At the beginning of the New Year on January 1, Fan Zhendong and Sun Yingsha were both selected into the AIPS Athlete of the Year list, of which Fan Zhendong became the 24th men's with 24 votes, and Sun Yingsha was selected as the 21st women's with 53 votes, and Sun Yingsha was also the only Chinese female athlete on the list.
Table tennis, as a niche sport, is actually very popular in East Asian table tennis powers such as China, Japan and South Korea, and its popularity in Europe and the United States and other countries is particularly low, far inferior to basketball, football, tennis, etc.
This selection is the result of the vote of 405 journalists from 107 countries of the International Sports Press Association, they come from different countries and belong to the world.
On December 26, Wang Chuqin became one of the top ten Chinese athletes in 2023 selected by the Sports Department of Xinhua News Agency.
We all know that Liu Guoliang recently successfully stepped down as the head coach of national table tennis, which caused an instant sensation at that time. Through Liu Guoliang's resignation, we can find that in fact, he is not demoted, he has his own more important task - to come to the international organization to promote table tennis.
The popularity of table tennis is still very low after all, and it is not a top popular sport, so their bonuses and sponsorships are also very small.
Therefore, now that the two of them have been selected into the international list, it is more conducive to expanding the influence of table tennis, better carrying forward the spirit of national table tennis, and is conducive to the development of national table tennis.
It's Wang Chuqin who is uncomfortable, he has just won the title of the top ten athletes in China, and as a result, these two world No. 1s have been ranked in the world, it can be seen that the internal competition is indeed fierce, and Wang Chuqin has to work harder.