Inaugurated in 1996, the Women's World Cup is one of the most exciting table tennis competitions, since it has a equal representation of athletes from each continent and the competition field is deep. Over the course of 23 years, 5 pre-Olympic editions (2000, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015) were played.
* The 1996 edition was held in September after the Olympics. No World Cup was held in 1999 due to sponsorship issues and was then postponed to January 2000.
1.) 3 out of 5 Finals Are Pre-Match of the Olympic Finals
Among the 5 editions, 3 of which share the same finalists as the Olympic Games in the following year. Click on the following links to re-visit those amazing matches!
In 2000, Li Ju won her first World Cup women's singles title with a 3-1 victory over Wang Nan who made her sweet revenge a few months later in Sydney. Just a sidetrack, the 2000 Olympics women's final was definitely a thriller, my fists holds tighter whenever Li Jun saved the gold medal point even though I know the final standings
With the victory in 2007, Wang Nan joined Zhang Yining as the only athlete to capture 4 Women's World Cup titles. The table tennis legends re-matched at the 2008 Olympic Games. Although the result was a reverse of the World Cup held previous to the Games, it was a tremendous coup for them to end the Games with an all-China podium in front of the home crowd.
Ding Ning was unstoppable in 2011. She won her first women's singles world title at the 2011 World Championships; and few months later, at her Women's World Cup debut, she was crowned the Women's World Cup winner. When everyone thought she was just a step away from accomplishing a grand-slam (winning World Championships, World Cup and Olympics singles champion), the devastating fault service calls at the 2012 Olympics and a disappointing second-place finishing took her another 4 years to become a grand-slam player.
2. World Cup Medalists at the Olympics
After reviewing the finals, we now dive into how well the World Cup medalists played at the Olympic Games. 14 out of 15 (about 93%) Women's World Cup medalists qualified to the women's singles event at the following Olympics, while Liu Shiwen, the 2015 Women's World Cup winner, competed in the team event and did not compete in the women's singles owing to the 2 per country rule and the tremendous depth Team China had; 8 out of 15 (about 53%) Women's World Cup medalists ended up on the Olympic podium in the following year; but the 2007 edition is the only time when a complete squad of World Cup medalists made their way to the Olympic podium in the following year. A World Cup podium finishing does not guarantee you a spot in the Olympics women's singles event, neither does it guarantee you an Olympic medal. After all, the Women's World Cup is not an Olympic qualifier, placing top in the tournament can only tell that you're a competitive athlete. However, World Cup is still a significant event for athletes to gain valuable World Ranking points which help improve their seedings in the upcoming competitions.
We have summarized the medalists from the pre-Olympic Women's World Cup in the following table; and the highlighted boxes indicated their Olympic standings.
* Yellow = OG champion; Grey= OG silver; Brown = OG bronze
3. Women's World Cup Winner, A Curse Or Not?
Surprisingly, none of the Women's World Cup winner is able to win the Olympic champion in the following years. The best a Women's World Cup winner could ever achieve is an Olympic silver. Is it a curse or not?
I would rather have a rational look on this. In terms of the entries, athletes competing at the Women's World Cup are invited according to their performance at the Continental Cup; while for the Olympic Games, athletes have to go through a complex series of qualifiers to earn their Olympic berth. The World Cup invitation policy favours athletes who had a good shot at the Continental Cup; yet this may miss out athletes who play well consistently but are absent at the Continental Cup (you mat get it right, I am talking about Ito Mima), while the qualification process of the Olympic Games offer several chances for athletes to gain their Olympic slots and, therefore, may reflect a better landscape of the field.
The scale of the Women's World Cup is incomparable to the Games. While the World Cup had 20 athletes in the mix, the Olympic Games has at least 3 times of the number (each Olympic Games varies though). Although both Women's World Cup and the Olympic Games have capped the number of athletes per association so that each continent can have a fair share of quota, given the more entries allowed at the Olympic Games, there are often dark horse shocked out the big names at the Games but rarely be it at the World Cup. Most notably the DPR. Koreans, such as, Kim Song I in Rio and Kim Hyang Mi in Athens.
Last but not least, the Olympic Games is a multi-event sports games which lures a lot of media and the public attention. The expectation and the pressure at the mega event held every 4 years is way beyond that of the World Cup. Thus, the Olympic Games is not just about playing good table tennis but an athlete's mental toughness and, perhaps, a good day on the critical moment. Yet, if we view this from a positive perspective, this means there is room for the World Cup winner to break records and make history in the world of table tennis that filled with unpredictability.
4. What about 2019?
Let's not forget the 2019 edition is also a pre-Olympic Women's World Cup. So what can we expect from Chengdu?
Basically, it's still China's world and we are all just living in it. China actually has won every World Cup champion they attended, putting them top on the medal table. The only time a non-Chinese topped the podium happened in 2016 when the Chinese were absent and Miu Hirano of Japan seized the opportunity to create history. It is very likely the Chinese would defend the World Cup title in home soil. The question is will Liu Shiwen make this her 5th World Cup title or Zhu Yuling redeem herself after several unexpected defeats at the World Tours? However, at this moment, I am not quite convinced that we will see both of them competing at the women's singles together in Tokyo next year.
The Chinese aside, Miu Hirano and Kasumi Ishikawa of Japan are definitely medal contenders; and watch out multiple-World Cup medalists Cheng I-Ching of Chinese Taipei and Feng Tianwei of Singapore. Whereas strong competitors outside Asia include, Petrissa Soljia who has secured her Olympic mixed doubles slot at the European Games and Adriana Diaz who qualified to the Olympics through winning the women's singles Pan Am.champion. Long-pips penhold veteran Lay Jian Fang of Australia and Polish veteran Partyka Natalia who defies disability are also some exciting players to watch.
Past Medalists
I hope you enjoy this piece of compilation. For more details visit ITTF website and catch up live coverage on ITTV.
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