OOAK Table Tennis Forum

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China's dominance of table tennis is "devastating", according to the sport's top administrator, even though he considers himself an admirer of Chinese brilliance.

One of the three most important issues facing the sport is "challenging the Chinese", according to International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) president Adham Sharara.

He added the other two, a better image and greater recognition, were not unrelated.

Sharara's comments have added significance because over the next two weeks China will be prevented from repeating its achievement of winning all six individual medals at the Beijing Olympics by a new rule which allows only two players per country to take part in each event.

So at least one medal in both singles events will go to another nation here in London, even though at Wednesday's draw China were again seeded to win all four Olympic golds and had the top two players in both men's and women's singles.

However, Sharara claimed this rule change was not actually directed against the sport's outstanding nation. Rather, he said, it met a need to have more countries taking part in table tennis at the Games.

"Due to the limited number of players allowed at the Olympics -- 86 men and 86 women -- and with no prospect from the IOC (International Olympic Committee) of increasing these numbers, we had to find a creative way to increase the number of National Olympic Committees (NOCs) taking part," he explained.

"This of course opens the door for NOCs other than China to take part in the medal ceremony".

Nevertheless, Sharara reckoned "the current situation is actually worse than in Beijing -- worse in the sense that the difference in technical level between the Chinese and the rest of the world has grown even further".

He added: "This is good for the Chinese, but devastating for the rest. The Chinese are expected to win everything, so even within China the public is crying for a meaningful foreign challenge.

"This is not on the immediate horizon."

Although Singapore's women upset China at the world championships in Moscow two years ago they have been unable to follow-up this achievement.

There is though an emerging crop of good young Japanese and French players who between then offer the prospect of greater medal diversity.

"Hopefully this may turn things around and we may see the Chinese more vulnerable in the future," Sharara said.

The ITTF does not plan further interventions to help other nations, even though China has now won an astounding 20 gold, 14 silver, and eight bronze medals in just seven Olympics.

"We cannot without bias help directly any one nation against another," insisted Sharara, who paid tribute to China's dominance of table tennis and warned their quest for success would not stop there.

"I salute the Chinese for their abilities, skills, and professional approach to sport," he said. "Today they dominate table tennis, but in the future they may dominate many other sports as well."

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doublespeak?

oh when will it end

please, we need a new boss

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'Devastating' probably wasn't the best choice of words, as it's not clear if he was sayinh the Chinese TT players are devastating (which they are!), or if he's saying their dominance is devastating to our sport.

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Rather than hindering one nation's superiority, I think ITTF should focus their energy on building other countries' table tennis. Not that they are not doing a good job at it, they are just wasting their energy capping the highest level of table tennis (currently in China) thus table tennis developments around the world is not as optimal as it should be.. Just stupid in my opinion..

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Stopping the Chinese is the real reason we're getting a bigger, slower, less spinny ball that only works with Euro-style rubbers. Didn't work with the original ball-size increase, won't work now. I would call the ITTF's management of the sport "devastating."

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good points there, development is the key word
In a funny way I think that the Chinese try even harder every time a new road block is put in front of them

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In the end its all a null point for most countries anyway as the national associations and sporting bodies don't/won't put anywhere near the same amount of funding into table tennis as China. Its China's national sport, they have a huge population to draw talent from and most importantly there is huge investment into table tennis in China. This means that there are dedicated table tennis academies, scholarships, pro-leagues.... etc.

Take for example in Australia where the AIS (Australian Instisute of Sport) doesn't even offer any table tennis at all. We had a dual-nationality player come to our club to see if moving to Australia was going to be ok with her also wanting to pursue table tennis and when they contacted the AIS they said that they where told "it's not a sport" by the person they spoke to.

So what it comes down to in the end is how much cash is a country willing to put into beating china at table tennis? Or even provide their local talents with enough support and funding to develop at a higher level. I mean no disrespect to current local players. I'm just trying to say that if you have to work a job to fund your table tennis instead of table tennis being your job, then its hard to compete on the same level.

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Yeah, i totally agree with both of you.

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How about just reading what he said? The quote is: "devastating for the rest", not "for the sport" etc. The Chinese dominance certainly is "devastating" for the gold medal hopes of other countries.

What Sharara expresses here is obvious to everyone, including the Chinese - they said the same thing in 2008 already, noting for example the decreasing interest in table tennis in China itself.

Early reports indicate that the new ball will be particularly good for pips-out hitters. Who knows, maybe Liu Guoliang is planning a comeback.

Chinese rubbers work just fine producing spin, by the way, and the Chinese will of course adapt easily to whatever new conditions are created.

No one's trying to "stop the Chinese". Everyone (including the Chinese) is trying to raise the levels of other countries and create a "foreign challenge" so that international competitions can actually have a bit of suspense. Who can disagree with that?

Yahoo!

But I can't be happy for myself though, this new ball, Sir, threatens other style by quite a degree, esp. those who use long pips.

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I've read that the low priced hard-sponged Chinese rubbers don't work so well with the new ball. Can you confirm that Haggisv or Debater?

Also everyone knows the reduction of Olympic singles participants from three to two is an ITTF move to "stop the Chinese" from sweeping all the medals. For Adham to claim otherwise is hogwash.

By the way, here's a new FAKE Adham interview where there is no disclosure that "the journalist" is on the ITTF payroll. This is the way the ITTF does business. The part where Wang Dong called Sharara "Mr. Change" with a big smile was especially sickening.

http://english.cntv.cn/program/sportssc ... 0505.shtml

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"Stopping the Chinese from sweeping all the medals" is not the same as "stopping the Chinese." There are other Olympic sports where countries are "stopped" from sweeping the medals (the US in swimming, for example).

Of course the limitation to 2 singles players is an anti-sweep measure. It's just that Sharara presents it in positive terms (allowing other countries to win a medal) rather than negative terms. But aside from the rhetoric and the medal count, the main concern for everyone is the growing gap between China and the rest - and that is a legitimate concern shared by the Chinese themselves.

Most countries choose a particular sport to invest their resources on... I think it's ridiculous for Sharara to be worrying so much about China's dominance in table tennis.
The United States dominate women's soccer, swimming, mens and womens basketball, baseball, softball, plus many others. No one cares that the Americans are "devastating" so many sports. It's utterly stupid. Believe me, as a Chinese I know most people in China are disgusted that Ma Long can not play in this Olympics men's singles along with Wang Hao and ZJK because of Sharara, whatever positive "spin" he wants to put it. Karma is a funny thing... One day it will bite Sharara and his clowns at ITTF back.

Slightly different, I think. After all, US could enter as many swimmers as they like, but they would never sweep all the medals on offer.

Just as is the case with archery:

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