At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Ma Long successfully won the men's singles gold medal in table tennis, achieving the grand slam of his career. This achievement not only made him famous in the table tennis world, but also made him the pride of Chinese sports.
In the final, Ma Long faced China's Zhang Jike, and the two top players launched a fierce battle. After four rounds of fierce battles, Ma Long finally defeated Zhang Jike 4-0 and won the gold medal. The victory not only allowed Ma Long to achieve his dream of a Grand Slam, but also made him the fourth Chinese male player to win a Grand Slam table tennis tournament after Liu Guoliang, Kong Linghui and Zhang Jike.
After the Rio Olympics achieved the Grand Slam, everyone thought that the 28-year-old Ma Long would gradually withdraw from the table tennis world, but they didn't expect that Rio was not the end of Ma Long, but the starting point of Ma Long.
On June 5, 2017, Ma Long defeated Fan Zhendong 4-3 to win the second World Championships men's singles championship trophy. This is also Ma Long's second and consecutive world championship after the 2015 World Championships in Suzhou. On September 6, in the final of the 13th National Games, Ma Long defeated Fan Zhendong again 4-2 and became the first player in the history of the Chinese National Games to defend the table tennis men's singles championship.
On April 28, 2019, in the men's singles final of the World Table Tennis Championships in Budapest, he defeated Sweden's dark horse Matthias Falke with a score of 4-1, thus achieving the third consecutive men's singles championship at the World Championships. He became another three-time winner of the World Table Tennis Championships men's singles after Chinese athlete Zhuang Zedong in 1965. At the same time, Ma Long teamed up with Wang Chuqin to defeat Ionescu Robles and win the men's doubles title at the World Championships. This is Ma Long's second men's doubles title at the World Championships after 2011.
In July 2021, Ma Long defeated Fan Zhendong, who was ranked No. 1 in the world at the time, with a score of 4:2 in the men's singles final of the Tokyo Olympics and won the gold medal, becoming the first player in history to win the Olympic table tennis men's singles championship, and also achieved the first double-lap Grand Slam in men's table tennis, and was certified by the International Table Tennis Federation as the first person in the history of table tennis. A week later, Ma Long and teammates Xu Xin and Fan Zhendong swept the German team 3:0 in the final to win the men's table tennis team championship at the Tokyo Olympics. Ma Long also became the first Olympic hardware king in the history of table tennis, achieving the feat of 100% of the Olympic championship rate.
At present, Ma Long has a total of 27 world championship titles, and the 35-year-old Ma Long is still likely to participate in the Paris Olympics next year, and it is very likely that Ma Long will have 30 world championship titles by then. So how far do you think Malone will go in his future career?Welcome to discuss in the comment area.