Han Ying ( zh, s=韩莹; born 29 April 1983) is a female

table tennis Table tennis (also known as ping-pong) is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table, rather than the Tennis court, court on which players stand. Either individually or in teams of ...

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, was 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 Singl ...

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 The year 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 even ...

. 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 was born in

Shenyang Shenyang,; ; Mandarin pronunciation: ; formerly known as Fengtian formerly known by its Manchu language, Manchu name Mukden, is a sub-provincial city in China and the list of capitals in China#Province capitals, provincial capital of Liaonin ...

, 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 The China national table tennis team is the national representative team of the People's Republic of China, and was founded in 1952. Players Men's team Women's team Staffs Team manager and Head coaches Men's first team Women's first te ...

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 Tostedt (Low German ''Töst'') is a municipality in the district of Harburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the central administration of the collective municipality (Samtgemeinde Tostedt) which consists of 9 joint communities. Geography Ge ...

, from 2005 to 2012. She became a naturalized

German citizen German nationality law details the conditions by which an individual is a national of Germany. 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 Euro ...

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 city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, ...

. 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 is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

and played for the Polish club KTS

Tarnobrzeg Tarnobrzeg is a city in south-eastern Poland (historic Lesser Poland), on the east bank of the river Vistula, with 49,419 inhabitants, as of 31 December 2009. Situated in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship (Polish: ''Województwo podkarpackie'') since ...

Major competitions

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 2011 World Table Tennis Championships – Women's singles, women's singles in the 2011 World Table Tennis Championships. At the 2015 World Table Ten ...

, the eventual gold medalist. In the

women's team A woman is an adult female human. Before adulthood, a female child or adolescent is referred to as a girl. Typically, women are of the female sex and inherit a pair of X chromosomes, one from each parent, and women with functional uteruses ...

, 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 retired 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 Ol ...

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 Fuku ...

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 De ...

, 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 at age 15. At the 2020 Summer Olympics, she won the gold medal with her partner Jun Mizutani in the inaugural mixed doubles event, br ...

4–2,

Miu Hirano (born 14 April 2000) is a Japanese table tennis player. She won Table Tennis World Cup, 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 Ch ...

4–0 and losing to

Zhu Yuling Zhu Yuling (; born 10 January 1995) is a Chinese table tennis player representing Macau. Career Zhu was born in Mianyang in 1995 and began playing table tennis at the age of five, as it kept her occupied while she was ill. At the age of nine, s ...

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 Chen Meng (; born 15 January 1994) is a Chinese professional table tennis player and Olympic champion. She joined the provincial team when she was 9 and joined the national team when she was only 13 in 2007. She is the women's singles champion o ...

3–4 and losing to

0–4. In the 2020 Olympics, she reached quarterfinal of the women's singles by beating

Feng Tianwei Feng Tianwei (, ; born 31 August 1986) is a Singaporean retired table tennis player. Born in China, she permanently moved to Singapore in March 2007 at the age of 20 under the Foreign Sports Talent Scheme and commenced her international car ...

4–1 and losing to

Sun Yingsha Sun Yingsha (; born 4 November 2000) is a Chinese professional table tennis player, Olympic champion, and World Champion. She is the current world No. 1 in women's singles. Sun is the reigning Olympic gold medallist in mixed doubles with Wang ...

0–4.

Personal life

Han married Yang Lei, a German table tennis player from China, in 2006. In 2012, she gave birth to her daughter. Han and her family currently reside in

Finals

Women's singles

Women's doubles

Mixed doubles

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Han, Ying 1983 births Living people German female table tennis players Chinese emigrants to Germany Table tennis players at the 2015 European Games Table tennis players at the 2019 European Games Table tennis players at the 2023 European Games European Games medalists in table tennis European Games gold medalists for Germany European Games silver medalists for Germany Chinese female table tennis players Table tennis players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Table tennis players at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic table tennis players for Germany Olympic medalists in table tennis Olympic silver medalists for Germany Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Table tennis players from Anshan Naturalised table tennis players Naturalized citizens of Germany Expatriate table tennis people in Japan German sportspeople of Chinese descent World Table Tennis Championships medalists 21st-century German sportswomen