Li Furong (; born 1942 in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

, China) is a Chinese male

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. He was a native of

Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , Chinese postal romanization, also romanized as Chekiang) is an East China, eastern, coastal Provinces of China, province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable citie ...

province starting to play table tennis at 15 and joined the national team in 1959. Li helped the Chinese men's team win four team titles at the

World Table Tennis Championships The World Table Tennis Championships are table tennis competitions sanctioned by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF). The World Championships have been held since 1926, biennially since 1957. Five individual events, which include m ...

in 1961, 1963, 1965 and 1971. In men's singles competitions, he made 3 consecutive appearances at the finals of the World Championships in 1961, 1963, and 1965. However, Li lost to compatriot

Zhuang Zedong Zhuang Zedong (Chuang Tse-tung; August 25, 1940 – February 10, 2013) was a Chinese table tennis player, three-time world men's singles champion and champion at numerous other table tennis events and a well-known political personality during ...

in all of the three finals, making himself become one of four players who played in three finals without winning (together with Hungarian

Laszlo Bellak Laszlo Bellak (February 12, 1911 – September 20, 2006) was a Hungarian and United States, American table tennis player. Table tennis career He represented Hungary 59 times in international competition. He won 21 medals at the World Championshi ...

, Polish

Alojzy Ehrlich Alojzy "Alex" Ehrlich (1914 – 7 December 1992), also called "King of the Chiselers," was a Polish table tennis player, widely regarded as one of the best players in Polish history of this sport, who three times won silver in the World Tabl ...

and countryman Ma Lin). Rumor had it that Li's losses at the finals were prearranged. The 1961 Championships was referred as the commencement of match fixing in history of Chinese table tennis. In 1999, Li was inducted into the ITTF Hall of Fame. Li became the president of

Asian Table Tennis Union The Asian Table Tennis Union (ATTU) is an Asian table tennis governing body formed on May 7, 1972, and recognized by International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) in 1975. ATTU was founded by 16 member associations, currently, 44 member associations ...

(ATTU) in 2001. The post was succeeded by

Cai Zhenhua Cai Zhenhua (; ; born 3 September 1961 in Wuxi, Jiangsu) is a male former table tennis player from China. He is the vice Chairman and the Secretary of the Secretariat of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, the former deputy Director ...

in 2009 and Li was awarded the ATTU Honorary Life President in 2010.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Li, Furong 1942 births Living people Table tennis players from Shanghai Chinese male table tennis players