Wang Manyu is indeed a special player in the national table tennis, because she is the first player in the history of the national table tennis Olympics to participate in the team competition as a P card. In this Paris Olympics cycle, she is also too strong to participate in the team competition of the Olympics and not in the singles competition. Because the strength of the five golden flowers of national table tennis is very good, and Wang Manyu is a favorite to win the championship, the coaching staff can only let the players with a short competitive potential cycle participate in the competition first.
Because Wang Manyu is too strong, the national table tennis directly introduced the Olympic selection rules in the last year of the Olympic selection, rather than throughout the entire Olympic cycle. This has created a national table tennis record, and Wang Manyu was able to let the national table tennis set the Olympic selection rules for her alone in this Olympic selection cycle, which is enough to prove her competitiveness.
Some fans believe that Wang Manyu will not be able to win the singles quota in this Olympics, and even if he participates in the next Olympics, it will be difficult to win the championship due to his age. And they think that Wang Manyu will be too old in the next Olympics, and there is little hope of competing with young athletes.
Now many fans are not optimistic about Wang Manyu's future, and Wang Manyu has actually been misunderstood by fans. The most obvious example is the change of head coach in this Olympic cycle, which many fans believe is Wang Manyu's own request. In fact, the adjustment of the coaching staff of the national table tennis is carried out uniformly, and Chen Meng, Wang Yidi, and Sun Yingsha have also changed the head coach in this Olympic cycle.
Moreover, Ma Lin also became the head coach of the women's team in this Olympic cycle, and the adjustment of the coaching lineup is the biggest change in national table tennis in this Olympic cycle. But now many fans insist that Wang Manyu can change the head coach at will, and there is no need to go through the consent of the national table tennis coaching staff.
In fact, the coaches of national table tennis are all recruited by competition, and it is impossible for players to decide whether to leave or stay as coaches. Because the coaches themselves have contracts, how can it be that the players decide to change the coach's position at will? In many cases, the simpler the truth, the more difficult it is for fans to understand.
As a player, Wang Manyu and the head coach are not in an employment relationship, and of course they cannot decide the change of the coach's position. This is the most direct difference from the external players, because the foreign players recruit their own coaching teams, but the relationship between national table tennis players and coaches is not an employment system, but a cooperative relationship.
What's more, when Wang Manyu was separated from the head coach at that time, his grades were very good, and it would be logical to change the head coach if Wang Manyu's performance declined at that time. But at that time, Wang Manyu's results were very stable, and there was no reason to change the coach by himself. Moreover, the national table tennis also introduced the Olympic selection rules after half a year of observation after adjusting the coaching lineup.
In the previous Olympic cycles, the national table tennis has not issued Olympic selection rules. Prior to the introduction of the Olympic selection rules, Wang Manyu experienced injuries and a decline in performance. Especially before the start of the 2023 World Table Tennis Championships, the Olympic selection rules were introduced, and after that, Wang Manyu stopped in the quarterfinals of the World Table Tennis Championships and fell into a low period.
However, Wang Manyu's low period was very short, and she won the singles title at the 2023 Asian Championships, and her form is back. Although the Olympic selection rules of national table tennis were based on the points and rankings of players at the beginning, after the Busan Team World Table Tennis Championships in early 2024, the Olympic selection rules were optimized.
Wang Manyu did not have an advantage in the competition of Olympic selection rules at the beginning because of his ranking. After optimizing the rules, it was because of the points that he did not get the Olympic singles quota in the end. In fact, Wang Manyu's performance in foreign battles was very good, and he only lost one foreign war in the entire Olympic selection cycle, which can be said to be the one with the least number of foreign battles.
The confusion of fans is that Wang Manyu has lost few foreign battles, and has won many championships in this Olympic cycle, but in the end he missed the Olympic singles because of the rules. Wang Manyu has won 8 singles championships in this Olympic cycle, including the National Games, Asian Championships, and World Table Tennis Championships.
In the doubles competition, Wang Manyu won the championship 10 times in a row and was the best doubles performer among the main players of the women's team. Wang Manyu's achievements can stand the test, which fans know very well, and the national table tennis coaching staff is also very clear. So why did the coaching staff finally choose Sun Yingsha and Chen Meng to compete in the Olympic singles competition?
That's because Chen Meng is now the oldest in the women's team, this is her last Olympics, and she doesn't want to have any regrets in her career. Fans also know that if Chen Meng participates in the singles competition at the Olympics, it will be easier for Sun Yingsha to win the championship. Wang Manyu's participation in the Olympic singles competition has posed a great challenge to Sun Yingsha's victory.
Sun Yingsha's current style of play has higher physical requirements, because Sun Yingsha is a fast attack style near Taiwan, and as she grows older, her explosiveness declines, and it is more difficult to attack after the pace is slow. In the first half of the Olympic cycle, Sun faced a variety of competitors, and she rarely faced too many challenges in the process.
But in the second half of this Olympic cycle, many players were able to drag Sun Yingsha into the tiebreaker, and Sun Yingsha was still able to win, but the process of winning was much more difficult. Therefore, after repeated consideration, the coaching staff still let Wang Manyu participate in the team competition of the Olympic Games, this Olympic cycle is Sun Yingsha's best chance to win the championship, and the next Olympic cycle will be more difficult.
Wang Manyu also became the first player to miss the Olympic singles because of his strength. This can only show that the national table tennis players are very competitive, and it is precisely because they are too strong that the stronger players are reserved for the next Olympic Games to compete. Wang Manyu is also trying out a different Olympic identity, and hopes that she will continue to work hard at the next Olympics.