Chuang Chih-yuan

Chuang Chih-Yuan (born April 2, 1981 in Kaohsiung, Taiwan) is a male table tennis player who competed at the 2012 Olympics in London. He is since 2012 the best Taiwanese table tennis player. He is a righthanded-player and uses the European Shakehand-grip. Chuang (family name) played for a short time in the German national league. 2013 he won the World Championships in the doubles.

 Sporting career 

 1986-1998 
Chuang began to play table tennis very early because his parents and his older brother played. At the age of eight he had his first appearances in the Mini-championships in Taiwan. As the parents saw the talent of their son, Chuang got a coach and his parents trained him, too. 1993 Chuang travelled to the table tennis capital - China. This moving was no easy decision for his mother Li Gumei. At that time the family Chuang wasn't very rich. Chuang had to train in very hot gyms and sportclubs. The work had success: In 1998 he got to the Taiwanese National team.

 First success and changing to Germany (1999-2002) 
After getting in the National team he played his first World Tour tournament. At the Austrian Open he reached the quarterfinals in the singles and doubles and made headlines. In 1999 he was nominated by coaches and players to come to Germany. The hard times for mother and son went on. It was difficult for Chuang to be a friend of German table tennis players because he doesn't speak German. He had no assistant for matches or in the training, so he had no coach. But he was very diligent and became very soon the best player in Germany. In 2002 he came back to Taiwan.

 More successes and becoming good playing in the adult area (2002-2018) 
At several World Tour events he reached the final. In the Asian Games he beat Kong Linghui. In the final he lost to Wang Liqin. At the Grand Finals at the end of the year 2002 he won his first singles title. He beat again Kong Linghui. In the quarterfinals he beat Jean-Michel Saive. Then he beat the Chinese top star Wang Hao and the Austrian table tennis player Werner Schlager. This was his first international single title. Already in 2002 he was the best Taiwanese table tennis player. In 2003 he climbed from place 40 in the world rankings to place 7. His mother was very proud and trained very hard with him, too. She's a very important coach of him. In 2003 he played his first World Championships but lost in the Round of 16 to Joo Se-hyuk. In the doubles he lost, too. Chuang played more international events but he didn't win. In this year he won World Tour Brasilia Open. 2011 in Chile and 2012 in Spain he won these tournaments, too. At the London 2012 Olympics he beat in the quarterfinals Adrian Crișan and reached the semi finals- the fourth place was his for sure. In a spectacular match against China's Wang Hao he lost 2:4. At the bronze medal match he had the chance to win. In a very important match for Chuang he lost 2:4 too and got the fourth place. With the team he got place 5-9. Despite these losses it was Chuang's best placement at Olympics. In 2013 he took part in the World Championships, where he got his best position ever- the quarterfinals. In the doubles he reached the 1st place after beating a Chinese duo in the final. This was the first gold for Taiwan. At the World Cups from (2004-2015) he reached the quarterfinals six times . 2014 he won bronze with the Taiwanese team at the WTTC. At the Pro Tour Grand Finals he only reached the quarterfinals. At the WTTC 2015 he lost  in his first match against Ádám Pattantyús. At the World Cup, where he played for the 7th time, he reached the quarterfinals again. At the Pro Tour Grand Finals (today World Tour Grand Finals) he didn't reach the final and slipped to place 14 in the world rankings. At the WTTC 2016 the team of Taiwan was only in 17th place. At the Olympics 2016 Chuang lost in a strong match against Ma Long and became a place from 1-32. In this year he was dated from Chen Chien-An and was from that moment not the best Taiwanese table tennis player. At Asian Games and World Cups he fell back to place 34. But through reaching Round 16 at the WTTC 2017 in Düsseldorf he climbed back to place 7.

 Important results 

 World Championships 

 2003, 2013, 2017- Round of 16 in the singles
 2014- bronze with the team
 2013- gold in the doubles

 Olympic Games 

 2016- place 7 with the team
 2012- 4th place in the singles
 2008, 2016- last 32 in the singles

 Asian Cup 

 2013- third place
 2008- fifth place
 2006- seventh place

 Pro Tour (World Tour) Grand Finals 

 2012- bronze
 2008, 2010, 2011- quarterfinals
 2002- gold

 References 

Category:1981 births
Category:Living people
Category:Competitors at the 2012 Summer Olympics
Category:Competitors at the 2016 Summer Olympics
Category:Table tennis players
Category:Taiwanese sportspeople