winning hug missing

Persson, Waldner and Appelgren did when playing each other...

Yeah its a shame.. Table tennis was a gentleman's sport once..

Oh come now, a lot of tt players are still gentlemen. The ones I have spoken to have been really humble and very nice. Especially Jean Michel Saive and Samsonov.

Matt come on. Samsonov is NOT a gentleman:

He wants to win a bit to much. Look at the score when it happends..
No, we tt-players are a bunch of idiots with unsportsmanlike behaviour

You know, personally I would just feel really awkward if I had to hug a person I don't know well, even more so with a complete stranger.
It's just a cultural thing.

As in asian's culture, yeah... you seldomly see this. Especially among the same team member. Unless they have some long time rival opponent from other countries, then you may see this happen. Because it just feel like awkward if you have two same player from same team/country hug each other lol

I really know every player very very well in my league. But come on, i would never give one of them a hug, except my own teammates after a close victory.

pingpongemil said:

Matt come on. Samsonov is NOT a gentleman:

He wants to win a bit to much. Look at the score when it happends..
No, we tt-players are a bunch of idiots with unsportsmanlike behaviour

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I don't see what Samsonov did wrong. He wasn't arguing that much, and even if he did it would be normal. It's an Olympic match, and if he believed that he won the point, then he should fight for it.

Well I don't hug my opponent after a match. But I usually give a handshake and say something like "nice game".
It's a shame that less people do it...
A propper handshake is the minimum!!

A handshake is normal, any saying like "good game" depends on if it was a good one

Even opponents i dont like get a handshake after every game, but of course not that honest and warm like a nice guy or after a really good game.

Tapping the back after giving a handshake is also proper

I have to be honest, I don't think a handshake makes a difference. I have played plenty of people and not thought of giving a handshake at the end. I remember thinking it was weird having some guy I just beat or lost to walk up to me to give me a hand shake. If, through the match you are respectful of the opponent and in winning you are respectful and in losing you are a good sport, who cares about a hand shake. I personally don't really want the guy who won coming over to me to give me a handshake. If he lost and is doing it, that is fine with me. But it does not matter to me if someone comes up to me after a match to shake my hand or not. And, I feel much more comfortable walking up to someone I just lost to to give them a handshake and say "good match" than walking up to someone I beat and giving them a handshake. Truthfully, the winner going for the handshake seems a little patronizing to me.

And there are lots of ways for the loser to congratulate the winner aside from giving a handshake. Personally, I don't know why so many times this issue has come up and why so many people think that in sport you need to be a gentleman. I like to joke about the bad boy players from other sports talking smack and being rude, but I don't think sport needs to be overly polite.

Axamax said:

I don't see what Samsonov did wrong. He wasn't arguing that much, and even if he did it would be normal. It's an Olympic match, and if he believed that he won the point, then he should fight for it.

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I agree with this. Also, I think, if the referee cannot tell if it hit the edge or the side, that ref needs some training. If the ball had hit the edge it would have gone out and a little up, not down. They should know that.

Carl Horowitz said:

I agree with this. Also, I think, if the referee cannot tell if it hit the edge or the side, that ref needs some training. If the ball had hit the edge it would have gone out and a little up, not down. They should know that.

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They was arguing about this for 5 or 6 minutes if i remember it right! The big problem is that the ref on the wrong side is taking the desition and not the one on the right side! I think it´s pretty obvious that the ball goes straight down and samsonov can see that as well!

Sure I´m Swedish and so is Jörgen. But this one is pretty clear in my eyes=)

pingpongemil said:

They was arguing about this for 5 or 6 minutes if i remember it right! The big problem is that the ref on the wrong side is taking the desition and not the one on the right side! I think it´s pretty obvious that the ball goes straight down and samsonov can see that as well!

Sure I´m Swedish and so is Jörgen. But this one is pretty clear in my eyes=)

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Clear enough to me that both sides should have known, but you are right, the ref on the side where the ball hit should have made the call and the ref on the other side should have given her colleague the call.