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The winner of the Gold Medal: Yining Zhang from China
The winner of the Silver Medal: Hyang Mi Kim from Korea, North (DPR of Korea)
The winner of the Bronze Medal: Kyung Ah Kim from Korea, South
"Zhang Yining overwhelmed North Korean Kim Hyang-mi in the women's table tennis final on Sunday to give China their 100th gold medal since joining Olympic competition in 1984. Zhang's victory left China one win away from a clean sweep of all four gold medals for the third straight Olympics.
The 22-year-old top seed beat her 40th-ranked opponent 11-8 11-7 11-2 11-2 to add the singles title to the doubles gold she won with Wang Nan on Friday.
Wang Hao will attempt to give China another Olympic sweep when he takes on South Korea's Ryu Seung-min in the men's final on Monday.
Earlier in the day, Kim Kyung-ah won the bronze medal grinding out a 4-1 win over Li Jiawei of Singapore."
Read more at Zhang gold brings up China's 100
The winner of the Gold Medal: Team from China
The winner of the Silver Medal: Team from Hong Kong
The winner of the Bronze Medal: Team from Denmark
"Honduran battler Izzwa Medina tearfully slammed Olympic officials on Sunday after they ejected her from the single's table tennis, then gave her an ill-fated chance to replay a match she had already won.
Medina, ranked 342 in the world, walloped Jordanian junior Zeina Shaban 4-0 in their first round match on Saturday but was disqualified minutes later when officials ruled the rubber on her racket was illegal.
The 22-year-old Medina appealed on Sunday morning, and the tournament organisers decided to allow her to replay her match against Shaban with a new racket."
Olympic racket robs shattered Medina of table tennis victory
"Ping-Pong giant China got some acceptable results as the Olympic table tennis draw was conducted here Thursday evening.
The 150-minute draw, held at the table tennis venue -- Galatsi Olympic Hall, had put most Chinese singles players under some real tests on their roads to the Olympic titles while easing the pressure on the doubles pairs.
"I should say that the draw results aren't bad, though they are also not very good," commented Liu Guoliang, head coach of the Chinese men's team.
Lu Yuansheng, head coach of the women's team, made similar comments, adding that "no matter what draw we have, we must take every match seriously because every match is as important as the finals."
The tournament, which attracts 172 paddlers from 50 delegations, 128 in singles and 66 in doubles, offers four gold medals in the men's and women's singles and doubles.
The draw process, a quite complicated one, picked up 16 individual and eight pairs in each event as the seeds, who will not have to play until the third round begins."
Read more at China gets "not bad" draw in table tennis
"The matches are shorter and the balls bigger. Such rule changes could have little effect on the Chinese, who have dominated Olympic table tennis and hope to increase their gold medal haul in Athens. However, a surprising Austrian, Werner Schlager, could emerge as a winner in the men's singles.
China had strong showings in Atlanta and Sydney, with all-Chinese finals in the four doubles events.
That won't be repeated in Athens. Doubles teams from one country must play in the same half of the draw, eliminating the chance of gold and silver medals for China in a doubles event this time.
Other rule changes since the Sydney Games include a direct knockout system instead of group play in which a loss does not eliminate a player; a reduction from 21-point to 11-point games; a changed service rule, and a best-of-seven instead of a best-of-five match.
There's also the matter of a bigger ball, increasing in diameter from 1 1/2 inches to nearly 1 3/5 inches."
Read more at amarillo.com | Latest headlines from the A.P.:.
"Chinese table tennis team arrived in Athens on Sunday, brimming with confidence to have a clean sweep of Olympic gold medals.
Wang Nan, a "Grand Slam" winner of Olympic, world championships and World Cup women's titles, said at the airport that she was well prepared and would spare no effort for the Olympics.
"I hope to win one more Olympic gold," said Wang, who showed her superb form by winning the team's last warm-up tournament in the Chinese resort Qinhuangdao four days ago.
"I'm sure of myself all the time," she added.
The dual Olympic gold medalist in Sydney will fight for a singles-doubles repeat during the August 13-29 Games."
Read more at Chinese table tennis players poised for gold.
"The ball moves so fast that 27-year-old Yassin Sibai doesn't even look for it. Instead, he focuses on his opponent's hands.
By studying minute changes in posture and flicks of his opponent's wrist, Sibai gauges the spin and direction of the small celluloid ball as it rockets toward him at nearly 100 mph.
