On the evening of May 15, 2023, the official website of the Chinese Table Tennis Association announced the "Table Tennis Project 2024 Paris Olympic Games Selection Measures". The content of the announcement is: in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Notice of the Competition and Sports Department of the General Administration of Sports on Doing a Good Job in the Selection of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, and taking the selection of the best through competition and the selection of integrity as the criteria, actively do a good job in the selection of athletes for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games to ensure the completion of the preparation tasks for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, and the "Table Tennis Project 2024 Paris Olympic Games Selection Measures" is hereby publicized. The announcement period is May 15-19, 2023.
The "Table Tennis 2024 Paris Olympic Games Selection Measures" in the form of an annex has a total of 16 pages, detailing the selection conditions, leading groups, selection criteria and other work content. The leader of the leading group for table tennis selection is Liu Guoliang, chairman of the Chinese Table Tennis Association. The leader of the selection supervision team is Liu Yi, deputy director of the National Olympic Sports Center and secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission, and vice chairman of the Chinese Table Tennis Association.
Judging from the specific selection methods, this selection is really fair, just and open. Basically, speaking in terms of competition results and world rankings, the individual efforts of athletes will play a decisive role. Especially for the main mixed doubles team of National Table Tennis Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha, it is great good news, as long as the current points advantage is maintained, there is no suspense in being selected for mixed doubles and team.
1. Selection criteria for mixed doubles events
The Chinese Table Tennis Association will confirm the candidates according to the mixed doubles world ranking on May 7, 2024, and the highest ranked pair will represent the Chinese team in the mixed doubles competition of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games and will be automatically selected into the Chinese team's men's and women's team team.
Wang Chuqin/Sun Yingsha are currently ranked No. 1 in the mixed doubles world with 6,040 points. 1,820 points ahead of second-placed Japan's Tomokazu Changmoto/Hina Hayada. The closest to Wang Chuqin/Sun Yingsha in the world ranking of National Table Tennis is the world's seventh-ranked Lin Shidong/Qu Man with 1875 points, 4165 points worse than them. The optimistic situation is that even if Wang Chuqin/Sun Yingsha lie flat and do not participate in the competition now, Lin Shidong/Qu Man win the mixed doubles championship in every match, and the points will not catch up with Wang Chuqin/Sun Yingsha. So Wang Chuqin/Sun Yingsha's Paris Olympics mixed doubles place and team competition place are almost certain.
2. Selection criteria for singles events
In the singles event, the Chinese Table Tennis Association has set up an Olympic singles selection point system. The points of this system are calculated by adding the ITTF singles world ranking points and the award points of major international competitions between May 8, 2023 and May 7, 2024. Finally, the Chinese Table Tennis Association will calculate the Olympic singles selection points of the relevant athletes according to the world ranking points announced by the ITTF on May 7, 2024 and the award points of the international competitions within the validity period, and the highest ranked male and female 2 athletes will represent the Chinese team in the singles competition of the 2024 Paris Olympic Table Tennis event, and will be automatically selected into the Chinese team's men's and women's team team. If 2 or more athletes have the same Olympic singles selection points, the highest ITTF singles world ranking on May 7, 2024 will take precedence.
In the singles event, the leading players in the world have a great advantage. Only good results in international competitions can have more world ranking points. This selection criterion now amounts to double counting of world ranking points in international competitions, which gives the top players in the world rankings an even greater advantage. Fan Zhendong and Wang Chuqin, who are currently the top two in the world rankings in men's and women's singles; Sun Yingsha and Wang Manyu have obvious advantages.
3. Selection criteria for team events
If there are less than 3 athletes selected for the men's or women's team, the coaching staff of the national team will make a collective decision to determine the list of intentions for the third candidate of the team by taking into account many factors such as Olympic singles selection points, technical and tactical characteristics, doubles competition ability and record against the main opponent, and submit it to the leading group for approval. In this way, on the one hand, the enthusiasm of the coaching staff can be fully mobilized and its subjective initiative can be brought into play, the collective wisdom of the national team can be brought into play, and the initiative of preparation can be firmly grasped in their own hands; On the other hand, since the Olympic team competition has singles and doubles, the arrangement of the team is more varied, and the third person in collective decision-making can truly select the team members suitable for the team lineup according to the particularity of the Olympic team competition.
At the same time, if the AP registration quota of the Chinese delegation is allocated, the coaching staff of the national team will also make a collective decision to determine the list of intentions and submit it to the leading group for selection of the selection work, taking into account many factors such as Olympic singles selection points, technical and tactical characteristics, doubles competition ability and record against major opponents. If there are remaining mobile group seats and P card places, then the selection leading group still has a lot of decision-making power. However, who such a lucky person ends up in is always a mystery until the last moment.