They are both iconic figures in the table tennis world, meeting in the men’s singles final at the Paris Olympics only last year, and previously meeting in the men’s singles final of the World Table Tennis Championships, making them heroes in the hearts of countless fans, but now they do not seem to be treated accordingly.
Recently, the news of the conflict between Swedish table tennis star and new Olympic men’s singles runner-up Moregardh and the Swedish Table Tennis Association (STA), which involves issues such as advertisement endorsement and participation quota, has triggered heated discussions, which reminds people of the incident at the end of last year, when Fan Zhendong, the Olympic men’s singles champion of Paris, gave up his world ranking because of his dissatisfaction with the fine imposed on him for withdrawing from the WTT.
Who would have thought that with commercialisation and market reforms sweeping across the ping pong world, it was instead the top of the pyramid who were the first to be hit and run into trouble? Or should we say that only their voices are heard by the public?
Fan Zhendong was born in 1997, Moregardh was born in 2002, both are the top performance of the Paris Olympic cycle of men’s ping pong players, as early as 2021 will meet in the Houston World Series men’s singles finals, the final Fan Zhendong won the title, Moregardh silver, and then in 2024 in the men’s singles finals of the Paris Olympics, the results of the Fan Zhendong laugh in the end again.
In addition, the Chinese and Swedish men’s teams also competed in the final of the Olympics, and although Moregardh and his team lost this time around, he proved himself to be one of the top athletes in the game.
However, no matter how good the results are on the field, it seems that it doesn’t give them enough confidence to challenge some other figures outside the field, that is – the rule makers.
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As mentioned earlier, Fan Zhendong announced his withdrawal from the world rankings at the end of last year, while Chen Meng and Ma Long made the same decision, which resulted in the only three singles Olympic champions among active table tennis players leaving the rankings list, with Fan Zhendong and Chen Meng publicly stating that they could not withstand the penalty rules associated with the WTT World Table Tennis Federation, triggering shocks both inside and outside the circle.
The conflict with Moregardh was caused by the Swedish federation’s refusal to allow his brother to be an off-court coach, and the latter’s use of commercial sponsorships and the right to sign up for international tournaments as a bargaining chip.
Although the power of the BING Association is relatively not as big as the WTT World Table Tennis Federation, the registration qualification of major tournaments is in its hands, and the team’s commercial endorsement funds also have to go through them, it is no exaggeration to say that Moregardh is also struggling without the support of the BING Association.
In fact, similar things are not only seen in Sweden, other associations have also been reported – also not long ago, Austrian table tennis star and two-time European Championships women’s singles champion Timo boll on the accusation that he was the country’s Chinese table tennis team mental violence, intimidation and threats, the means likewise include the competition nomination opaque, etc., which can not help but trigger people to think deeply:
Athletes were originally the focus of attention inside and outside the competitive sports arena, looks so bright and shiny, why in similar events will appear so vulnerable? Olympic champions, runners-up and continental champions are still like this, the average athlete how to defend their rights?
It is encouraging to see that recently the Chinese table tennis team has been actively communicating with ITTF and WTT, leading to a series of rule revisions, and it is hoped that more and more similar two-way feedback will be given to push the system of table tennis to be more sensible and reasonable.
