Recently, the Chinese Table Tennis Association officially announced the list of national table tennis players participating in the Paris Olympics. This list has attracted widespread attention and heated discussions, especially the news that Wang Manyu has not qualified for women's singles, which has caused huge attention and controversy.
Olympic rosters and controversies
According to the Olympic list released by the Chinese Table Tennis Association, Wang Chuqin and Fan Zhendong will play in the men's singles, and Ma Long will still play in the men's team. In women's table tennis, Sun Yingsha and Chen Meng will play in the women's singles, and Wang Manyu will still play in the women's team. In this list, the biggest controversy is that Wang Manyu did not qualify for the women's singles. Many fans complained about Wang Manyu, believing that her past results and strength are fully qualified to compete in the women's singles competition. In fact, there are complex reasons behind Wang Manyu's failure to qualify for women's singles.
Wang Manyu's defeat and impact
At the Saudi Arabia Grand Slam, Wang Manyu's performance was indeed a surprise, from the first game, everyone thought she would win easily, but she lost 1-3 to India's "dark horse" Batra, thus losing in the first round. This match directly led to the deduction of 3,000 points from her Olympic points, and she lost the qualification for women's singles.
This defeat was a major blow to Wang Manyu. After the end of the World Cup in Macau, Wang Manyu's Olympic points were still 1555 points ahead of Chen Meng, and she was about to qualify for the Olympics, but because of this loss, she lost her lead and was overtaken by Chen Meng, who had passed all the way. And Chen Meng played well and won the Saudi Grand Slam women's singles championship, because she has surpassed Wang Manyu in points. So this defeat became the direct reason for her loss of qualification for women's singles.
Fans believe that Chen Meng and Sun Yingsha also lost foreign wars during the Paris Olympics cycle, but they did not deduct points because of this, and Chen Mengwu, the champion of the three major competitions in the selection cycle, thought that it was all about the rules to take away Wang Manyu's dream. And the assessment mechanism has been changed again and again, even intentionally, they think that such an assessment mechanism is unfair to Wang Manyu. Therefore, fans have written to the General Administration of Sports of China, questioning the assessment mechanism formulated by Liu Guoliang.
And fans frantically bombarded the selection mechanism on social media: Wang Manyu deserves a singles quota for the Paris Olympics! And posted the selection of the empirical Paris cycle: Wang Manyu holds eight women's singles championships, Chengdu Mixed Team, Busan World Table Tennis Championships, Hangzhou Asian Games, Wang Manyu has contributed his key points, so Wang Manyu deserves a singles quota for the Paris Olympics.
Social media is full of abuse against Ma Lin, Liu Guoliang and the Table Tennis Association! It is believed that in addition to the points selection mechanism, there must be other special factors.
As a fan who has been following table tennis for a long time, I think Wang Manyu is indeed one of the most consistent and outstanding players in Chinese women's table tennis. She has won eight singles world titles in the past three years, including the heavyweight World Table Tennis Championships in Houston and the Women's Singles title at the National Games. Her strength and results are obvious to all, so it is indeed a pity that she did not qualify for the women's singles because of an external battle.
Doubts from fans and discussion of the assessment mechanism
The fans' skepticism is not unfounded. Many believe that there are irrationalities in the current assessment system, especially when dealing with player defeats outside the game. As the incident intensified, many Internet celebrities also joined the debate, which made Chen Meng suffer a lot of doubts, and also embarrassed Wang Manyu. When the list of national table tennis was about to be announced, a large number of fans jointly wrote a petition letter of tens of thousands of words and submitted it to the General Administration of Sports of China, requesting that the assessment mechanism be revised and complaining that Liu Guoliang's assessment mechanism was unreasonable.
Many fans even took out the assessment standards of the Japan Table Tennis Association for comparison, and suggested that the Chinese Table Tennis Association refer to the assessment mechanisms of other countries to ensure that the selection process is more fair and transparent. They pointed out that the JTF's assessment mechanism focuses more on the overall performance and long-term results of the players, rather than just the results of individual matches. While these recommendations may not be fully applicable to the Chinese table tennis team, they reflect fans' dissatisfaction with the current system and their expectations for fair selection.
In my opinion, the current assessment mechanism does need to be adjusted to a certain extent. Table tennis is a high-intensity, high-confrontation sport, and the outcome of any game may be affected by a variety of factors. It would be too harsh to use the defeat of a foreign game as the deciding factor. More attention should be paid to the long-term performance and overall strength of the players to ensure the fairness of the selection process and conform to public opinion.
Official and media responses
In the face of the controversy that continues to ferment, the General Administration of Sports of China and CCTV have also responded. CCTV invited senior sports commentator Li Wujun to give an in-depth interpretation. Li Wujun pointed out that the Chinese table tennis team is full of talents, and any player who is selected or unselected will cause heated discussions, which also reflects the strong strength of Chinese table tennis from the side.
The General Administration of Sports of the People's Republic of China stressed that it is necessary to resolutely resist the erosion of the deformed "fan circle culture" in the field of sports. At the National Conference on Sports Publicity and Culture, the General Administration of Sports of the People's Republic of China made it clear that it would resolutely resist the negative impact of the "fan circle culture" on sports throughout the whole process and ensure the fairness and transparency of the athlete selection process. This statement responds to the concerns of fans and shows the attitude and determination of the officials.
In addition, the General Administration of Sports of China said that it will strengthen psychological counseling and support for athletes to help them cope with external pressures and challenges. Athletes' mental health is equally important, and they can only perform at their best on the field if they are physically and mentally healthy and have the best mentality.
The response of the General Administration of Sports of China was timely and necessary. Sports is not only a competition, but also a test of the comprehensive quality of athletes. Ensuring the fairness and transparency of the selection process is an important measure to safeguard the rights and interests of athletes and ensure the healthy development of sports.
Finally, I hope that the national table tennis team can achieve good results in the Paris Olympics. Although this selection has caused controversy, I believe that through this incident, the Table Tennis Association can reflect and improve, and the selection mechanism will be more fair and transparent. We look forward to seeing a more brilliant future for national table tennis.