Lin Gaoyuan (left) from China and Lily Zhang from the US attend the 2021 World Table Tennis Championships Finals in Houston, the US on November 29, 2021. Photo: VCG

Table tennis players Lin Gaoyuan from China and Lily Zhang from the US, who formed a mixed doubles team, earned bronze medals at the 2021 World Table Tennis Championships Finals in Houston in the US state of Texas on Monday morning. The combination of Chinese and American Ping-Pong players carries great significance, as this year marks the 50th anniversary of the US and China engaging in what became known as "Ping-Pong Diplomacy."

Despite falling behind 0 to 2, Lin and Zhang rallied to tie the match at two games each before dropping the deciding game to Japan's Tomokazu Harimoto and Hina Hayata 2 to 3. 

Zhang's medal is the first world championship table tennis medal awarded to a US player in 62 years. The last was a men's singles bronze medal collected by Dick Miles at the World Table Tennis Championships held in Dortmund in 1959.

Another US-China combination of Kanak Jha and Wang Manyu lost the last three games and failed to reach the quarterfinals.

Lin and Zhang have been the focus of attention at this World Table Tennis Championships. Although they did not train together for very long before the competition, they made it all the way to the final four. 

Both players thought it was a great result for a first-time pairing, even though they didn't make it to the finals. 

"Lily is also a very strong teammate who is good at mixed doubles, especially because she had the guts to put in some key shots… She's more decisive when it comes to the crunch," China Central Television (CCTV) quoted Lin as saying on Monday. 

"I think this pairing has so many special aspects to it… with it being the 50th anniversary of Ping-Pong Diplomacy, having these two countries - China and the US - come together through table tennis. It's really incredible," Zhang told CCTV. 

The Chinese Table Tennis Association (CTTA) and the US Table Tennis Association jointly submitted an application to allow China-US pairs to compete with the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), and the ITTF Executive Committee approved the request last week.

Liu Guoliang, president of the CTTA, said that the significance of the China-US combination is not only about the result. If the interaction of athletes from the two countries can express the friendship of the two nations' people via table tennis, it will be a glorious event in table tennis history. 

Global Times