On 8 August 2012 at ExCeL London, Ma Long secured his first Olympic gold medal as China swept South Korea 3–0 in the men’s team final.
A wall of flags and a champion subdued
The 6,000-seat arena was quilted with red-and-yellow Chinese flags, and chants of “Jia yo” drummed through the hall.
Ma Long opened the tie against Ryu Seung-min, the 2004 Olympic singles champion. He took the first rubber with authority, setting the tone for a flawless team performance.
The semi-final that felt like the final
Many observers considered the true test to have come earlier, when China defeated a stubborn Germany led by Timo Boll, the highest-ranked non-Chinese player in the game.
In that tie Ma Long beat Dimitrij Ovtcharov 3–1 and Bastian Steger 3–0, clearing the path for the gold-medal contest that followed two days later.
“In table tennis, wherever it is, we are the hosts,” men’s coach Liu Guoliang told reporters afterwards, reflecting on the pressure his team carried into a partisan London arena.
A single gold that opened an era
The London title was China’s second consecutive clean sweep of all four Olympic table tennis golds. The nation had now won 24 of the 28 golds awarded since the sport entered the Games in 1988.
For Ma Long the medal was a beginning. He would go on to win team gold in Rio, Tokyo and Paris, add two Olympic singles titles, and claim three world singles crowns. By 2024 he stood as the sport’s most decorated Olympian. That record started here, in the noise of ExCeL, with a first gold he made look inevitable.
