Table tennis in former Olympic Games
In the first 5 Olympic Games in which table tennis was represented the events on the programme were Women and Men Singles and Doubles. In 2008 in Beijing Women and Men Doubles were replaced by Women and Men Teams competition.
Table tennis is in most National Olympic Committees regarded as individual and not as a team sport, which created to most table tennis federations a lot of problems. In most countries only Olympic sport events are recognized and fully supported, it was not in favour of table tennis to play only individual events in Olympic Games. Team events are in reality the basis of mass table tennis sport but due to the fact that there were no table tennis team events in Olympic Games, there was no adequate support from NOCs. This was the reason for the ITTF to apply for the change, to have in Olympic Games team events instead of doubles. IOC accepted the request and in 2008 in Beijing for the first time team events became part of the table tennis programme. It is a pity that table tennis became the only sport having a different playing system for team matches in Olympic Games and in World Championships. As it is known in World Championships a team consists of 3 players, No. 1 and No. 2 play each two matches, No. 3 plays against No. 3 only one match, the match is over after one team gains 3 wins. It was expected that the same system would be adapted to the Olympic Games, but that was not the case! The wish was expressed not to abandon doubles totally from the Olympic Games, so not the World Championships team matches system was taken over what was quite a disputed decision. Rather unexpected a slightly changed "Ogimura" system was adopted, a system in which as part of a team match there is a double match too, but the system is hard to understand for spectators, best doubles from both teams in most cases do not play, best players due to team tactics seldom meet each other. In this system each team consists of 3 players, one of them plays two single matches, each one of the other two plays a single match and together a double match. This system was proposed 1988 on a world coaching seminar in Greece by former ITTF president Ichiro Ogimura. His idea was disputed by coaches but in spite of all he insisted and the system was 1989 applied for the World Championships to be held in Japan 1991. Team events in World Championships 1991 in Chiba, Japan became a catastrophe, the system was immediately after that abandoned, it was expected it will never again be used. In spite of that bad experience, the ITTF introduced it again in the Olympic Games; the only change is that the double is now nominated after the first two single matches, which does not eliminate the system’s week points. For the Olympic Games of Beijing the teams were ranked and qualified according to the sum of individual ranking points of a federation’s three best players. In other sports there are team qualifications, in table tennis only individual results of players were taken into account for the team qualification! For London the team qualification system is changed, at the end a system is applied which is difficult to understand for table tennis fans and for the press.
China women won in all past 6 Olympic Games gold medals in singles, Chen Ying and Wang Nan became each one gold medallist, Deng Yaping, probably the best women player ever and Zhang Yining each twice. In men singles Chinese players won 3 gold medals, Republic Korea won two and Sweden 1 gold medal. Winners were by chronology Yoo Nam Kyu, Waldner, Liu Guoliang, Kong Linhui, Ryu Seung Min, Ma Lin. Chinese won altogether 20 gold medals, for the rest of the world only 4 remained! It would be a sensation if in London 2012 all 4 gold medals at stake would not go to Chinese as it happened in 2008 in Beijing.


The road to 2012 London Olympic Games
The names of Olympic gold medallists in 2012 in London are not yet known, but in reality it is clear that all gold medallists will be members of Chinese delegation, anything else would be a surprise.
In women- and men singles all three medals - gold, silver and bronze - cannot be won by Chinese players, as it was the case in 2008 in Beijing. The reason is not the stronger competitors but the new regulation according to which instead of three players only two players from each country are eligible to play in singles at the Olympic Games. It was quite a surprise when the ITTF decided during the Wold Championships in 2010 in Moscow that only two players in singles from each country may qualify for the Olympic Games. Before that decision was taken, a meeting between Asian and European members of the ITTF Board of Directors was arranged and the matter was discussed. All members were against the proposal to reduce the number and without their approval the proposal would have failed. During the meeting Chinese Table Tennis Association President Chain Zhenhua arrived, excused himself for being late and immediately stated that China agrees with the proposal to reduce the maximal number of participants from 3 to 2 per country as it would be in favour of our sport, more countries will get the chance to win Olympic medals! After the statement of Chinese president all BOD members from Asia immediately changed their opinion and the proposal was in fact accepted! So China will be able to win "only" two medals in each women and men single event!
For the single event in 2012 London, 28 women and 28 men were directly qualified according to the World ranking places, but only two best players from each country. It was not quite logical that these players were nominated immediately after the 2011 World Championships in Rotterdam instead of nominating them much later. Older, more experienced players calculated before the closing date quite diligently on which tournaments they should play, on which not, in order not to endanger their ranking points and position on the World ranking list. Not only who played better, but who as well counted better succeeded to qualify himself directly according to the position on the ranking list.
The list of players directly qualified due to the World ranking list position is for the future of Europe not very promising. In singles, 17 men from Europe are directly qualified, 13 of those qualified are more then 3o years old, 6 from them are even over 40 (!), only from two players from the list some serious progress can be expected. All respect to Persson, Saive, Primorac - they took part in all 6 former Olympic Games and will participate to their seventh Games, but the fact they succeeded to qualify for London is not speaking in favour of the young European generation! In women events, the situation for Europe is even worse - 16 women from Europe qualified themselves directly, 9 are former Chinese players, among them is the 48 years old Ni Xialian, only 7 qualifiers are born in Europe!
At the European Olympic qualification tournament He Zhiwen, 50 years old, former member of the Chinese World champion team, now playing for Spain, qualified himself for London, but the big European hopes like the young French players Gauzy and Robinot, as well as the English Pitchford or the Romanian girl Szocz did not make it!
The final World qualification tournament in Doha became a consolation award for Europe - in men competition all 10 remaining qualifying places went to European players, in women competition from 8 remaining places 7 went to European women. This seems to be very positive from the European point of view, but among the names of qualified men and women from Europe there are no players which could be expected to become in future new world table tennis stars.
In London silver medal for the men team from Germany is expected, Timo Boll has a chance to win bronze medal in singles, but there are no other candidates for medals from Europe.