I haven't read that Ma Long didn't qualify sorry!
Then you should read the posts. Here in this thread is the information. Unfortunately nobody is ready them though.
Here is the information again.
The first two slots on the Chinese team were filled based on the World Ranking of the top two players from each country with players in the top 28 as of May 2011. That was directly after the 2011 World Championships Singles event. At that time Wang Hao was #1, Zhang Jike was #3 (Timo was #2). Wang Hao and Zhang Jike were the two highest ranked players for China at that time. Ma Long was ranked 5th behind Ma Lin's 4th.
Because they were the two top ranked players for China at that time, they qualified for the Singles event in the Olympics.
That is also why those two did not need to play in the Asian qualifications tournament that was held recently.
Liu Gouliang's confidence in Ma Long was expressed by the fact that Ma Long is the only player China sent to the Asian Olympics Qualification Tournament. Liu Gouliang knew, without much question, that Ma Long would qualify. But since the two singles slots were already filled, what Ma Long qualified for was the Team Event. NOT THE SINGLES EVENT. If Liu Gouliang really wanted Ma Long to play, he could pull Wang Hao or Zhang Jike out and put Ma Long in, but if he did that: CHINA WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO FIELD A TEAM FOR THE TEAM EVENT.
To China, I think, winning the Team Competition is as important as winning the Gold in Singles. So it is not a real choice to take one of two players, both of whom are good enough to beat everybody who will be there, and either of whom, if they win, will complete a GRAND SLAM. That is Right, if Wang Hao wins, he has his Grand Slam; If Zhang Jike wins he has his Grand Slam one tournament after the next.
If you want to blame someone for Ma Long not being in the singles event, the ITTF was trying to solve the problem that The Olympic Committee was threatening to throw Table Tennis out of the Olympics because of how dominant China has been in winning medals in the Olympics. The ITTF came up with a solution. Only two players in the singles event for each country. That means that, at least China cannot win gold silver and bronze all in the same year. The problem with the qualification process is that, perhaps the first part of it should not have been based on rankings from 14 months before the Olympic games begin. Perhaps they should have been based on a series of months up to April or March of 2012. But, Ma Long was #5 and the #4 player for China in May of 2011 in terms of ranking and only the top two qualified for a spot in the Olympic Singles event.
