Winning the 2024 World Cup men's singles championship, the 36-year-old veteran Ma Long won his 30th world championship, thus tying the diving star Wu Minxia and ranking third in the Chinese sports multi-gold king rankings. Of course, if you compare the number of medals they have won in the three world competitions, Malone is still at a disadvantage, so strictly speaking, the horse team is temporarily fourth in this ranking.
So far, there have been 12 national world champions who have reached or exceeded 20, they are: Yang Yang, Guo Jingjing, Wu Minxia, Ma Long, Chen Ruolin, Wang Nan, Wang Meng, Ding Ning, Tian Liang, Lin Dan, Xu Xin, Liu Shiwen, among the 12 people, only Ma Long is still an active athlete. At present, Ma Long and Wu Minxia have 30 world championships, if you compare the number of medals won by the two sides in the Olympic Games, World Championships and World Cup, Wu Minxia has a greater advantage, she won 1 silver and 1 bronze in the Olympic Games, 5 silver and 1 bronze in the World Championships, and 4 silver and 1 bronze in the World Cup, a total of 10 silver and 3 bronze. Ma Long has won 40 medals in the world's three major competitions, including 3 silver medals and 7 bronze medals, respectively, and the number of medals is at a disadvantage compared with Wu Minxia.
Some self-media mentioned that Wu Minxia won a total of 29 world championships in her sports career, but in fact, there were 30. According to the relevant information provided by the FINA World Federation, Wu Minxia won 5 gold medals and 8 gold medals in the Olympic Games and World Championships respectively, and won 9 gold medals in the single jump and double jump events in the World Cup. In addition, according to the "Statistics of Chinese Athletes Winning World Championships" released by the Department of Competitive Sports of the General Administration of Sports of the People's Republic of China every year, Wu Minxia won 8 gold medals in the team event of the World Cup. The 8 gold medals: 2002 Women's Team, 2006 Women's Team, Mixed Team, 2010 Women's Team, Mixed Team, 2012 Women's Team, Mixed Team, 2014 Women's Team. Therefore, Wu Minxia should have won 30 gold medals in the three major competitions.
Of course, Ma Long, who has not yet retired, still has a chance to surpass Wu Minxia, as he is likely to participate in the Paris Olympics, which will open in three months. Ma Long, who will turn 36 years old in half a year, is likely to choose to retire after the Paris Olympics, which means that he is unlikely to catch up with Yang Yang and Guo Jingjing in the number of gold medals won in the world's three major competitions, but it is very likely to surpass Wu Minxia.
According to the current situation, Ma Long will be selected for the men's team squad for the Paris Olympics, and will join forces with Fan Zhendong and Wang Chuqin to attack the men's team gold medal. Since the table tennis team event became an Olympic event, the gold medals in the men's team and women's team have always been in the national table tennis bag, and the national table tennis has created an amazing record of 11 consecutive championships in the men's team event of the World Table Tennis Championships. Once he gets his wish, he will surpass Wu Minxia and enjoy the third place in the ranking list of many gold kings in Chinese sports.