Top ten Olympics table tennis players of all time

Zhang Yining

Country: ChinaHighest level of competition: Olympics (2004, 2008)

The world’s number one ranked table tennis player from 2003 to 2009 (with the exception of two months in 2008), Zhang Yining’s career began with a firecracker in 1997 when she beat all known world champions competing at China’s Eighth National Games. Over the years, the 34-year-old from Beijing became quite simply the greatest talent to have competed in women’s table tennis.

A fact that Zhang’s medal tally proves time and again. With 10 World Championship wins, four World Cup golds and four Olympic gold medals, Zhang not only defended her position through six years of undefeated games, but she also retired as a reigning champion, in an unextinguished blaze of glory.Trained by Li Sun, who was also Li Xiaoxia’s trainer, Zhang’s decision to quit in 2009, left a vacuum in Chinese women’s tennis that existed for a while before Li could step in to decisively fill it.