On May 14, Beijing time, the Chinese Table Tennis Association issued a notice through its official website to publicize the list of athletes participating in the women's team for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
According to the relevant provisions of the Chinese Table Tennis Association's "Selection Measures for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games in Table Tennis (Revised Edition)", in accordance with the latest women's singles world ranking points announced by the International Table Tennis Federation on May 14, 2024, and the reward points for the women's singles international competition within the validity period, the Olympic list of the Chinese team Paris Olympics is Sun Yingsha, Chen Meng, Wang Manyu, the Olympic list of the men's team is Wang Chuqin, Fan Zhendong, Ma Long, and the mixed doubles Olympic list is Wang Chuqin/Sun Yingsha.
At this point, the national table tennis Olympic representative selection drama, which has been boiling for a year, has finally officially come to an end. The final results of the selection and the list of national table tennis players for the Paris Olympics are:
Mixed Doubles: Wang Chuqin/Sun Yingsha
Men's Singles: Wang Chuqin, Fan Zhendong
Men's team: Wang Chuqin, Fan Zhendong, Ma Long
Men's P card: Liang Jingkun
Women's Singles: Sun Yingsha, Chen Meng
Women's group: Sun Yingsha, Chen Meng, Wang Manyu
Women's P card: Wang Yidi
Both men and women are 27 years old, and they are the oldest P cards in the history of national table tennis.
The battle over the dream fish has been the biggest focus in the past three months
Starting from the World Table Tennis Championships in Busan in February, the competition for the second person in the Olympic singles of the national table tennis women's team has become the main theme of the selection of the Olympic team. At that time, Chen Meng won the championship as the main force at the Busan World Table Tennis Championships, and suddenly left Wang Manyu far away, and the situation was extremely clear.
However, in the following three consecutive selection tournaments, Wang Manyu achieved a large lead over Chen Meng in the Singapore Grand Slam, Incheon Championships and Macau Singles World Cup (Wang Manyu won one championship and two runners-up, Chen Meng three semifinals), which made the points situation between the two reversed, Wang Manyu surpassed Chen Meng and led by 1555 Olympic selection points. At that time, there was only one stop left before the Olympic list was established, and there was only one stop left for the Saudi Grand Slam, and Wang Manyu could basically qualify for the Olympic singles as long as he "did not lose the foreign war".
No one expected that the Saudi Grand Slam would become a big stage for a big shift. Wang Manyu was defeated by Indian Monster Rubber Captain Batra in the second round of singles, Wang Manyu has defeated Batra twice this year, and has the upper hand in all aspects, no one could have predicted that Wang Manyu unexpectedly capsized and was eliminated by Batra in an upset!
According to the selection rules of national table tennis, Wang Manyu will be deducted 3,000 huge points if he loses a foreign war. But at that time, Chen Meng was still facing the relay interception of the two main Japanese table tennis forces, Zhang Benmei and Hina Hayata, if Chen Meng also lost the foreign war, then Wang Manyu's loss could be hedged, and Wang Manyu could still keep the second ranking.
Everyone knows the situation later, Chen Meng firmly grasped his fate in his own hands, not only defeated the three main Olympic forces of Japanese table tennis in a row, but also defeated Sun Yingsha in the women's singles final, won the championship in one fell swoop, and also locked the Olympic singles quota in one fell swoop.
In fact, Chen Meng and Wang Manyu are no different from their opponents in the singles and who is in the team, and Chen Meng and Wang Manyu's current combat power is enough to complete the task of defending the Olympic semi-region. And in the women's team competition, Mengyu is destined to cooperate in the women's doubles, and one single is none other than Sun Yingsha.
Therefore, the last leg of the Olympic selection of the national table tennis women's team is for the individual feelings of Chen Meng and Wang Manyu and the shape of their personal career territory, which has not had much impact on the overall design of the national table tennis Olympics.
Now, Chen Meng has qualified for the second Olympic singles competition, and Wang Manyu is likely to never have a chance to touch the Olympic singles champion again. When the next Olympics (Los Angeles 2028) arrives, Wang Manyu will be 29 years old, and it may be difficult to continue to maintain peak competitiveness.