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| Event type

Team, Women

Date3 – 7 August 2012
StatusOlympic
LocationExCeL, Newham, London (North Arena 1)
Participants49 from 16 countries

The table tennis team event at the Olympics had replaced the doubles event in 2008 and its inaugural incarnation had been won by China. One of the trio, Guo Yue, returned in 2012 to defend her title but, even with bronze medals from 2008’s singles and 2004’s doubles events and nine World Championship titles across various disciplines, she was the lowest ranked member of the new team. Ahead of her were the number one and three ranked Ding Ling and Li Xiaoxia, fresh off of their second and first-place finishes respectively in the 2012 singles category. The threesome’s combined ranking of 12 was lower than the ranking of any two of any other nations players combined, leaving them as the heavy favorites once again for gold. Second and third seeded were Japan and Singapore, who had finished second and fourth in 2008, sandwiching bronze-medalist and current fourth seed South Korea in-between.

There were few surprises as the tournament progressed. China dominated, as expected, never losing a single match and earned the Olympic crown in a final against Japan with remarkable ease. Singapore overcame South Korea in the bronze medal match, which left the top four rankings looking exactly like their seeding. Moreover, no team ever defeated a higher-ranked one, meaning that the eight quarterfinalists were also the top eight seeds. Of note was that only three teams, Japan, North Korea, and Egypt, competed without players of Chinese descent, highlighting the nation’s overwhelming prowess in the sport.

PosTeamNOC
1People's Republic of ChinaCHNGold
Li XiaoxiaDing NingGuo Yue
2JapanJPNSilver
Ai FukuharaKasumi IshikawaSayaka Hirano
3SingaporeSGPBronze
Feng TianweiLi Jia WeiWang Yuegu
4Republic of KoreaKOR
Kim Gyeong-ASeok Ha-JeongDang Ye-SeoPark Mi-Yeong
=5NetherlandsNED
Jiao LiJie LiElena Timina
=5Hong Kong, ChinaHKG
Tie Ya NaJiang HuajunLee Ho Ching
=5Democratic People's Republic of KoreaPRK
Ri Myong-SunKim JongRi Mi-Gyong
=5GermanyGER
Jiaduo WuIrene IvancanKristin Silbereisen
=9SpainESP
Yanfei ShenSara RamírezGalia Dvorak
=9EgyptEGY
Nadeen El-DawlatlyDina MeshrefRaghd Magdy
=9AustriaAUT
Liu JiaAmelie SoljaLi Qiangbing
=9BrazilBRA
Carol KumaharaGui LinLígia da Silva
=9PolandPOL
Qian LiNatalia PartykaKatarzyna Grzybowska
=9Great BritainGBR
Joanna ParkerNa LiuKelly Sibley
=9AustraliaAUS
Miao MiaoJian-Fang LayVivian Tan
=9United StatesUSA
Ariel HsingLily ZhangErica Wu

Round One (3 August 2012)

Match #1 CHN 3 – 0ESP
Match #2 NED 3 – 0EGY
Match #3 HKG 3 – 1AUT
Match #4 KOR 3 – 0BRA
Match #5 SGP 3 – 1POL
Match #6 PRK 3 – 0GBR
Match #7 GER 3 – 0AUS
Match #8 JPN 3 – 0USA

Quarter-finals (4 August 2012)

Match #1 CHN 3 – 0NED
Match #2 KOR 3 – 0HKG
Match #3 SGP 3 – 0PRK
Match #4 JPN 3 – 0GER

Semi-finals (5 – 6 August 2012)

Match #1 CHN 3 – 0KOR
Match #2 JPN 3 – 0SGP

Final Round (7 August 2012)

Match 1/2 CHN 3 – 0JPN
Match 3/4 SGP 3 – 0KOR