The 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris will see the 10th edition of the table tennis event. Who will be the new champion?
The previous nine Olympics have seen eight different champions in the singles event. Only Ma Long has been able to repeat his success, winning his first Olympic gold in 2016 and being victorious again in 2020. Since the Chinese legend won’t be taking part in the singles event, it’s clear that someone is going to win his first Olympic title.
As you can see in the infographic, Chinese players rarely have given away the gold medal to athletes from other countries. The 2024 Olympics will most likely follow this trend. When it comes to the most important tournaments, Chinese leading stars rarely disappoint.
Fan Zhendong and Wang Chuqin are clear favorites, and the Olympics will be pretty much these two versus everyone. If Chinese stars are in their best condition, there’s not much anyone else can put up against them. WTT tournaments sometimes expose some of their weaknesses and vulnerabilities. However, pro tours should not be taken too seriously. Those are commercial tournaments, WTT organizes way too many of them, and there’s not much value in those, except ranking points. Look at Hugo Calderano. Regularly among the TOP 10 players, often among medalists of the pro tours, and even has wins over the leading Chinese players, but when it comes to World Championships or Olympics, Calderano fails to excel.
There are plenty of hungry players, who will definitely try to challenge Fan Zhendong and Wang Chuqin. Rising French brothers – Alexis Lebrun and Felix Lebrun can enjoy their first Olympic experience without much pressure and expectations. Any success will be praised, while there’s not much they could lose at this stage of their careers.
Tomokazu Harimoto and Lin Yun-ju might present some challenges for the main contenders, as well as Jang Woo-jin, who will be one of the dark horses of the singles event. Darko Jorgic has been very successful at the Europe Top 16 tournaments, but his resume still lacks those gold medals from the other major events. Truls Moregardh had one bright run, but after that, his performances have been relatively quiet. Who knows, it might be kind of a Renaissance for the Swedish star if he will be able to surprise the audience at the Olympics. And, of course – Dimitrij Ovtcharov. The experienced German has plenty of Olympic experience and several medals on his resume. He’s already 35 years old but still capable of creating headaches for most of the leading players. He might not win the gold, but winning another bronze is definitely possible.
Fan Zhendong has struggled at times this season, but Chinese coaching staff knows the recipe how to prepare athletes for the decisive moments. Fan Zhendong has won everything in his career and only the Olympic gold in singles is needed to cement his legacy as one of the all-time greats. Easy motivation. For Wang Chuqin it’s the opposite. He is still on his way to win the biggest trophies in table tennis. Hunger is there, insane speed is there and inner battles in China’s national team are always interesting to follow. When these two reach the final – we will see an impressive table tennis spectacle.
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