If Samsonov is mentioned, some fans may be unfamiliar with this name now, but this Belarusian table tennis player was a famous master of men's table tennis in the world in the last century, and was also known as the "Three Tigers of Europe" by the outside world, and he was also the main opponent of the Chinese team.
Waldner
Waldner is the greatest table tennis player outside the Chinese team, with a career of more than 20 years, and is also known as the "evergreen in table tennis" by the media.
Waldner's biggest contribution to table tennis, in addition to the championship, the most important thing is his style of play, combining the European medium and far Taiwan technology and China's near-Taiwan offensive technology, and later his skills were also learned by some Chinese athletes, such as Wang Liqin, his style of play is to learn Waldner's technique, so whether it is from the honor, or the promotion of table tennis technology, Waldner is a veritable real king.
Liu Guoliang
Many people may have forgotten that Liu Guoliang is the first Chinese table tennis player to win a Grand Slam, in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, he won the men's singles and men's doubles double championship, as of his retirement in 2002, Liu Guoliang won a total of 11 world championships, at the same time, he is also the first official competition, the use of straight and horizontal athletes, this style of play has also become the "exclusive style of play" of many Chinese athletes, everyone is more familiar with Wang Hao and Ma Lin, are representatives of this style of play.
Of course, in addition to the honors won by athletes, Liu Guoliang's coaching career is also extremely brilliant, from 2003 into the coaching staff, in 2017 to step down as head coach, during the 14 years, he led the Chinese table tennis team, a total of 9 Olympic champions, 29 World Table Tennis Championships, 25 World Cup champions and 27 Asian Championships championships, if in terms of honor, Liu Guoliang is undoubtedly the best in the history of world table tennis, Samsonov believes that he is the king of the ball, and there is no controversy at all.
Malone
In the history of table tennis, the athlete with the most championships is Ma Long, who has won a total of 27 world championships, including 5 Olympic gold medals, 13 World Table Tennis Championships, and 9 World Cup championships, and this number is likely to increase, because of the Paris Olympics this year.
In addition to the number of championships, Ma Long also has some table tennis records, he is the only athlete who has won two consecutive Olympic men's singles table tennis gold medals, won the men's singles championship of the World Table Tennis Championships 9 times in a row, and has been ranked No. 1 in the world for 64 months.