China’s dominance of table tennis is “just the beginning” and they will soon be strong in every Olympic event, the sport’s chief said Wednesday.
Adham Sharara, president of the International Table Tennis Federation, was speaking after China sealed their second straight clean sweep of all four table tennis gold medals for the second Games running.
“They are the best technically, as they have always been,” he said. “And they are the best technologically, with combinations of blades and rubbers. And now they are the best physically too. That used to be the Europeans.
“Mentally they are not the strongest, because they have been so much better in those other three areas that it doesn’t really matter. Even at 70 percent they are 10 percent better than the rest.
He added: “China also won every medal in diving and in badminton — and this is just the beginning. Technically they will soon be very strong in every sport.”
China have in fact won only five out of six diving finals so far, although they won all five of the badminton gold medals for the first time.
Sharara, who has previously described China’s pre-eminence as “devastating” for table tennis, urged the team to pass on their expertise to rival nations.
The world body changed its rules for the London Olympics to allow only two singles players per country, after China won every individual medal going in Beijing.
Since table tennis joined the Olympic programme in 1988, China have won 24 out of 28 gold medals.
