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Ma Long
Ma Long became the first table tennis player in Olympic history to win back-to-back men's singles gold medals, at the 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo Games, a feat no other player had achieved since table tennis was added to the Olympic program in 1988. He completed the sport's career "Grand Slam" — winning the Olympics, World Championships, and World Cup at least once each — multiple times over, and his combined tally of major titles is widely regarded as the most complete championship résumé in the sport's history. Ma Long held the world number one ranking for a combined total exceeding six years, one of the longest sustained periods at the top of the world rankings in the sport's history, reflecting a level of week-to-week dominance across an entire era of deep Chinese national team competition. His technical all-around game, combining aggressive forehand attacking with unusually reliable backhand consistency, became the style other elite players throughout the 2010s explicitly tried to model their own games after, cementing Ma Long's status as the defining player of table tennis's modern era.
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Zhang Jike
Zhang Jike completed table tennis's career "Grand Slam" — winning the Olympics, World Championships, and World Cup — faster than any player in the sport's history, achieving all three titles within a span of just over a year between 2011 and 2012. His explosive, powerful forehand game and his emotionally intense on-court celebrations, including tearing his shirt and climbing onto the barrier surrounding the table after winning the 2011 World Championship final, gave Zhang a level of visible passion that distinguished him from the more reserved demeanor typical of many elite Chinese players. Zhang's rapid rise and equally rapid completion of the sport's biggest titles made him one of the most dominant short-window players in table tennis history, even though injuries and the emergence of younger Chinese talents like Ma Long eventually limited the length of his time at the very top of the world rankings. His 2012 London Olympics gold medal, completing his Grand Slam, remains one of the most celebrated individual table tennis performances in Chinese sports history, and Zhang's combination of raw power and emotional intensity made him one of the sport's most compelling competitors during his relatively brief prime.
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