Background and career
Ma Long (Chinese: 马龙; pinyin: Mǎ Lóng; born 20 October 1988) is a Chinese professional table tennis player. He is a two-time Olympic champion, three-time World Champion, and three-time World Cup champion in men's singles. Widely regarded as the greatest table tennis player of all time, he is the only male player to complete a career double Grand Slam as the Olympic gold medalist in men's singles in 2016 and 2020. He is also the only table tennis athlete to win 6 gold medals in the Summer Olympics — no other player has more than 4. He holds the record for most Olympic gold medals won by a Chinese athlete.
Ma held the world number 1 ranking for a total of 64 months (and 34 consecutive months from March 2015), the most by any man in the history of table tennis. He won the World Championship in men's singles consecutively in 2015, 2017 and 2019. His records led the International Table Tennis Federation to nickname him "The Captain", "The Dictator" and "The Dragon" (derived from his name, Lóng, which represents the zodiac year of his birth).
