SHANGHAI • China have won 28 of 32 Olympic table tennis gold medals, but their supremacy could face its biggest test yet in Tokyo.
Few countries have dominated a sport quite like China has - winning every gold for the last three Games - but one state media outlet has broken ranks to warn of a "crisis".
Home advantage for fierce rivals Japan, inconsistent form among China's top players and uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic suggest their players might not have it all their own way when the delayed Tokyo Olympics start on July 23.
Alarm bells rang this month when what was billed as an Olympic simulation among China's players threw up shock results. Zhou Qihao, ranked 122nd in the world, stunned reigning Olympic champion Ma Long and world No. 1 Fan Zhendong to win the men's title. There was also an upset in the mixed doubles, which will make its Olympic debut in Tokyo.
State-run China News Service called it "a wake-up call" and a "not-so-small crisis".
"The form of the main players is so up and down, can it be readjusted before the Olympics?" asked the news agency.
Mima Ito, the women's world No. 2 from Japan, has been identified by Chinese media as the prime threat to another clean sweep.
Singapore's world No. 9 Feng Tianwei, who has a team silver from the 2008 Beijing Games and two bronzes from the 2012 London Games, will also be looking to upset the world order.
In the men's singles, there is Japan's 17-year-old prodigy Tomokazu Harimoto - whose parents are Chinese.
Peng You, editor-in-chief of online magazine Ping Pong, dismissed talk of a crisis but said "the threat is unprecedented" since table tennis became a full Olympic sport in 1988. Besides China, only South Korea (three times) and Sweden (once) had won Olympic titles.
China this week named their six-member team for Tokyo, with world champion Liu Shiwen left out of the women's singles line-up. The 30-year-old, who has suffered with injuries, will play team and mixed doubles events. World No. 1 Chen Meng and Sun Yingsha will be their women's singles entries while Ma and Fan were picked for the men's singles.
For reigning triple jump Olympic champion Christian Taylor, just getting to Japan will be a challenge.
The American is set to miss the chance of capturing a third successive gold medal due to a ruptured Achilles tendon.
Four-time world champion Taylor's partner, Austrian athlete Beate Schrott, said the 30-year-old suffered the injury at a meet in the Czech Republic on Wednesday and has already undergone surgery.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
