Han Ying (born 29 April 1983 as ) is a female

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 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 and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in t ...

. 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, 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 The China national table tennis team is the national representative team of the People's Republic of China, and was founded in 1952. Players Men's team Women's team ^: Not the regular player. Staffs Team manager and Head coaches Men's fir ...

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 Tostedt (Low German ''Töst'') is a municipality in the district of Harburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the central administration of the collective municipality (Samtgemeinde Tostedt) which consists of 9 joint communities. Geography Ge ...

, 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 Irene Ivancan (born 22 July 1983) is a German table tennis player, born in Stuttgart. She competed in women's team at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of ...

. 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 Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second- ...

and played for the Polish club KTS

Tarnobrzeg Tarnobrzeg is a city in south-eastern Poland (historic Lesser Poland), on the east bank of the river Vistula, with 49,419 inhabitants, as of 31 December 2009. Situated in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship (Polish: ''Województwo podkarpackie'') sinc ...

. KTS Tarnobrzeg ETTU 2015.png, The

team in 2015. Han at the center. Tamara Czigwincewa 2013.jpg, Han in 2013

Major competitions

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

Rio 2016 - Women's table tennis quarter finals (29337010325)

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 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 ...

, the eventual gold medalist. In the women's team, 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 (born 23 February 1993) is a Japanese table tennis player. A regular member of the Japanese national team, she won a silver medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics, a bronze at the 2016 Summer Olympics, and a silver medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics ...

but she recovered to defeat Ai Fukuhara 3-2. In the team final she lost 0-3 to

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 ...

. 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 De ...

, she claimed the second place by beating Mima Ito 4-2, Miu Hirano 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 Chen Meng (; born 15 January 1994) is a Chinese table tennis player and the current World No. 2 in Women's Singles. She joined the provincial team when she was 9 and joined the national team when she was only 13 in 2007. She is the women's singl ...

3-4 and losing to Mima Ito 0-4. In the 2020 Olympics, she reached quarterfinal of the women's singles by beating

Feng Tianwei Feng Tianwei (, ) is a Singaporean table tennis player. Born in Harbin, China, she permanently moved to Singapore at the age of 20 under the former Foreign Sports Talent Scheme in March 2007 and commenced her international career in competi ...

4-1 and losing to Sun Yingsha 0-4.

Personal life

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

Statistics

References

External links