15 August 08: Singapore Table Tennis Women’s Team is into Beijing Olympic 2008 Table Tennis Final! Yahoooo!!! The girls fought very hard against the mighty South Korean Team, won 2 single and 1 double out of 5 matches and they made it! Salute!
The Women’s team (from left): Fang Tianwei, Wang Yuegu, Li Jiawei
Photos from: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-08/15/content_9345411.htm
Singapore Vs China: Team Singapore will be playing China on Sunday at 7.30pm on Channel U (‘Live’ telecast at Singapore time)
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Watch videos of Singapore Table Tennis Women’s Team playing in the Final and Victory Ceremony in Beijing Olympic 2008.
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ole ole ole ole…~ XD
best of luck singapore!
^^
Well done Singapore!! Well done. Our Malaysian Badminton talent, Lee Chong Wei also fought through into FINAL!!!!!!! BBBBRRRRRaaavo!!!!
@Kai, Alex: Ole Ole Ole Ole ^^ Salute!
@Cecil: Wow congratulation! I have been wondering if Malaysia gets into the badminton final and yes! My hubby surely happy kekeke. I will watch Malaysia team play! Malaysia Boleh! Singapore Boleh!
Awww! congratulations to Team Singapore then! Hope they’ll bring more bacons home =)
Malaysia BOLEH! Singapore CAN-Lah! ahahaha! Congratz SG! U finally had brought those dreams come true! yeah!
@Bridge: Gee, at least a silver now. China is a very very tough team to defeat, so to be realistic, I guess a silver is good enough for the team… unless miracle happens. I will be definitely watching the Final! =)
@Henry: U cute le hehehe Singapore Can-lah Can-lah! I always admire those athletes who are so focused, so determined to win even when they face a very strong opponent. I think this is more laudable than just thinking about whether Singapore can get a medal or not.
hi.我现在没在北京,哈哈,在哈尔滨.你最近还好么.
🙂
There is nothing wrong with these players… In fact when we go back to history, all of the chinese-singaporeans came from china to settle in to singapore. They’re the hardworking ones. In the case of these two players, they’ve shown to the world how chinese migrants to singapore are better than the others!
There is nothing wrong with immigrants competing for their new country. It happens all the time. The gold medalist in the women’s individual, all aroud gymnastics event, Nastia Liukin, won for the USA – but she was born in Moscow, Russia. She emigrated to the US as a child with her parents. She’s an American now, just as these women competing in table tennis are Singaporeans now, regardless of where they were born.
A person has no control over where he or she is born. But they *choose* where they want to live, and that is far more important.
The world is one place now and so people should be able to choose where they live irrespective of the reason. These ladies want to live in Singapore even if it is to play tabletennis. I think most countries have representatives that were born elsewhere – I know we do in Australia. I hope that Singapore cheer for their team and celebrate their success whether they finish with the gold or the silver medal – an extraordinary effort in either case.
China born singaporeans? What do u mean? Singaporean that are born in China? Or chinese born in singapore?
No matter how, they represents singapore, and they made it!!
Lee Chung Wei managed to advance into final too in badminton men’s single!! Go go ASEAN countries!!! Cheers for both teams!!!
And..wow?! I just realized I appeared in the top commentators roll!! Thx for the honour!! XD
Sorry, but these players didn’t just migrate because of their business skills or otherwise because they want Singapore to be their home for ever and ever, and then take up table tennis! They were head-hunted because they were 2nd tier players in China, expressed into citizenship and their achievements have virtually nothing to do with Singapore or the table tennis training available there. If Australia had poached them, or the US, then they would be playing for those countries.
Other wealthy countries do the same thing like Qatar, Bahrain etc, but that doesn’t make it something for you to be proud of.
Lee Chung Wei on the other hand is a credit to Malaysia and Malaysian Badminton. Singapore’s “achievement” on the other hand is not what the Olympics is all about, imho – it’s China A versus China B. Singapore is a great country and has plenty to be proud about, but don’t embarrass yourselves by being proud about your skills in corporate head-hunting being applied to sport.
I’m Australian – we have some pretty good swimmers who didn’t qualify for the Australian team – perhaps Singapore should offer them Singaporean citizenship and start winning medals in swimming as well.
haha…nice job! but they lost right?
same with M’sia, lost to China in final badminton match…single man de…>_<
anyway, number 2 is also very good already! haha…^^
蕾蕾~
I am so embarrassed by how short sighted the actions of the SSC are. Rather then developing programs that will nurture and develop our own talents, Singapore once again has taken the easy way out, if we can’t grow them, we will buy them. Great, you have fulfilled your Olympics aspirations, now lets see you buy Patriotism.
