China Olympic champions Fan Zhendong, Chen Meng stun table tennis fans with ‘retirement’

Olympic champions Fan Zhendong and Chen Meng stunned Chinese table tennis fans by announcing that they were withdrawing from the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) rankings on Friday, barely five months after winning Olympic gold.

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Fan and Chen, who at the Paris Games won gold in the men’s and women’s singles respectively as well as in team events, said the decision to step away was because of rules that fines would be imposed on players who did not take part in international tournaments.

Fan, 27, made the announcement on his Weibo page at 11am but reiterated it did not mean retirement and that he would still compete at the National Games in November despite sharing a letter to the sport’s governing body that said “retirement notification”.

Chen, 30, shared the same letter bearing her name three hours later.

“I had already anticipated that Paris might be my last Olympics, and I would go all out to fight for my country,” Fan said.

Fan Zhendong announcing his withdrawal from ITTF world rankings on his Weibo account. Photo: Weibo/樊振东

“After successfully completing the Olympic mission, due to the huge psychological effect of the Paris cycle, I had not yet made specific plans for my future career except for the next National Games.

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