(by Steve Hopkins)
The South Paris Arena will be the center of the table tennis universe from July 27 to August 10. This will be the 10th time that table tennis is featured at the Olympic Games. Over those 9 previous games, Korea has won Men’s Singles gold twice, Sweden has won once, and China has secured 6 Men’s Singles Gold Medals. In Women’s Singles, the results have been even more in China’s favor with all nine Gold Medals going to China (along with seven of the nine Silver Medals).
The top seeds in 2024 will be Chinese in each of the events. Wang Chuqin and Fan Zhendong (World No. 1 and World No. 4) will be the top two seeds in Men’s Singles, and they will add Ma Long (World No.3) to the roster of their Team Event. Any loss would be an upset, but with World No. 5 Felix Lebrun, World No. 6 Hugo Calderano, World No. 8 Lin Yun-Ju, World No. 9 Tomokazu Harimoto, and World No. 11 (Dang Qiu) all competing, expect fierce competition in the late rounds as each of those players have knocked out top Chinese competitors in events this year.
The Women’s events will be just as lopsided, with Sun Yingsha (World No. 1) and Chen Meng (World No. 4) competing in Singles and adding Wang Manyu (World No. 2) and Wang Yidi (World No. 3) to the Team Event roster. Japan will pose the biggest thread, with Hina Hayata (World No. 5), and Miu Hirano (World No. 13) qualified to compete in singles (and World No. 9 Mima Ito added to the Team Event roster).
We are still about two weeks away from action – but there will be updates here as the draws are set and matches begin.
LIST OF ALL QUALIFIED PLAYERS AND TEAMS:
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- Men’s Summary – Women’s Summary
- Teams | Men – Women
- Teams Composition
- Singles | Men – Women
- Mixed Doubles
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