After entering the 2022 Paris Olympic cycle, a number of young faces emerged in the world table tennis arena to emerge in the international arena, sweeping away the signs of the old table tennis world in the Tokyo Olympic cycle: France's 15-year-old straight board player Felix won the men's doubles championship with his teammates 18-year-old Alex in two consecutive regional matches, and 17-year-old Lin Shidong and 18-year-old Xiang Peng also accelerated the pace of grabbing power, staging a classic of weak victory in Macau. In addition, South Korea's Shin Yubin, Japan's Ito Mimachi, Sweden's Moregaard and other young players have become the main force of their respective national teams, and the world table tennis world table tennis in the Paris Olympic cycle may have a drastic makeover.
After the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, France's youngster Felix became the first new face to emerge, adhering to the traditional Asian style of playing straight board fast attack, but also let the European home almost extinct straight board reappear. At the challenge of WTT Slovenia, Felix rose to fame by defeating former rivals such as Zhuang Zhiyuan, and won the men's doubles championship in the 2022 Düsseldorf regional competition, and the 15-year-old Felix and the 18-year-old Alex are expected to become the two hopeful stars in the European table tennis world after the Swedish teenager Moregaard.
The Japanese and South Korean teams have been vigorously cultivating young players in recent years, and the Japanese table tennis team has implemented a generational project to use young players under the age of 20 to take advantage of the strangeness of their opponents to get results. However, the main players are Tomokazu Zhang, Mimachi Ito, Hina Hayata, and Miyu Hirano, who are only 20 years old, and the young Miyu Kihara and Miyu Nagasaki are also aggressive. South Korea's Shin Yu-bin is only 17 years old, but she participated in the Tokyo Olympics with the No. 2 main force, but her strength is not yet a threat to national table tennis, and the South Korean men's team Ahn Jae-hyun, Lim Jong-hoon, and Cho Dae-sung also have certain potential. Lin Yunru of the Chinese Taipei team is also a 20-year-old young player, already an Olympic finalist and a major opponent of national table tennis for the next 10 years.
The national table tennis in the Tokyo Olympic cycle is still dominated by veterans, Ma Long, Liu Shiwen, Xu Xin three veterans are over 30 years old, Chen Meng is also 28 years old, becoming the oldest team with the average age of the previous Olympic Games. Compared with foreign young players, the domestic young players have little chance of appearing on the international stage, the ongoing Macao Championships, 17-year-old Lin Shidong beat the main force of the World Table Tennis Championships Zhou Qihao 3-2, 18-year-old Xiang Peng defeated Sun Wen, and also joined hands with Zhang Rui in the mixed doubles project to reach the semifinals, 17-year-old Ku Man partner Fan Zhendong reached the mixed doubles final four, the three national table tennis young players showed strength with the intention of grabbing power, they have launched a strong impact on the main brother of the national table tennis big brother, and even crossed the Mesozoic Generation. There is also a trend similar to the "off-generation training" of Japanese table tennis within the national table tennis.
Due to the fierce internal competition in national table tennis, under the premise that the strength of the veteran is still there, the coach's employment is still based on stability, Liu Shiwen, Ma Long and Xu Xin returned to the field in Macau still showed a strong competitiveness, Liu Shiwen won consecutive victories over Wang Yidi, Wang Xiaotong, Ma Longlike Liang Jingkun, Xu Xin defeated Zhou Qihao with similar playing styles, and the opponent was not weak but still could win. It's just that the veteran will eventually retire, the young player will take over sooner or later, and if you want to grab the power, you must use strength to speak, otherwise you may also be suppressed by the veteran within the talent-rich national table tennis, and also face the embarrassment of being surpassed by younger players.