Who will China represent at the Rio Olympics 2016?

Ma Long Wins The China Open 2015 !

Fraser Riley / England said:

.....and finally, as a question, who do you think will be selected to represent China at the 2016 Olympic games ?

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The players for each country will not be selected. They will have to earn their spots by qualifying.

I believe the qualifications will be a series of tournaments for the first two spots. I believe they will be held soon (late August into September). The remaining spot will be chosen by world ranking somewhere around April 2016. The first two players from any given country will qualify for the singles event. The third qualifier will only qualify to play in the team event. This is determined by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in conjunction with individual National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and not by the country's team.

So Liu Gouliang can choose who to send to the trials but he can't really choose who plays well and wins.

But it looks like Ma Long is playing well enough to get one of the first two spots. It doesn't seem like Zhang Jike is playing well enough. But we will see what happens as the trials approach. If he isn't playing better FZD and XX have a real chance to win one of those first two spots.


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The MS Final is much closer than the scores suggest. How can XX lost the 4th set after leading 9:4 is beyond me. And the 5th set was cut short with an unreturnable net which actually kill all the fun for everyone is so anti-climax.

In the semi when I saw Oshima miss the chance of a life time to kill the high chop block by Ma Long after leading 6:2 in the 7th set, I knew his chance has been cut half. Missing a point like that has great and lasting effect on the mind of any less experience player. And his service error shortly after that put his mind to a complete halt. But that is already enough for everyone especially LGL to remember his name.

I see a new XX in the recent games after coached by Wu who successfully brought us Ma Lin and Wang Hao in the past. XX was instructed to integrate his game with new (or classic) penhold strategy of 3rd ball and table top short game/flick and doing it well. I would say he has surpass everyone except the always improving Ma Long. Sadly ZJK is either not in form, still injured or already pass his prime. Hope we can see him come back one more time and run for second Grand Slam before too late.

I think XX is on the right track with his new game but only held back by the bigger 40+ ball. It brought the speed and spin down quite a bit so any strong 3rd ball attack without follow up will be vulnerable if blocked back. This is clearly shown time after time in the MS Final today. Only Ma Long or perhaps the very best ZJK can beat that. This Ma Lin style short game has little effect on Ma Long. You can't expect to beat Ma Long by one shot kill. Only continuation with smart placement can have a chance. The game of the very best Wang Hao can do it. The energized Oshima today nearly done it. So this lost by XX is not a bad thing. It gives a good opportunity for XX and his coach to slow down and think again what to do next. I bet we will see a more complete XX in the near future.

As for Olympic candidates next year, it should be Ma Long and ZJK's turn as they are the 2 eldest members in the top 5. XX is obviously trained as the best in Double and support role. FZD is still young and will have his chances later. They learnt their lessons after the lost of young Wang Hao. Unless something is terribly wrong with ZJK in the next few months, I believe that is the way it is.

TurboZ said:

As for Olympic candidates next year, it should be Ma Long and ZJK's turn as they are the 2 eldest members in the top 5. XX is obviously trained as the best in Double and support role. FZD is still young and will have his chances later. They learnt their lessons after the lost of young Wang Hao. Unless something is terribly wrong with ZJK in the next few months, I believe that is the way it is.

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Just making sure you saw this post I made at about the same time you made yours.

UpSideDownCarl said:

The players for each country will not be selected. They will have to earn their spots by qualifying.

I believe the qualifications will be a series of tournaments for the first two spots. I believe they will be held soon. (Late August into September). The remaining spot will be chosen by world ranking somewhere around April 2016. The first two players from any given country will qualify for the singles event. The third qualifier will only qualify to play in the team event. This is determined by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in conjunction with individual National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and not by the country's team.

So Liu Gouliang can choose who to send to the trials but he can't really choose who plays well and wins.

But it looks like Ma Long is playing well enough to get one of the first two spots. It doesn't seem like Zhang Jike is playing well enough. But we will see what happens as the trials approach. If he isn't playing better FZD and XX have a real chance to win one of those first two spots.


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Carl,

It is likely that only two players will be eligible to go for the qualifiers anyways. IF they are lucky, 3, like the Baku European or the Panam games.

My guess right now is that ML and XX are the leaders in the singles. FZD will likely be third wheel. ZJK has a lot to prove.

UpSideDownCarl said:

Just making sure you saw this post I made at about the same time you made yours.

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I just did. I read that there will be new system to decide who to go but I am not sure. Any trial or qualification games might yield different and unexpected results but I believe in LGL's mind, ML and ZJK are trained to play Single and XX, seeing how he was put to play and win all the Doubles, is trained to play Doubles. I really don't think LGL will dare to send any dark horse, whoever may accidentally beat ML in a game or two by chance, to the most prestigious Olympics and risk to lost Gold. The memory of losing 2004 Olympics Gold is just too painful.

In the trial tournaments for Asia before 2012 China sent Ma Long, Xu Xin and Yan An even though they only had one slot left. In the first round Koki Niwa finished first defeating Ma Long for the first slot. Ma Long won the second round taking the second slot in that particular trial and the 3rd slot for China. (Wang Hao qualified first and ZJK qualified second based on ranking after the 2011 WTTC).

For 2016 they switched how qualifying will work. Now the first two for a given country are selected by trials. And the last slot is selected by ranking. If they were able to send 3 to win 1 slot before 2012, my guess is a certain number of their higher ranking players will be able to try. Will it be 3 or 4? I don't know.

When I am at a computer, if I have time, I will see if I can research the qualification process. I read it about 9 months ago and can't remember what it was exactly.

But I think the top 4 from China should be able to battle it out with all the other Asian players for the first 2 slots.

In the past, ZJK has performed really well in these kinds of trial situations. But he really has been MIA for a while.

In time, we will know for sure who qualifies. But for now, the important thing to know is that the players are not simply picked by the country.


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China will represent one of the winning country at the Rio games.

Here is a breakdown of how to qualify for the Olympics for 2016.

http://www.ittf.com/World_Events/2016OG/Regulations/Rio2016_QS_EN.pdf

I am going for Ma Long, Xu Xin and Fan Zhendong. Ma Long will cruise into the Rio Olympic team I think, Xu Xin and Fan Zhendong are both very hungry for a place.