While the persistent hollow clack of a Ping-Pong ball hitting the table reminds most Americans of community center rec rooms or lazy, rainy Sundays in Mom and Dad's basement, table tennis is an Olympic sport in which the competition -- particularly in Europe and Asia -- is stiff.
Ping-Pong is a registered trademark of the Parker Brothers corporation and therefore, for official purposes, the sport is called table tennis."
Read more at U.S. struggles to make table tennis popular.
"Table Tennis: Anyone for table tennis? Why half a billion can't be wrong...
Everyone has played it, but none of us seem to want to watch it. Karen Kay enters the world of what many still call ping pong - and finds a game ready to capitalize on its global appeal....
n just three weeks, the Chinese will stake their claim to the coveted Olympic title: there is none they value more than the men's singles gold. Wenge, based in Germany and a former Olympic bronze-medal winner, was the sole representative of the People's Republic, as their leading triumvirate of Ma Lin, Wang Hao and Wang Liqin declined to show their hand so close to Athens."
Read the Article at "Table Tennis: Anyone for table tennis? Why half a billion can't be wrong...
"Chinese table tennis players face a real test of their flair and form when they meet challenges from the first introduced qualification system and rule alterations to Olympic pingpong games.
China, long acclaimed the "kingdom of table tennis" where the sport is hailed as national game, have bagged all of the four gold medals of table tennis in Barcelona in 1996, repeated the sweep in the Sydney Olympics four years ago and let slip only three golds in the only two former Games since the sport was introduced to Olympics in 1988.
The world table tennis superpower loves to embrace challenges from rest of the world, but the rules changes to the Athens Olympic Games is not cheerful.
Since the knock-out system will be used in the Olympics there instead of group stage, top Chinese Ma Lin, Wang Nan and their teammates will never take their eyes off when heading for another Olympic sweep.
Limits in maximum number of qualified players for each NOC and rule alterations, such as the large ball, 11 points scoring and all-to-see service rule, also bother the ambitious Chinese team." Get more information at Rule changes test Chinese paddlers in Athens.
Australia has selected it's Olympic Table Tennis Team.
The Team is:
Men:
Russell Lavale
William Henzell
Trevor Brown
David Zalcberg
Women:
Miao Miao
Jian Fang Lay
Source - Olympic Table Tennis team selected
Sports Network has a good 2004 Summer Olympic Games Table Tennis Preview complete with the short history of Olympic Table Tennis and a preview of the Athens competition. It looks like China will be hard to beat.
'If hindsight is 20/20, and history is any marker, the Chinese will stand out among the 172 athletes competing in table tennis. There are three Chinese men among the top-5 in the current World Rankings, and all three will compete in singles in Athens: Liqin Wang, Lin Ma and Hao Wang. Ma will also play doubles.
The Chinese women hold every top-5 position in the current World Rankings, but as rules stipulate, they can send just three athletes to compete in singles.
The most dominating presence in Athens may be that of the Chinese women's team, which boasts top-2 players Yining Zhang and Nan Wang competing in not only singles, but also as a doubles team. Jianfeng Niu, the No. 3 player in the world, will be China's third and final singles player.
Also, on the men's side, keep an eye on Waldner of Sweden. Referred to as the "Michael Jordan of Table Tennis," Waldner won silver in singles at the Sydney Games in addition to his gold in Barcelona.'
Table Tennis takes place between the 14th - 23rd August at the Galatsi Olympic Hall.
Chinese have dominated since the sport was added to the Olympics in 1988 - they won every available gold medal in 1996 and 2000. The top three men and top five women in the world are all Chinese. American Gao Jun, who won a women's doubles silver medal in 1992 while competing for China, represents the United States' best hope for its first medal. Last year, she became the first American since 1959 to reach the quarterfinals at the world championships.
There are four Gold Medals up for grabs in Table Tennis - the events are Men's Singles, Women's Singles, Men's Doubles and Women's Doubles. Results and Medals will be announced at the following pages as they come to hand - in the mean time keep up to date with the latest table tennis news in our Olympic Table Tennis News Archives.
Olympic Table Tennis Medals and Results
- Men's Singles Table Tennis
- Men's Doubles Table Tennis
- Women's Singles Table Tennis
- Women's Doubles Table Tennis
