>>5216841>https://twitter.com/whistlesports/status/998379600437653504?s=21I am a competitive American table tennis player. The story goes like this:
Americans dominated the sport since its inception until the 70s when a thin 2mm sheet of rubber was introduced to the paddle by the Japanese.
This allowed heavy top and back spin shots to be incorporated into the game (magnus effect).
Until then the game had been primarily flat, fast shots.
This innovation of a new paddle coincided with the rise of China's interest into the sport. Their proximity to Russia allowed them to inherit CNS (central nervous system) training methods that to this day have never been fully adapted into Western sports science models of training.
The sport was a hit in China among both male and female populations. The Han Chinese (highest IQs in terms of number) began to excel. In time, you had every child in China at some point playing ping pong.
It was part of the public school curriculum. So now China's national team pool in near a billion people. Compared with other nations in the thousands.
Jan Ove Waldner (Sweden) and Timo Bol (Germany) are the only white people to be able to compete and beat the Chinese in the last 30 years. Waldner is regarded as the GOAT by many, although he is being passed by currently active Ma Lin.
In time, China will surpass every country in every sport to which it wants to dedicate time and money.
The sports requiring type 2B muscle fiber (boxing, sprinting) will be the last on their list, but the fact that they took over olympic lifting in 15 years proves the curtains have begun to fall already.
GG, China.
