Olympic Games | 2 May 2015

Mixed Doubles might be at Olympics in 2020

ITTF President Thomas WEIKERT held a press-conference at the 2015 Qoros World Table Tennis Championships at the Suzhou International Expo Centre. Day before he had a meeting with the players, so he said that the organizers got the very good compliment from that meeting:“There were no complaints about the sport conditions, so that should be a big compliment for the organizers. That means sport conditions to play here are very good.”

There will be some news regarding Olympic Events in Japan. “The agenda for 2020 from the IOC is interesting for us because the it says they want to have mixed events. I spoke with International Olympic Committee president Thomas BACH to have a fifth competition in the 2020 Olympics, so probably the mixed doubles.”

WEIKERT said that cooperation between China and Europe must be strengthened. Not only that players should practice more in China, but the exchange of coaches will also be very important.

The question of the trend of Chinese players obtaining foreign citizenship to represent other countries was also rised. “It’s a big issue, especially in Europe and my opinion is very clear. It is not welcomed if you today play for China and tomorrow you play for whichever country. I think this is not correct, but if you have time to adapt to the country, for example, a Chinese player wants to live in Europe and he lives there for five years or eight years and then you get a German or English or Swiss passport, then in my opinion, it’s reasonable that you can play in this country.”

The question of qualification system for the World Championships is very important topic. There was a doubt should the Championships remain free for every nation or some qualification system should be installed. “Last year we made the rule that only 96 teams can participate at the team championships. This will not affect the women – in 2014 Tokyo we had 94 women’s teams – but it will affect the men’s teams because we have more than 110.”