Table Tennis Olympics 2008

Which mens teams qualified?

Who qualified for the 2008 Table Tennis Olympics?
Were all the best players there? Find out here ...

Table Tennis Olympics Venue

The Olympic Games are being held in Beijing in the People's Republic of China from 8 to 24 August 2008 and I'm sure we'll see some fabulous table tennis.

Although the opening ceremony takes place on
8 August 2008, the table tennis olympics don't actually start until Wednesday 13 August 2008.

A fabulous new state-of-the-art venue has been built at Peking University specifically for this event - so the players will have the best possible conditions in which to play.

It has seating for 8,000 spectators - with 6,000 seats being permanent and 2,000 temporary.

Will all the best players be there?

Unfortunately, because each National Olympic Committee (NOC) can only have a maximum of three men and three women competing, some of the stronger nations like China will have several players who, despite being in the top 20 of the World Ranking list, will not be at the Olympics.

However, this means that the rivalry between the various nationalities will be more intense, and should provide us with some excellent matches.

How do players qualify?

There's a complicated system of qualification for the Olympic table tennis events, but without getting too bogged down with the full details, here's a brief summary ...

Team Events

For the team events, 16 teams will qualify for the Olympic Games as follows:

  • 6 Continental teams (Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America, Oceania)
  • 1 Host Nation team
  • 9 selected teams (or 10 if host nation already qualified)

Teams/players qualified for the Olympics 2008

Team Players
Continental teams (6)
Africa (Nigeria) TORIOLA Segun
MEROTOHUN Monday
NOSIRU Ekundayo
Asia (China) WANG Hao
MA Lin
WANG Liqin
Europe (Germany) BOLL Timo
OVTCHAROV Dimitrij
SÜSS Christian
Latin America (Brazil) TSUBOI Gustavo
MONTEIRO Thiago
HOYAMA Hugo
North America (Canada) ZHANG Peng
PETER-PAUL Pradeeban
SHEN Qiang
Oceania (Australia) HENZEL William
DAVIS Kyle
ZALCBERG David
Selected teams (10)
Korea Republic RYU Seung Min
OH Sang Eun
YOON Jae Young
Hong Kong LI Ching
KO Lai Chak
CHEUNG Yuk
Austria SCHLAGER Werner
GARDOS Robert
CHEN Weixing
Japan KAN Yo
MIZUTANI Jun
KISHIKAWA Seiya
Singapore GAO Ning
YANG Zi
CAI Xiaoli
Chinese Taipei CHUAN Chih-Yuan
CHIANG Peng-Lung
CHANG Yen-Shu
Croatia PRIMORAC Zoran
TAN Ruiwu
GACINA Andrej
Greece KREANGA Kalinikos
GIONIS Panagiotis
TSIOKAS Ntaniel
Sweden PERSSON Jorgen
LUNDQVIST Jens
GERELL Per
Russia SMIRNOV Alexei
KUZMIN Fedor
MAZUNOV Dmitry

Olympic Rings

 

 

 
RELATED PAGES ABOUT
TABLE TENNIS AT THE OLYMPIC GAMES
For more information about table tennis at the Olympic Games, take a look at my other articles...

Olympic Games

2004 Olympic Games - Athens, Greece

2008 Olympic Games - Beijing, China

2012 Olympic Games - London, England

2016 Olympic Games - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

 

 

Other Major Tournaments

World Championships

 

ITTF World Tour

 

World Cup

 

European Championships

 

 

See Who Performed Best

World Rankings

 

Table Tennis Events Calendars

 

Table Tennis Officials

RECOMMENDED
TABLE TENNIS EQUIPMENT
Recommended table tennis equipment
What's the best table tennis equipment?

Here are my recommendations

More info about my Recommended Table Tennis Equipment

INSIDER
INFORMATION
Join me at the
TOP TABLE
Enter your details and get exclusive expert information
ALL ABOUT
TABLE TENNIS

 
Know the Rules
Top Tips
Top Techniques
Top Tactics
 
First (Given) Name
Email

We respect your privacy