Ping pong ping pong is what Chinese people are known for. The Chinese national table tennis team, founded in 1952, is the world's most dominant force in the sport, having won nearly all Olympic gold medals since 2008 and the majority of World Championships since 1959. Every year, Chinese players dominate the top spots in international competitions.

Even though other countries have made significant strides in recent years, in the 2024 Summer Olympics, Sweden got 2 silver medals, China's dominance still remains unchallenged at the top of the sport.

It may sound like a cliché, but the team is taking over all the tournaments in the world. The often mentioned international tournaments are ITTF World Championships, WTT Championships, and Olympics.

From the ITTF World Rankings in the past two decades, names like Ding Ning, Liu Guoliang, and Ma Long have always been appearing on the championship podium.

There's also new stars emerging in the sport, like Sun Yingsha. Sun secured her first-ever WTT title at the inaugural WTT Macao 2020 event, defeating Wang Manyu 5-1 in the final on November 29, 2020.

Since then, Sun has been on the top 1 in the World Table Tennis' weekly rankings.

She recently won the Women's Singles title at the WTT Singapore Smash on March 1, 2026, defeating Wang Manyu 4-2 in the final to defend her title.

China is not only doing well in the singles category, but also in the doubles category. In the 2024 Summer Olympics, China won 3 out of 4 gold medals in the doubles events.

However, the dominance is not as overwhelming as in the singles category. Data shows that in the past decade, both Men's and Women's doubles have seen more diversity in the top 10 pairs, with more appearances from other countries.

Since 2022, Chinese pairs have been pushed out of the top spot by Hong Kong, South Korea, and France. The Lebrun brothers, became world number one in men's doubles in 2025, the first French pair ever to reach that position. In women's doubles, China's grip remains total every year, Chinese pairs fill the majority of the top 10 with no sign of loosening.

Women's double, including pairs like Sun Yingsha and Wang Manyu, have been doing a little better than men's double with more apperance in top 10.

Meanwhile, as the ranking data updated, the current number one pair in women's double is Ryu Hanna and Kim Nayeon from South Korea, the long lasting dominance pair Sun Yingsha and Wang Manyu are currently ranked 4th.

Then the question is: What's behind the table tennis training success?

Supringsly, the pipeline starts early. Coaches meet with parents of talented prospects at no later than 9 or 10 years old to discuss whether the child should give up school to concentrate full-time on table tennis. If agreed, training runs up to eight hours a day.

And, there is a strong pyramid system in the country, from schools and clubs through cities to provincial centers and finally into the national team. The competition to even get noticed is brutal, and there is always a pack of players snapping at your heels, and if you don't take your opportunity when it comes, there are simply no second chances.

Ma Long, now a vice-president of the Chinese Table Tennis Association, has said China's six-decade dominance stems largely from its deep, structured development system that keeps producing top young athletes.

Looking back to the waffle chart, the women's doubles chart is almost entirely orange. It has been that way for a decade, and there is little reason to think it will change. The men's doubles chart is a different picture. Color is creeping in from the edges. Hong Kong in 2022, France in 2025, Korea and Japan filling in the gaps year by year.

China is still the greatest table tennis nation the world has ever seen, but somewhere between the orange squares and the rest, that gap is closing a little by year.