Thanks Alborz
By Jan 2015, we will know when is the 1st round (continential qualifications).
Qualification tournament will be held between 1 July 2015 till April 2016.
Imo July 2015 is a joke, surely 6 months (or less) prior to the tournament is better
Totally accurate. This was the problem with them using world ranking from 15 months prior to the Olympics for 2012 for the only two spots in the singles competition.
Thanks for all the info, I just want to clarify something, does this mean that the top 2 ranked chinese player before a certain deadline before Rio 2016 qualifies for the singles and there will be a qualification for the 3rd place for the teams event? Also what happens if China sports team doesn't allow a particular player to go to Olympics (this is hypothetical question of course but seems possible) then surely they can name their own replacement? In other words are you saying China has no direct control over who takes part in the Olympics Singles TT as this process is purely dependent on world ittf ranking on a certain day (not counting artificial measures like intentionally getting players to certain ranking positions). Maybe I misunderstood something but this seems surprising to me...
My understanding is that the main way LGL was able to affect the system last time would have been by who he sent to international competitions which would enable players to raise their world ranking. But the players had to get the points for themselves by winning.
In 2012, if LGL had tried to pull Wang Hao out of the singles, (hoping to put Ma Long in), then 1) he would not have been able to put Ma Long in (unless the reason for Wang Hao's departure was health related, before the singles event started, and verified by IOC (International Olympic Committee) doctors to be a real and legitimate injury or health issue). If the IOC determined that LGL was just trying to change the roster to improve China's chances instead of for a valid injury, then only ZJK would have played the singles and China would not have been eligible to compete in the team event. Perhaps he could have figured out how to get around the rules. But it still would have been cheating based on what the rules were.
CNT management does play a role in who goes and who doesn't go. Both directly and indirectly.
An example of directly - Guo Yan case for London 2012
Hey Tony, I guess I don't really pay attention to women's tt. Fill us in. What happened in the case of Guo Yan?
An example of indrectly - World Tour parcipation = points added/missed out = affecting world ranking
This is where it becomes unfair.
This is 100% accurate. LGL can decide to send--or not to send--players to tournaments and then, if he does not send someone who could end up earning the points to qualify by world ranking, they can't get the points. CNT seems to always be playing with this and sending people they want to see higher in the rankings.
By the way, in 2010-2011 prior to the WTTCs, Ma Long was coming off approximately 7 months with almost no tournament play because of a series of injuries that kept him sidelined, which is why, after the WTTC in 2011 he was ranked 5th in the world. Only a few tournaments in 7 months and every time he tried to come back he got a new injury, caused his ranking to drop from 1 to 5. He only started playing again a short while before the 2011 WTTC.
But it looks like the IOC has corrected the issue of using world rankings from 15 months prior to the Olympics for qualification.
Here is the qualifying system of 2016 Rio and it is different from 2012 London:
http://www.teamusa.org/~/media/USA_...-QualificationSystem-FINAL-TableTennis-EN.pdf With the new system LGL CAN CHOOSE to send who for the qualifying tournaments.
Thanks Alborz. I did not take the time to fully understand the qualification process. I could not tell if they are using Olympic Rankings over Qualification event results or the other way around. But, the Olympic Ranking system will be in place for the time period of January through May of 2016.
Well, Now I looked more closely.
Looking at it, it looks like the Qualification Events will determine the up to the first two spots in the Olympic Events. So, if China has a player who qualifies first and second (first and second for China regardless of other countries) (which is quite likely) then those two will be the ones who qualify for the singles event. A country like Japan could potentially have only one player (unlikely) qualify through through the Qualification events and still get two more players to qualify through the Olympic Ranking system which will be put in place between January 2016 and May 2016. So a country can conceivably have only one player qualify through the regional Qualification events and still end up with 3 players and an entry in the team event.
For each country, for each NOC (National Olympic Committee) only 2 players can qualify through the Regional Qualification Events. For each country only 2 players can qualify through the Olympic Ranking System. A country that has 2 players successfully qualify through the Regional Qualification Events can only have 1 player qualify through the Ranking system because each country only gets 2 for singles plus 1 more for team for a total of 3 players.
I believe the system that the first two players to qualify are still the only ones who are qualified for the singles. So, say, at the first qualification tournament (event), China sends ML, WH, FZD, ZJK, YA, and XX and FZD wins and ZJK comes in 2nd then FZD would qualify first and ZJK would qualify second, for the only 2 singles spots. Because they place 1st and second in that first Olympic Qualification event, then that is it. That is who goes to the Olympic Singles event.
And as Tony pointed out, it is a bit unfair because that first event will be in July of 2015 (12 months before the Olympic games). But that is 3 months better than the last time and at least it is a competition that determines the first two spots not world ranking at that time.
And, once the first two spots have been determined, I believe the only way to change it would be a real injury, or cheating. LGL could choose not to send people to the event if he does not want them to go to the Olympics. And that would be completely obvious to the whole world. Like, imagine if he sent ZJK, FZD and XX and did not send ML to that first qualification event. But in all likelyhood he will send those guys, and Yan An and Wang Hao too, and let the best men win. I feel bad for the countries having to try and qualify in the regionals with China. But that is why the Qualification events will go on from July 2015 and April 2016. Once China has 2 players qualified which will probably be in July 2015, then I believe they will not need to send players to the events any more. In fact they may not be allowed to send players to qualification events after they have their two spots.
We will see how it all turns out. But, at least what will determine the first two spots is a Qualification event. I remember watching the North American qualification events rooting for my friend Michael Landers to qualify. They were fun and run differently than a regular tournament.
I also remember watching when Koki Niwa beat Ma Long to take the first spot in the Regional Qualifications for Asia. Ma Long still qualified second, but it was fun to watch.