The 2024 Paris Olympics has ended, and the Chinese table tennis team will also face a new reshuffle. Before this, the age echelon construction of the National Table Tennis Team has been criticized. Many people believe that we have fallen behind Japan and other foreign associations in this regard. Now that the Los Angeles Olympic cycle has arrived, what opportunities and challenges will the new generation of young players face? What about challenges?
Lin Shidong: There is not much suspense about entering the main force. It is expected that , Malone, or others will leave the position.
Lin Shidong, who was born in 2005, is currently the most outstanding person among the new generation of national table tennis. He has won the men's singles championship in the national championship at a young age. He was once ranked among the top ten in the world. He has won many international competitions and defeated Xu Xin , Fan Zhendong , Liang Jingkun , Lin Gaoyuan and other main players of the men's team also performed well against strong opponents of the foreign association.
It is particularly worth mentioning that Lin Shidong not only performed well in singles, but also performed very well in doubles. He has won the national championship with Kuaiman and defeated Wang Chuqin / Sun Yingsha , Zhang Benzhi and / The top Chinese and foreign combinations such as Hayata Hina have also participated in the mixed doubles competition of the World Championships and won bronze medals.
To sum up, no matter from which angle you look at it, Lin Shidong is fully qualified to join the main force. Compared with his personal ability, the "general trend" of the national table tennis men's team is even more important, because the current age of the main force of the men's team Generally high, except for Wang Chuqin, Ma Long, Lin Gaoyuan, Liang Jingkun, and Fan Zhendong will all be over 30 years old at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Faced with such an older main men's team, it is impossible for the national table tennis coaching staff not to consider letting young players take over. Especially Ma Long is about to turn 36 this year. The possibility of competing in another Olympics is very low, and may even happen in the next one or two years. He will retire within the year. If he or other main players leave, then Lin Shidong will be the best choice to take over.
Kuaiman: The performance in singles is not ideal and it is difficult to get to the top, but the advantage in doubles may be an important boost.
Kuai Man, who was born in 2004, is currently the most conspicuous person among the new generation of the national table tennis women's team. She can basically compete with Lin Shidong of the men's team, and they are also mixed doubles partners - as mentioned before, Lin Shidong/Kui Man's mixed doubles The results have been outstanding, and they are already regarded as the top pairing in the world. The first gold medal in the Olympic Games came from the mixed doubles event, so both of them can get the attention of the coaching staff.
However, it needs to be pointed out that strong doubles ability is a bonus for the main athletes, especially the main Olympic players, but it is just the icing on the cake, not a necessity. Since being selected for the Olympic mixed doubles will inevitably participate in the team competition, the National Table Tennis Team is selecting players. The first consideration is the singles level, and then doubles, not the other way around.
In fact, based on the overall level of the Chinese table tennis team, as long as the singles ability is strong, then one or two pairs selected from the main team will be enough to handle the mixed doubles tasks in world competitions, including the Olympic Games. Previously, Wang Chuqin/Sun Yingsha, Wang Chuqin/Wang Manyu The performances of , Lin Gaoyuan/Wang Manyu, Lin Gaoyuan/, Wang Yidi, and Lin Gaoyuan/Chen Xingtong can all illustrate this point.
But on the other hand, no matter how good the doubles level is, if the singles performance is not strong, it will still be difficult to reach the top. Currently, Kuaiman's singles performance is far inferior to Lin Shidong of the men's team. Previously, he even had less than 0 Olympic selection points due to losing foreign games. , coupled with the fact that the average age of the five main players in the women's team is not very old, Chen Meng, Sun Yingsha, Wang Manyu, Wang Yidi, and Chen Xingtong may all insist on completing the Los Angeles Olympic cycle. Kuaiman urgently needs more singles achievements to support herself.
Other young players: There is currently no support from excellent results, and they may not be able to get the main vacancy.
Lin Shidong and Kuai Man are already the most outstanding young athletes of the two national table tennis teams. They have not yet won the top five main positions. It is naturally more difficult for other young players to get ahead. However, relatively speaking, the young players of the women's team will have more trouble, such as Chen Yi and others are still deficient compared to Kuaiman, and no one of the main players has a tendency to leave the field, so it is difficult for everyone to get up.
On the other hand, the competition of the men's team is more intense than that of the women's team. Although Xiang Peng, Xu Yingbin, Yuan Lizen and others have had ups and downs in foreign battles, they have at least defeated the main force in the civil war. In addition, as mentioned in the previous article The problem of the aging of the main players is already very serious. Once more main players withdraw from the competition, the opportunities for others will naturally increase accordingly.
So which young players do you think have the greatest hope of becoming the main force in the new cycle? Welcome to leave a message and write your own opinions!
