The International Table Tennis Federation issued the world rankings of men's and women's players after the 47th world championships concluded on Sunday. The players numbered from 1 to 20 on the list shall be directly qualified for the 2004 Olympic Games under the reservation they and their National Olympic Committee accept this qualification and they meet the IOC eligibility regulations. Top 20 of the world rankings are directly qualified with a maximum of 2 players from each NOC. (World rankings are at the ITTF page.)
USA's Chang Jun Gao, who made the quarterfinals of Women's Singles at the Worlds this past Saturday, is 11th on the list.
Rankings (maximum of 2 players from each National Olympic Committee):
| MEN | WOMEN | ||||
| 1 | Werner Schlager | AUT | 1 | Zhang Yining | CHN |
| 2 | Ma Lin | CHN | 2 | Wang Nan | CHN |
| 3 | Timo Boll | GER | 3 | Tamara Boros | CRO |
| 4 | Vladimir Samsonov | BLR | 4 | Lin Ling | HKG |
| 5 | Wang Liqin | CHN | 5 | Tie Yana | HKG |
| 6 | Chuan Chih-Yuan | TPE | 6 | Mihaela Steff | ROM |
| 7 | Kalinikos Kreanga | GRE | 7 | Li Jia Wei | SIN |
| 8 | Chiang Peng-Lung | TPE | 8 | Kim Kyung Ah | KOR |
| 9 | OH Sang Eun | KOR | 9 | Kim Hyon Hui | PRK |
| 10 | Ryu Seung Min | KOR | 10 | Ryu Ji Hae | KOR |
| 11 | Zoran Primorac | CRO | 11 | Chang Jun Gao | USA |
| 12 | Jean-Michel Saive | BEL | 12 | Otilia Badescu | ROM |
| 13 | Alexei Smirnov | RUS | 13 | Jing Jun Hong | SIN |
| 14 | Peter Karlsson | SWE | 14 | Schopp Jie | GER |
| 15 | Jan-Ove Waldner | SWE | 15 | Aya Umemura | JPN |
| 16 | Michael Maze | DEN | 16 | Ni Xialian | LUX |
| 17 | Danny Heister | NED | 17 | Krisztina Toth | HUN |
| 18 | Torben Wosik | GER | 18 | Ai Fujinuma | JPN |
| 19 | Chen Weixing | AUT | 19 | Nicole Struse | GER |
| 20 | KO Lai Chak | HKG | 20 | Csilla Batorfi | HUN |
| |
| USA Table Tennis - Serving the Table Tennis Community |
| |