Table tennis at the 2012 Summer Olympics

Table tennis at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London took place from Saturday 28 July to Wednesday 8 August 2012 at ExCeL London. 174 athletes, 86 men and 88 women, competed in four events.[1] Table tennis has appeared at the Summer Olympics on six previous occasions beginning with the 1988 Games in Seoul.[2] In addition to men's and women's singles, the team events were staged for the second time since replacing doubles events at the 2008 Beijing Games. China was the defending champion in each of the Olympic events having won all 4 gold medals in 2008.[2]

Table tennis at the Games of the XXX Olympiad
Venue	ExCeL London
Dates	28 July - 8 August 2012
Competitors	174 from 57 nations

ExCel Exhibition Centre

Qualification

Main article: Table tennis at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Qualification

As hosts Great Britain qualified six athletes automatically; a team of three men, one of whom competed in the singles, and a team of three women, one of whom competed in the singles.[3][4]

The top 28 male and top 28 female players on the International Table Tennis Federation's ranking list immediately after the 2011 World Table Tennis Championships, which finished on 15 May 2011 in the Netherlands, were qualified for the singles events at Games. No nation can have more than two players per gender in the singles events at the Games, so some players below 28th place were given a qualification berth based on their rankings.[5]

Ten continental qualification tournaments then were used to assign a total of 40 places between 28 June 2011 and 22 April 2012.[3] A final qualification tournament took place on 12 May 2012 to assign a further two places per gender. One invitational place per gender was allocated by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF).

Entries for the team events were decided after the final qualification tournament ended on 13 May 2012. The highest-ranked nation at the 2012 World Team Championships from each of the six continents earned the right to enter as long as three of its players had met the qualification criteria for the singles event. Except for the host British team, the qualification of the other 15 NOCs was based on the number of the qualified players and the ranking of the 2012 World Team Championships.

Competition schedule

P

Preliminary rounds

¼

Quarterfinals

½

Semifinals

F

Final

Event↓/Date →	Sat 28	Sun 29	Mon 30	Tue 31		Wed 1	Thu 2		Fri 3	Sat 4	Sun 5	Mon 6	Tue 7	Wed 8
Men's singles	P			¼			½	F
Men's team									P		¼	½		F
Women's singles	P			¼	½	F
Women's team									P	¼	½		F

Medal summary

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	China	4	2	0	6
2	Japan	0	1	0	1
	South Korea	0	1	0	1
4	Germany	0	0	2	2
	Singapore	0	0	2	2
Totals (5 nations)		4	4	4	12

Events

All events at the Games took the form of a knockout competition.

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Men's singles	Zhang Jike  China	Wang Hao  China	Dimitrij Ovtcharov  Germany
Men's team	China (CHN) Wang Hao Zhang Jike Ma Long	South Korea (KOR) Oh Sang-eun Joo Se-hyuk Ryu Seung-min	Germany (GER) Timo Boll Dimitrij Ovtcharov Bastian Steger
Women's singles	Li Xiaoxia  China	Ding Ning  China	Feng Tianwei  Singapore
Women's team	China (CHN) Ding Ning Li Xiaoxia Guo Yue	Japan (JPN) Ai Fukuhara Sayaka Hirano Kasumi Ishikawa	Singapore (SIN) Li Jiawei Feng Tianwei Wang Yuegu

See also

• Table tennis at the 2012 Summer Paralympics

References

1. "Olympic Table Tennis Press Kit" (PDF). ITTF. Retrieved 21 July 2012.
2. "London 2012 Olympics: table tennis guide". The Telegraph. 11 February 2011. Retrieved 3 May 2011.
3. "Qualification System – Games of the XXX Olympiad" (PDF). ITTF. 23 June 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 June 2012. Retrieved 7 August 2011.
4. "Team GB take table tennis places for 2012 Olympics". BBC Sport. 4 March 2011. Retrieved 3 May 2011.
5. "London 2012 Olympics qualifying: Table Tennis". BBC Sport. 18 January 2011. Retrieved 3 May 2011.

External links

• "Table tennis at the 2012 Summer Olympics (London2012.com)". Archived from the original on 28 February 2013. Retrieved 12 July 2012.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
• Table tennis at the 2012 Summer Olympics at SR/Olympics
• "International Table Tennis Federation: 2012 Olympic Games (ITTF.com)". Archived from the original on 1 October 2011. Retrieved 7 August 2011.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)