Han Ying (; born 29 April 1983) is a female table tennis player representing Germany since 2010. A specialist in defensive chopping, a style in decline ever since the mid-1990s, she is one of a few surviving defensive players active at the ITTF World Tour level as of 2021. Her most important achievement are the Olympic silver medal in women's team in 2016 and the fourth place in the same event in

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

. Other major awards include the second place in the 2016 World Tour Grand Finals and the fourth place in the 2020 Women's World Cup.

Career

Childhood training

Han was born in

Shenyang Shenyang (, ; ; Mandarin pronunciation: ), formerly known as Fengtian () or by its Manchu language, Manchu name Mukden, is a major China, Chinese sub-provincial city and the List of capitals in China#Province capitals, provincial capital of Lia ...

, Liaoning, China. In her childhood, she played as an attacker with little progress. In an effort to qualify for the top team in Shenyang, her father convinced her to switch to a defensive chopper. She plays defensively ever since. She left China at the age of 19 as her style was losing popularity in China. According to her, the China national table tennis team only had three spots reserved for defenders. These defenders almost have no opportunity to play in international tournaments, instead, they serve as internal training partners for the Chinese attackers.

Breakthrough in Germany

Han played for the German club Turnverein Busenbach from 2002 to 2005. She transferred to another German club, MTV Tostedt, from 2005 to 2012. She became a naturalized German citizen in 2010. She made her first breakthrough in March 2011 in the , the most important domestic tournament, which she claimed third in singles and she won the women doubles with Irene Ivancan. In December 2011 she won the singles in the , the second most important domestic tournament. She took a break from her career as she gave birth in October 2012. Since April 2013, she relocated to Düsseldorf and played for the Polish club KTS Tarnobrzeg.

Major competitions

Rio 2016 - Women's table tennis quarter finals (29337038455)

Han debuted in the Olympics at the age of 33. As the fifth seed in the singles in the 2016 Olympics, she was defeated 0–4 in the quarterfinal by Ding Ning, the eventual gold medalist. In the

women's team A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardle ...

, she helped Germany to defeat Japan in the semifinal before losing to China to claim an Olympic silver medal. In the team semifinal, she lost 2–3 to Kasumi Ishikawa but she recovered to defeat Ai Fukuhara 3–2. In the team final she lost 0–3 to Li Xiaoxia. In the

2016 ITTF World Tour Grand Finals The 2016 ITTF World Tour Grand Finals was the final competition of the 2016 ITTF World Tour, the International Table Tennis Federation's professional table tennis world tour. It was the 21st edition of the competition, and was held from 8–11 Dec ...

, she claimed the second place by beating

Mima Ito is a Japanese table tennis player. She won a bronze medal in the Women's Team event at the 2016 Summer Olympics when she was 15 years old. At the 2020 Summer Olympics, she won the gold medal with her partner Jun Mizutani in the Mixed Doubles e ...

4–2,

Miu Hirano (born 14 April 2000) is a Japanese table tennis player. She won Women's World Cup in 2016 as the youngest ever winner. She won the women's singles at the 2017 Asian Table Tennis Championships by sweeping away three top Chinese players. She comp ...

4–0 and losing to Zhu Yuling 0–4. In the

2020 ITTF Women's World Cup The 2020 ITTF Women's World Cup was a table tennis competition held in Weihai, China, from 8 to 10 November 2020. It was the 24th edition of the ITTF-sanctioned event. After series of cancellation of tournaments due to the impact of the COVID-19 ...

, she claimed the fourth place by beating Cheng I-ching 4–2, losing to Chen Meng 3–4 and losing to

0–4. In the 2020 Olympics, she reached quarterfinal of the women's singles by beating Feng Tianwei 4–1 and losing to

Sun Yingsha Sun Yingsha (simplified Chinese: 孙颖莎; born 4 November 2000) is a Chinese table tennis player. She is the current world No. 1 in women's singles. Career 2019 In the 2019 World Team Cup, Sun came back from down 10–7 in the deciding fifth ...

0–4.

Personal life

Han married Yang Lei, a German table tennis player from China, in 2006. In 2012, she gave birth to her daughter. Han and her family currently reside in Düsseldorf.

Finals

Women's singles

Women's doubles

Mixed doubles

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Han, Ying 1983 births Living people German female table tennis players Chinese emigrants to Germany Table tennis players at the 2015 European Games Table tennis players at the 2019 European Games Table tennis players at the 2023 European Games European Games medalists in table tennis European Games gold medalists for Germany European Games silver medalists for Germany Chinese female table tennis players Table tennis players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Table tennis players at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic table tennis players for Germany Olympic medalists in table tennis Olympic silver medalists for Germany Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Table tennis players from Anshan Naturalised table tennis players Naturalized citizens of Germany Expatriate table tennis people in Japan German sportspeople of Chinese descent World Table Tennis Championships medalists