That is more or less what
TTFrenzy wrote once. This is a good chance to make a response given the recent sentiment toward Chinese dominance.
In 2014, the Liberation Daily published an article giving a general outlook of table tennis around the world, from Europe to South America to Africa to Asia, and predicting the future trend.
The interesting thing is they got in touch with
Hiroshi Kimura who works for Butterfly Europe to make a comment. On why Europe couldn't build up an overall momentum given the player base:
http://sports.sina.com.cn/o/2014-12-07/04177437894.shtml
In Europe, the professional development of table tennis is based on extensive public participation. The level of professional table tennis in Germany is the highest in Europe, with over 600,000 people playing in professional clubs. The 3 recent WTTC team finals were between the Chinese and German teams.
France has also invested a lot of money in recent years, and the results of youth training are obvious. Hiroshi Kimura works at the European branch of the Japanese company Butterfly. He told reporters that "the current youth players from France are more prominent in Europe, followed by Germany and Romania. The female players from Romania are relatively high in level." In addition, Portugal, Russia, Spain And Italy are increasing the effort in youth training.
Some small countries that have not been found on the table tennis map, such as Brazil and Egypt, are now quietly rising. At this year's Nanjing Youth Olympic Games, Brazil's Calderano won the bronze medal, which is the first table tennis medal in the history of Brazil. Egyptian table tennis players are invincible in Africa.
Europe: Playing in order to support the family
There are so many people playing table tennis in Europe, and the level is not weak. Why is there no overall advantage in the international arena?
Kimura said that the economic conditions in Romania are not very good. Although many players are very talented, they choose to go to Germany to play professional leagues. One person can play to support a family.
"For them, achieving good results for the club is the biggest goal. The world rankings and winning gold or silver medals in international competitions are not as important." Similarly, once other European players make a name, there will be sponsors signing them. Once the livelihood is guaranteed, many people have no pursuit of higher competitive performance. For many of them, the highest honor is to win the European championship.
