Zhenqi Barthel (; Sun Zhenqi; born 9 January 1987) is a German

table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

player of Chinese origin. In 2002, she moved to

Essen Essen (; Latin: ''Assindia'') is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and D ...

, Germany, where she became a resident athlete of TuS Holsterhausen, and trained for the table tennis team, under her personal coaches Jörg Bitzigeio and Wang Zhi. Three years later, she was adopted by the couple Barthel, changed her surname, and obtained a German citizenship. As of March 2013, Barthel is ranked no. 66 in the world by the

International Table Tennis Federation The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) is the governing body for all national table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the p ...

(ITTF). She is also right-handed, and uses the shakehand grip. Barthel qualified for the inaugural

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 ...

event at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

, by receiving a spot as one of the remaining top 10 teams from ITTF's Computer Team Ranking List. Playing with fellow Chinese-born teammate

Wu Jiaduo Wu Jiaduo (; born 19 September 1977) is a Chinese-born German table tennis player. Personal At age seven, Wu received specialised table tennis training. In 1995, she became the Zhejiang provincial champion. She enrolled at the East China Univer ...

and Olympic veteran

Elke Schall Elke Schall, born 19 July 1973 in Speyer, is a professional table tennis player from Germany. She has an offensive, looping style. She competed at five consecutive Olympics from 1992 to 2008. Her doubles partner at the first four Olympics was N ...

, Barthel placed fourth in the preliminary pool round, against Hong Kong, Poland, and Romania, with a total score of three points, and three straight losses. At the 2009 European Championships in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

, Barthel and her partner

Kristin Silbereisen Kristin Silbereisen (born March 14, 1985) is a German table tennis player. She currently plays for TTC Berlin Eastside. Career Silbereisen began playing table tennis when she was seven years old and started competing for DJK Ochtendung. As a ...

won a bronze medal in the women's doubles match, and shared their triumph with the Eastern European duo

Oksana Fadeyeva Oksana Fadeyeva (born 16 March 1975) (née Kushch) is a Russian table tennis player. She competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics, reaching the first round of the singles competition. She competed in both singles and doubles in 2004. See also * ...

(Russia) and

Rūta Paškauskienė Rūta Paškauskienė (born 29 March 1977) is a Lithuanian table tennis player. Since 1994, she won several medals in singles, and doubles events in the Table Tennis European Championships The European Table Tennis Championships is an internatio ...

(Lithuania). Four years later, Barthel captured a silver medal, along with Shan Xiaona, in the same tournament at the ITTF 2013 World Tour Qatar Open in

Doha Doha ( ar, الدوحة, ad-Dawḥa or ''ad-Dōḥa'') is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor, it is home to most of the coun ...

, losing out to the formidable Chinese duo and Olympic champions

Ding Ning Ding Ning (; born 20 June 1990) is a former Chinese table tennis player. She was the winner of women's singles in the 2011 World Table Tennis Championships. At the 2015 World Table Tennis Championships, Ding won her second world title in ...

and

Li Xiaoxia Li Xiaoxia (; born 16 January 1988) is a Chinese table tennis Grand Slam champion. Career She trained in the Jiangsu Wuxi Shanhe Club in Wuxi, China. Her trainer is Li Sun, who is also the mentor of Olympic gold medal winner Zhang Yining. As o ...

(8–11, 11–9, 7–11, 9–11).

References

External links

*
NBC Olympics Profile
1987 births Living people German female table tennis players Table tennis players at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic table tennis players for Germany Chinese emigrants to Germany Sportspeople from Essen People from Fuxin Table tennis players from Liaoning Naturalised table tennis players {{Germany-tabletennis-bio-stub