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Li Xiaoxia
Country: ChinaHighest level of competition: Olympics (2012 Champion)
The 2012 London Olympics women’s champion is the woman to beat in contemporary table tennis. At 28-years-old, Li is already a veteran of the sport, with her right-handed shakehand grip signifying tell-tale power and her backhand creating challenging angles for opponents.
Inducted in the International Table Tennis Federation’s Hall of Fame in 2013, Li’s considerable stash of medals make her a worthy inheritor of China’s position of power when it comes to ping pong. Since August of 2007, Li has never fallen below the eighth position in the world rankings.
The world number six promises a great show at Rio, to which she qualified with ease over the period of 25 short minutes.
Through injury concerns, winning of world titles and relinquishing those titles, Li has maintained a super human calm. Although her critics allege that since the Paris World Championship defeat to Liu Shiwen in 2015, Li’s career has been on the ebb, she is still one of the greatest force and the quietest storm to have happened to table tennis.
