By Krystal Hu
PARIS (Reuters) – The Chinese dream team came to Paris on a mission to claim every gold medal on offer, after missing out on one in Tokyo – the inaugural mixed doubles title.
Under enormous pressure they duly delivered, securing Ma Long a spot in history as the only six-time gold medalist in table tennis and China’s most decorated Olympian.
China’s dominance in the sport speaks for itself. They have earned 37 gold medals out of the 42 contested so far at the summer Olympics. The women’s singles final was between two Chinese players, a replay of Tokyo. In the best-of-five team competitions, neither the Chinese men’s nor women’s teams dropped a single match.
Even with the best team, however, the golden sweep wasn’t achieved without twists and turns. The biggest surprise happened when Sweden’s 19th seed Truls Moregard knocked out China’s world number one Wang Chuqin in the round of 32.
That boosted the confidence of 22-year-old Moregard, who went on to clinch the first silver for Sweden in the event since 2000.
“I didn’t plan for this when I came here and it feels surreal. I really felt I should just let it all go and really believe in myself and play the table tennis that I like,” said Moregard.
The sport also had its moment in France thanks to the sensational Lebrun brothers. With football legend Zinedine Zidane among the fans, 17-year-old Felix Lebrun won several thrilling deciding games and eventually clinched bronze.
He then led the French team, with his brother Alexis and Simon Gauzy, to add another bronze for France after overcoming the Japanese team.
“He is a champion, we will try to make him a legend,” said French team coach Nathanael Molin of Lebrun, the youngest ever to win a table tennis singles Olympics medal.
While Sweden and France’s performance marked the first time two European nations climbed on the podium for the teams event, beating the Chinese remains the Everest of table tennis.
Fan Zhendong, with a powerful backhand serve and steady performance under pressure, beat Japan’s Tomokazu Harimoto after a 9-9 tie in the seventh game in singles, and then survived a showdown with Moregard a second time in a deciding game in the team event.
Chinese duo Chen Meng and Wang Manyu were 9-5 behind in the last game of the doubles match against Japan but managed to fight back and claim the match.
“Since the last point hadn’t been decided, there was still a chance to come back. Our intense desire to win, with the unwavering belief that we could do it, kept us going,” said Chen, who has four gold medals.
(Reporting by Krystal Hu in Paris; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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