Recently, the news of the Chinese table tennis team women’s team changing the selection mechanism for the Paris Olympics rushed to the hot search, triggering heated discussions among fans, and for world champion Wang Yidi, the change can be said to officially announce her exit from the singles competition, as it is clearly written in the latest selection method:
“Starting from 8 May 2023, athletes of the national table tennis women’s team who have lost five matches against players from other associations in international competitions will have their eligibility to compete in the singles competition at the Paris Olympics withdrawn by the coaching staff for a comprehensive assessment.”
In the current Chinese table tennis team women’s team has the ability to impact the Olympic singles in the five main force, only Wang Yidi meet the above conditions, no wonder some fans lamented: this is specifically for her rules, right? Without naming her, it is also considered to leave a face!
Wang Yidi’s foreign performance in the last year or so is indeed a bit embarrassing. Between March 2023 and February 2024, she lost six times in international matches, against Japan’s Hina Hayata (twice), Miyu Hirano (twice), and Miyu Kihara (once), and in addition to India’s Akula (once), with the defeats occurring after May 2023 being exactly five times.
In addition, in the above six losses, four of them occurred in the world-class, Asian-level competitions, including one in the Durban World Series (lost Hina Hayada), one in the Hangzhou Asian Games (lost Hina Hayada), and two in the Busan World Series (Hirano Miyu, Akula), to which Li Ying even commented on with the word “rare”:
“This is also extremely rare in the history of Chinese table tennis team Olympic preparation.”
As we all know, for the Chinese table tennis team, the athlete’s ability to fight outside is the most important thing for the coaching team, and Wang Yidi in the key moment of the Olympic competition repeatedly dropped the chain, especially when facing the main opponent of the Chinese table tennis team – the Japanese main force lost a mess, how can it be reused? That’s why on 16 March, chief coach Li Ying made his stance clear:
“After a collective study by the coaching team, it was unanimously agreed that she (Wang Yidi) is no longer suitable to continue to compete in the Olympic singles.”
However, the above is after all a verbal statement in an interview, can not replace the written rules, but more than twenty days later, we will see the Chinese Table Tennis Association on the optimisation of the adjustment of the national table tennis women’s team to participate in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games selection method related to the revision of the content – although did not name Wang Yidi, but points to who is clear.
Things have developed to this point, fans have different comments:
- Some people think that Wang Yidi’s frequent losses in foreign matches made it a matter of course that she was taken out of the singles qualification, and that the revision of the selection programme was reasonable and justified;
- Some people think that since the rules have been set, they should not be changed arbitrarily, and the so-called “optimisation” is disrespectful to Wang Yidi and the athletes;
- There is also a suggestion that the Chinese table tennis team should reflect on why Wang Yidi can still be entrusted with the important task even though she has lost so many foreign battles before. Now the situation is not good, and then set the rules to take down the Olympic singles qualification, if I had known this, why did I do it in the first place?
