Olympic Draw Information

The US Olympic Table Tennis Team delegation has arrived in full in Beijing and is now practicing at the new Peking University Gymnasium, site of the 2008 Olympic table tennis event.  The table tennis competition will begin with the Team event, which will start and finish before the main rounds of Singles play begins.  America is represented by the ninth-seeded women's team (Wang Chen, Gao Jun, and Crystal Xi Huang). 

The first stage of the team event, which begins on Wednesday, August 13, involves all 16 competing teams placed into round robin groups of four.  The top team finisher in each group will advance to compete for the gold and silver medals, while the second place teams from each group will advance to rally for the bronze medal.  The US Women's team has drawn into Group B, and are seeded third in their group behind Singapore and the Netherlands and above Nigeria.  The team will open play on Wednesday at 10:00AM local time against Singapore (Wang Yue Gu, Li Jia Wei, and Feng Tianwei).

The draw for the singles event has also just been announced.  Wang Chen, America's top ranked paddler, is guaranteed a spot in the round of 32 (opponent TBA as the event progresses); Gao Jun is seeded through the round of 64 (opponent also TBA), and Crystal Xi Huang will compete in the preliminary round against Yang Fen of Congo.  David Zhuang, the sole American men's competitor at the Olympic Games, will also open play in the preliminary rounds against Segun Toriola of Nigeria.