August 28, 2008
Beijing 2008: Olympic Gold, Silver and Bronze for Butterfly
Golden Throne for Table Tennis Empress Zhang Yining
Beijing. The Table Tennis Empress Zhang Yining built her own monument in her home town Beijing during the Olympic Games 2008. The Butterfly Star triumphed in the Singles and with her Chinese Team just like four years ago in Athens with two Gold Medals each time. With this result she equalled the record of her legendary compatriot Deng Yaping who stood also four times on the number one place of the podium, twice 1992 in Barcelona and twice 1996 in Atlanta. The World Champion Guo Yue can be proud as well with two medals, Gold with the Team and Bronze in the Singles. Timo Boll and Oh Sang Eun continued the group of successful "Butterflies" at Olympia in the men's events: Boll returns to Germany with a Silver Medal in the team event and Oh went back to South Korea with a Bronze Medal.
Europe's hope that the Chinese Aces might not be able to cope with the pressure in their home country were not fulfilled in Beijing. The Chinese had a solid grip on the Olympic Summer Games in table tennis at all times. The table tennis world wasn't surprised by the best possible result of the hosts by winning both Gold Medals in the team event and all six possible medals in the individual events but the ITTF President, Adham Sharara was a bit worried that the Chinese top stars didn't lose even one match against an athlete from another nation neither in the team nor in the individual event:" We cannot blame China that they are so strong because table tennis is the national sport here. The other nations must improve to challenge China. China is developing new techniques, services and new styles, while Europe relies on continuing with the usual playing systems and practicing methods. The reason for this is the education of coaches which is further developed in China than anywhere else in the world. There is not enough exchange of ideas between the Chinese Coaches and the responsible people of the other nations."
Reliability in person was once again Zhang Yining. The 26-year-old "Butterfly" coped well with the enormous pressure of the public and won like in Athens the Gold Medal in the singles, this time through a victory over the successful Wang Nan who won in 2000 and beat somewhat surprisingly the World Champion Guo Yue through her experience. Guo Yue again won the Bronze Medal by winning against Li Jia Wei (Singapore). Zhang Yining was full of joy after her Olympic victory:" I am so happy and would like to thank many people. My coaches and all the other players, they all contributed so much to my success. From the technical point of view I was not so happy today but mentally I was very strong and that was the deciding factor." By the way the Europeans were no longer represented in the Quarterfinals.
The medals of the Butterfly partners in the men's events were more humble. The Duesseldorf player Timo Boll won the first Silver Medal in the team event for Germany for twelve years but he couldn't overcome the effects of the lack of training for three month caused by his knee injury at the beginning of 2008 in the singles. Boll failed already clearly in the round of the last 16 against the South Korean top player Oh Sang Eun who didn't stand a chance against the final winner Ma Lin one round later. Boll was not the only prominent Tamasu player who dropped out during that round: also Austria's Ex-World Champion Werner Schlager and Denmark's WC third in 2005 Michael Maze did not reach the quarterfinals. Surprisingly the Croatian Zoran Primorac was fighting for a place in the semi-finals but lost the match of former champions against the 41-year-old Swedish Ex-World Champion Jorgen Persson who completely unexpectedly advanced to Europe's best player gaining fourth place.
During the team event another European athlete with a Butterfly on his chest was completely unexpectedly drawing attention to himself. Robert Gardos made a major contribution to Austria's chance to play for a Bronze Medal by beating the Greek Kalinikos Kreanga and Japan's Kan Yo. During the "little final" he even won against the gold medallist from Athens Ryu Seung Min. Sadly it was the only victory of the disappointed Austrians on that day.
Independently of results and records the Olympic Games 2008 were an impressive adventure - for the athletes, the delegations, Olympic tourists as well as for the followers of the electronic media. The best polls and the permanently sold out Beijing University Gymnasium (8000 spectators) stressed the meaning of table tennis in China during the summer games as well as the special honour which the Chinese exemplary sportsperson Zhang Yining received from the organisers during the impressive opening ceremony: The nine times World Champion was chosen to take the Olympic Oath in the "Bird's Nest" representing thousands of competitors from all over the world.
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