. Vovinam, tarungderajat, kempo and chinlone are all on the agenda and if you haven’t heard of them, you’re not alone.

In fact, most of the other nations are pissed.

Charoen Wattanasin, vice president of the Thai National Olympic Committee, complained that regulations allow for eight traditional sports, not the 14 selected by the hosts:

“Nine out of the 14 are martial arts. They are — well, I can’t even remember their names.”

Continue reading Friday Fun: Myanmar stacks the deck with wildcards →