The Chinese legend's impact on table tennis

With the People's Republic of China's triumph in the Paris 2024 men's team table tennis event on Friday (9 August), the curtain appears to have come down on a legendary Olympic career.

Chinese national team captain Ma Long seems likely to have played his last Olympic final, winning a record-extending sixth career Olympic gold. No other table tennis player has more than four.

The 35-year-old had already announced earlier this year that he will not play at any more World Championships, and with the next generation of Chinese players having already made their mark, Ma seems unlikely to continue playing through to LA 2028, even suggesting in the post-event press conference that this was the end of a journey.

If this is indeed it for Ma on an Olympic stage, he will have left his mark on table tennis at the Olympics. Having played at four Olympic Games and countless more World Championships, Ma's impact on the sport as one of the greatest – if not the greatest – of all time is undisputed.

Olympics.com asked Ma's contemporaries, both from China and around the world, to try to explain the impact he had on them and the sport.

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