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 The ITTF World Tour, known as the ITTF Pro Tour until 2011, is an annual series of table tennis tournaments introduced by International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) in 1996. The tour includes events in seven categories: Men's and Women's Single ...

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 Han may refer to: Ethnic groups * Han Chinese, or Han People (): the name for the largest ethnic group in China, which also constitutes the world's largest ethnic group. ** Han Taiwanese (): the name for the ethnic group of the Taiwanese p ...

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 Waldbronn is a municipality in the district of Karlsruhe, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated in the northern Black Forest, southeast of Karlsruhe. Geography Waldbronn is located at the border of the Alb-Pfinz-Plateau in the valley ...

from 2002 to 2005. She transferred to another German club, MTV Tostedt, from 2005 to 2012. She became a naturalized

German citizen German nationality law details the conditions by which an individual holds German nationality. The primary law governing these requirements is the Nationality Act, which came into force on 1 January 1914. Germany is a member state of the Europ ...

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 largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a po ...

. 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: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...

and played for the Polish club KTS Tarnobrzeg. KTS Tarnobrzeg ETTU 2015.png, The Tarnobrzeg 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 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 (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 is a retired Japanese table tennis player and Olympic medalist, winning silver at the 2012 Summer Olympics and bronze at the 2016 Summer Olympics with the Japanese women's team. She is sponsored by All Nippon Airways. Table tennis career Fuk ...

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 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 ev ...

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 Zhu Yuling (; born 10 January 1995) is a Chinese table tennis player. Career She was born in Mianyang in 1995 and played table tennis from the age of 5 as it occupied her when she was ill. At nine years old she and her mother moved so that she ...

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 Cheng I-ching (; born 15 February 1992) is a Taiwanese table tennis player. She competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in the women's singles event, in which she was eliminated in the quarterfinals by Li Xiaoxia, and as part of the Chinese Taipei ...

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. On 2012, she gave birth to her daughter. Han and her family currently reside in

Statistics

References

External links