Paris Olympics: table tennis, diving sweeps as China beat medal forecast in race with US
China completed clean sweeps in table tennis and diving in Paris yesterday, making history in the latter as the most successful country ever in the sport at the Olympics.
On another golden day in the French capital, there was success too for weightlifter Liu Huanhua and in the women’s rhythmic gymnastics, taking the country’s overall number to 37, just one fewer than the team won in Tokyo three years ago, and four more than the United States had at one point last night.
Pre-Games predictions had forecast China would win 34 gold, a figure they equalled early with Liu’s triumph in the 102kg event. Other opportunities in women’s boxing and artistic swimming overnight meant leaving Paris top of the medal table had become more than just a dream.
There has been an inevitability about China taking all the diving golds available, and Cao Yuan’s successful defence of his 10m platform title made it eight from eight, an unprecedented achievement that put an exclamation mark on the team’s utter domination of the sport.
It also edged the country ahead of the US in most diving titles ever.
Little more than an hour later, there was victory in the women’s team table tennis against Japan, Wang Manyu finishing off a 3-0 victory with a win over Miwa Harimoto. The celebrations with teammates Sun Yingsha and Chen Meng were instant and loud.
After being denied by Japan in the mixed doubles at the Tokyo Olympics, China have returned to win all five golds on offer in France. Underlining the dominance is the fact that of the 42 gold medals available in Olympic history, China players have just won their 37th.
Cao, meanwhile, established his place in the Chinese Olympic pantheon, winning his fourth gold in four Games, and it may just be the sweetest of the lot.
At three previous Olympics, China fell one short in their pursuit of winning it all. On two of those occasions, in 2016 and 2021, Cao was one half of duos who did not top the podium.
For Cao, then, this was redemption of sorts, but he was made to work for it by Japan’s Tamai Rikuto, who was left to rue a fifth-round failure. It scored just 39.10 and gave him too much to do to catch Cao, who finished with 547.50 points.
The 17-year-old Rikuto recovered to finish with a spectacular 99.0 for his back 2½ somersaults, 2½ twists. His final score of 507.65 was enough for silver and Great Britain’s Noah Williams took bronze with 497.35.
China’s domination in table tennis is well established, but it is no coincidence that recent success in the men’s game has gone hand in hand with Ma Long’s 12-year Olympic career, one that has seemingly ended with a sixth gold.
Yesterday, the 35-year-old was present to cheer Chen, Sun and Wang Manyu on their way to gold, 24 hours after claiming the men’s team title for a fourth time – a win he later said he thought was “the last stop of my professional career”.
“I am happy that it came with a perfect result,” Ma added. “I am certainly lucky over the last 12 years, and I should be proud of myself. For all of us to work hard towards one goal, this is a great moment in Paris. I never thought I’d still be standing here in France after the Tokyo Olympics.”
While there has been no clean sweep in the weightlifting events, with China taking just six athletes to Paris, Liu picked up his country’s fourth gold in the sport.
The 22-year-old put in a superb performance to claim the title with a total of 406kg. He even attempted to beat his own world record of 413kg, set in April, but came up just short.
Uzbekistan’s Akbar Djuraev took silver with 404kg, and Belarusian Yauheni Tsikhantsou, who was competing as a neutral athlete, won bronze with 402kg.
In between the diving and table tennis, the rhythmic gymnastics team grabbed gold of their own in the group all-around final with 69.8 points. Israel trailed narrowly behind at 68.85, while Italy claimed bronze with 68.1.
The Chinese team, featuring Ding Xinyi, Guo Qiqi, Hao Ting, Huang Zhangjiayang and Wang Lanjing, finished first in the five hoops rotation and third in the three ribbons and two balls rotation.
Wang said there had been “more hardship than happiness” on the way to gold, but “when I hold this medal, I feel that all the struggles were absolutely worth it”.
Paris has been the scene of Chinese boxing history too, and hours after the men’s table tennis team dispatched Japan, boxer Wu Yu took her country’s gold medal figure to 33 with a resounding 4-1 win in the 50kg category.
Wu became just the second Chinese woman to win boxing gold, and said after missing out on the Rio and Tokyo Olympics it felt as though it may have been her only chance to do so.
“I kept pushing myself forward and never backed down no matter how difficult it was, for it was not an opportunity for everyone,” she said, before paying tribute to her Cuban coach Mansueto Velasco.
“The biggest help from him was on the mental and psychological fronts,” Wu said. “He’s such a hardworking, responsible coach and I admired him a lot, words could not describe how I feel [about him].”
There was silver too for Yang Liu, who was completely outboxed by Algeria’s Imane Khelif in the 66kg.
Boxing, though, may yet have provided more gold for China in the early hours of this morning, with Li Qian having fought Panama’s Atheyna Bylon in the women’s 75kg final.
