Paris Olympics｜Table tennis icon Ma Long facing final dance?

Published on : 08/07/2024

At the ITTF Men's World Cup Macao 2024 in this April, Ma Long defeated Lin Gaoyuan (林高遠) with 4-3 in a comeback victory to clinch the men's singles championship.

This is not only Ma Long's third time winning the Men's Singles World Cup, but it also sets a new record for the number of world champion titles he holds.

How many world championship titles does Ma Long currently hold? The answer is 30, with potential for more.

How does Ma Long grow into the champion of table tennis?

Grand Slam single event almost became Ma Long's curse

Ma Long, born in October 1988 in a normal family in Anshan, Liaoning, started playing table tennis at the age of 5, because his father believed that table tennis was good for health and it's not easy to get hurt.

With his talent and hard training, as commented by his first coach, Ma Long soon achieved remarkable results.

The media used to describe Ma Long with the term "teenage star". He joined the Chinese national team at 15 and represented China in the team competition of 2006 World Table Tennis Championships before turning 18, winning his first world champion title.

At that time, "Wang Liqin, Wang Hao, and Ma Lin" were dominating this sport, but many people believed that Ma Long would become the leading figure of the next generation of Chinese Ping Pong.

However, in Chinese table tennis, holding a world championship doesn't mean much.

Liu Guoliang (劉國梁), who later became the chairman of the Chinese Table Tennis Association, once said, "What the Chinese table tennis team doesn't lack the most is world champions."

So, Ma Long had to prove himself by achieving more.

In the following years, Ma Long reaped a lot of awards in various competitions, including many World Championships in team competitions, and his world ranking has remained in the top spots for a long time.

However, achieving the Grand Slam in singles - considered the pinnacle in table tennis, which refers to winning in all three major competitions, namely the Olympics, World Table Tennis Championships, and World Cup - seems to have become a curse for him.

From 2009 to 2013, he lost to his senior teammate Wang Hao (王皓) in the semi-finals in the World Table Tennis Championships three times in a row.

Gained fame early though, Ma Long was a late bloomer

At the World Cup, even though Ma Long has won the singles championship, in the 2014 final he lost to his teammate Zhang Jike (張繼科), who achieved the Grand Slam before Ma Long with the same age and later rising to fame.

Ma Long was quite lost and self-doubting at the time. He felt inferior to Zhang Jike, and thought that he wasn't good enough. He became quiet, always walked with his head down, and even thought about retiring...

Read more: Stepping on the Olympic podium, Zhang Yufei said to her father in heaven: I made it

In 2015, Ma Long, who had persisted, finally made a breakthrough.

Prior to the final of the World Table Tennis Championships held in Suzhou, China, coach Qin Zhijian told him: "People are trying, the heavens are watching. Just give it your all!"

Ma Long, who had been troubled by major competitions for a long time, finally let go of his inner devils, and defeated his budding junior Fan Zhendong (樊振東), winning his first world table tennis singles championship.

In 2016, he defeated his rival, Zhang Jike with 4-0 and won his first Olympic men's singles championship, achieving the Grand Slam; Ma Long was 28 years old that year, 10 years after his first world championship.

The media then describes Ma Long as a "late bloomer".

Breaking the bottleneck, the god of destiny also ended its test on Ma Long, and a new explosive period arrived in his career. In the subsequent World Cup and other competitions, Ma Long won several more world championships.

Fighting in Paris Olympics? Ma Long: Keep the desire to win

For the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, while many athletes of the same era as him have retired, 33-year-old Ma Long still maintained his peak condition and again represented China.

He also became the "oldest" Chinese table tennis athlete to participate in the Olympics.

On July 30, 2021, Ma Long defeated his teammate Fan Zhendong in the men's singles final to win the gold medal, making himself the first player in this sport to claim back-to-back Olympic gold medals in men's singles, and the first male table tennis player to achieve a "Double Grand Slam".

Additionally, Ma Long's tally of world championship titles rose to 25, surpassing the Chinese female table tennis player Wang Nan's record of 24. This made him the table tennis player with the most world championships, far surpassing other veterans like Liu Guoliang and Wang Liqin.

After the match, some media described Ma Long as one of the greatest athletes in table tennis history, stating that "at least in terms of achievements, he has raised an unprecedented milestone."

In response to this, Ma Long continued his modesty as usual, "I should be considered just one of the best athletes in table tennis. Being one of the best is a kind of happiness."

Of course, this is not the end of Ma Long's career. In the competitions following the Tokyo Olympics, he and his teammates captured the men's team gold medal, bringing his total world championship titles to 26.

He is still in action, and can still compete after the Tokyo Olympics. Unfortunately, the upcoming Paris Olympics might be Ma Long's last dance.

According to the roster released by the Chinese table tennis team, the men's singles competition will be led by Wang Chuqin (王楚欽) and Fan Zhendong, which means Ma Long will not have a chance to defend his Olympic men's singles three-peat.

However, this doesn't mean that Ma Long will not appear on the field, because his name is already listed among the participating athletes for the men's team event.

Although he can't contend for the men's single title, Ma Long remains optimistic, "Nothing is certain, but the most important thing is to maintain the desire to win. That is the most precious thing."