• In the past, before the year 2000, there was no final qualification. Instead, in 1988 and 1992 there were 4 wild cards (4 men and 4 women). These wild cards were decided by the ITTF President.
   
• For the Atlanta Olympics, a new method was developed called the "Tripartite Committee" formed of the IF, IOC and Olympic Solidarity.
  Together for each sport this group would decide the wild cards, which were since then called the Tripartite Committee quota. For Atlanta we had a huge dispute with the IOC and OS in agreeing on these positions. Since then they have established clear criteria. At that time I was deputy president and was assigned the responsibility to negotiate with IOC. At the end we agreed 50% (2 chosen by OS and 2 chosen by ITTF).
   
• After this experience we decided not to have Tripartite positions anymore, and I personally proposed the new "Final Olympic Qualification" event as a new way to select the so called "wild cards".
   
• As President of the ITTF (newly elected in 1999), I insisted on canceling the wild card system, and canceling the Tripartite positions and allocating the extra spots to the players that would qualify based on the final qualification tournament. The first such qualification was held in Seville in 2000 (for Sydney), then in Linz in 2004 (for Athens)
   
• The IOC put extreme pressure on the ITTF to re-introduce the Tripartite positions. Therefore, for Athens we reduced the number of final qualifiers from the final qualification and we allocated one spot (one man and one woman) to the Tripartite Committee, as a compromise to the ITTF, with some conditions based on training and competition of the athletes that would qualify for that spot.
   
• The ITTF made tremendous efforts to bring the Team Event to the Olympic Games. I personally went with our Executive Director to the IOC and had many meetings with the IOC on this subject. We finally succeeded to convert the Doubles event to Team events. This was done with many restrictions and many limitations that we needed to accept.
  Basically we were allowed to have a Team event as long as we did not make any changes to the qualification system and as long as we maintained the doubles somehow.
   
• This is not easy, but at the end the ITTF's Olympic Commission were able to find a creative way to meet the IOC's demands. Of course the current system is NOT perfect, but it allowed us to introduce the team event.
   
• We are one of the very few sports that are allowed 16 Teams. This also took a lot of strategy and negotiation with IOC. But we succeeded so that we could also allow every Continent the chance to be represented.
   
• The MAGIC NUMBER of 22 QUOTA SPOTS for the Team events. This is not a coincidental number. We were able to maintain this number of EXTRA quota spots to complete Teams that may not qualify 3 players. This was expected and anticipated by the ITTF based on previous Games. Why 22? Two reasons; this is the number we had to supplement the Doubles previously at the past Olympic Games. Also, in order to be 100% sure that we would have all teams represented with 3 players, we took the worst case scenario assumptions of only 1 player per NOC qualifying in 4 Continents (so we would need 4 x 2 = 8 spots), and that all other NOCs (12) would qualify with 2 players, so an additional 12 x 1 = 12 for a total of 20 spots. But we did NOT return the 2 additional quota spots because we already had in mind that we would like to expand the singles entry and that we could use the extra unused Team spots.
   
• In fact, the ONLY "guaranteed" spots at the final qualification are
  2 spots. Plus one not used by the host nation = 3 spots.
   
• All other spots are theoretical and are based on how many of the Team quota spots would not be used.
   
• Personally with our Executive Director we convinced the IOC Sports Department that all the spots not used by the team quota would be converted to "additional" spots for the singles competition giving a larger number of players the chance to play in singles instead of just 64. This was eventually accepted.
   
• The question now was how to use these extra additional spots, especially that we would never know the exact number?
   
• I presented this challenge to the ITTF's Olympic Commission with three options for the distribution of the Extra Team quota by a) Ranking list, b) Continents, and c) Final Qualification.
   
• In general everyone agreed that the extra quota should go to the BEST players. But it would be difficult to add to the Ranking list because we would only know the exact number AFTER the final qualification and some players from the ranking list may be already qualified, etc. Also the IOC had already confirmed 20 players from the ranking list. The obvious solution would be either to the Continents in a proportional way or to the final qualification. A narrow vote decided that the extra spots would go the final qualification as the easiest and most fair method and guaranteeing that the BEST players would qualify.
   
• In fact, instead of ADDING 4 or 8 spots to the Ranking (automatic qualification), we are adding these spots to the final qualification and making it easy for the top 4-8 players to qualify, in lieu of adding these spots to the Ranking. This is a fact. However, it is not a 100% guaranteed direct qualification, but very close, I agree.
   
• I still think that this is a better way than for the president to decide himself (wild card), or to return the extra spots to the IOC, or to limit the singles to 64.
   
• So in fact, instead of looking only at the negative aspects, without any understanding of the background, let's focus on what POSITIVE has been achieved for BEIJING:
  
  A) Team Events
  B) 16 Teams
  C) ALL Continents represented in Team Event
  D) More players will play in the singles (possibly 75-77 instead of 64)
  E) More NOCs can win Medals
   
• All the negative aspects are due to the limitations and conditions imposed on the ITTF with the conversion from Doubles to Team Events, and can all be improved for London 2012 if we have a very successful Olympics in 2008

2. Different degree of difficulty between Continental and Final qualifications

• The format used for the Final Olympic Qualification is a REPLICA
  (copy) of the actual format used at the Olympic Games. In fact, it copies the system that we had over the last 2 Olympic Games in which the top 8 seeds are placed in the latter stage of the competition. At the Olympic Games we have 3 medals, at the Final Qualification we have 3 sure qualifiers. There is a slight difference in that at the Olympic Games ALL matches are knock-out, but at the final qualification we start with RR Groups.
   
• The current ITTF system allows each Continent to choose its own method of selecting the continental qualifiers. Perhaps in the future the ITTF should control and unify this stage. But currently, and it works well, each Continent decides how they will select the players from their own continent. They could even select them by ranking if they wished. It's up to them.
   
• In Africa it's a one-stage format, groups then knockout, at the Africa Games. In Asia they have 5 regional tournaments plus a final tournament with 2 stages. In North America, Latin America and Oceania it's a two-stage format. In Europe it's a 4-stage format.
   
• Of course there is a big difference if we compare any of the Continental qualification events. Also if we compare two extremes like the Final Qualification and the European Qualification. But this is irrelevant. Europe, for good reasons I'm sure, has chosen a 4 stage format with many matches. This is the choice of Europe and at the moment it's their right to choose the system they want. On the other hand, the ITTF chose a system that replicates the Olympic Games and favours heavily the top ranked players as explained above.
   
• In fact the Final Qualification replaces the wild-cards and replaces the unilateral decision by the President. Now it favours the highly ranked players not yet qualified, but the door is still open to ALL players that wish to qualify, they just have to go and win their matches. If we compare with before, and if we remove the top 8 ranked players we will still probably have many more spots than we ever did before. To me this is a positive. Every qualifier above the guaranteed 3 spots is a BONUS.
   
• "Thanks ITTF for giving us this extra chance to play in singles"
  would be the expected refrain.

Conclusion:

• It serves no purpose to complain through the Continental Federations as the ITTF Continental VPs unanimously agreed on the playing format at their last meeting in Guangzhou.
• It serves no purpose to compare formats and degrees of difficulty to qualify. There are several methods to qualify and the players should do their best and adapt to the method at hand
• Let's be positive and realize that many more players will be able to play in singles compared with previous Games when the limit was 64 players only.
• Let's make 2008 a great success so that your President and Executive Director have a strong hand in negotiating the desired changes for London 2012