@Nothing to be Proud of, Yahya:
Though they are China-born Singaporeans, I really don’t care, cos I am very touched by the way they played the game. They are so determined, so focused and full of fighting spirits when facing such strong and experienced opponents like the South Koreans and the mighty Chinese team. I really admire Olympians with such a never-say-die attitude, something which not many people can perservre even they are given the carrots to do it.
The world is a global village now, everyone should have the right to choose where they live. In fact, many top ranked countries in terms of Olympic gold have winners who are immigrants from elsewhere too. So, this issue is nothing new. If you think your winners are locally born, it may not be so for your next winner. We should be proud of these girls who choose to fight for Singapore, not for other countries, and they even created a milestone in history for Singapore.
I don’t see what is there to be so embarrassed of when Singapore is able to attract foreign talents. Singapore is only 43 years old, our forefathers were immigrants too, they searched for a greener pasture and chose the country which has given birth to us. Does that mean that the strong foundation that they laid for us, isn’t something that we should be proud of? Isn’t it the same for your country? Nothing to be embarrassed of, don’t just think having some money can buy everything, this is way too proud to ever think of that. This shows that our country is better than many other countries that’s why these talents choose Singapore. Who knows? One day, these foreign talents (just like our forefathers) produce offsprings that grab gold medals for Singapore. Are we going to say, nah, these children are Singaporeans but their parents aren’t?
Now I begin to understand “One World, One Dream” has a lot of meaning in it.
@Chuck, Mark H, Bridge: I agreed with you, we can’t choose where we were born, but we can choose where we want to live. I think we have to be receptive to changes and accept the fact that now the world is a global village and talents are moving all over the place. We shouldn’t look down on immigrants who choose to live with us too. Who knows that one day our future generation becomes another country’s foreign talents. 😛
Well said Eunice ! Finally i agree to something you have said ! :p Although the medal was got by an immigrant – it can still provide inspiration and enthusiasm to the countries youngsters – thereby helping them to take up Sports such as these ! I would nt mind even if a Pakistani helps India to get a medal !!
For ex., take the world of football , especially the English Premier League ! Not even half of the League’s players are from England ! They come from various countries to play in the EPL – and even take Club football more seriously than their National football !
So it really does nt matter for “whom you play or where you play” , but what really matters is “how you play” !! Its the Sportsmanship that counts and at the end of the day – that is what the Olympics is all about !!
I note with interest in today’s paper that the Australian women’s table-tennis team is made up of Maio Maio, Jian Fang Lay and Stephanie Xu Sang, which would suggest that our team also come from China or are certainly of Chinese heritage. But like Singapore, I am sure they will represent Australia proudly and well, and do their utmost to progess through the tournament as far as possible.
@Mark H: In fact, I just knew recently that one of the players is a Chinese in the South Korea Table Tennis Women’s Team, and they got the bronze. For the Austria Men’s Team, one of them also migrated from China, same as the Japan Women’s Team. Everyone is everywhere now, it’s just like what happened in the ancient days when people already crossed borders to choose where to live. So basically this is nothing new. It’s just that someone did the migration “job” first so we ended up rooted in where we are now. Lastly, all the best to Team Australia!! =)
@KC: You’ve finally grown up and mature enough to understand my statements nowadays! hehehehe 😛
I agreed with “how you play”. I am more interested to discuss on how these Olympians play the game, then arrogantly picking on them about where they are originated from. What’s the big deal if they are not born in Singapore? We should be proud of talents who choose to do Singapore proud.
Yahya, is there something wrong with corporate headhunting? It’s a perfectly legitimate business strategy. You can try to recruit all the people you want, but if they don’t like your country, they won’t come. I don’t see many people migrating to North Korea or Cuba, for example.
Christopher Columbus was an Italian from Genoa, Italy, but the world thinks of him as Spanish, because the Spaniards financed his voyages to the New World. George Friederich Handel was a German composer. He couldn’t find a suitable position in the German principalities, however, so he emigrated to England, and became an English composer.
The world doesn’t think any less of Columbus or Handel because of their going elsewhere to ply their trades, nor does the world think any less of Spain or England for taking them in. On the contrary, they were wise to do so.
@Chuck: Well-said!!
@Yahya: Perhaps you didn’t know that Lee Chong Wei’s previous coach was from China? So any credit for this China coach who trained a world class player? =)
In addition, many coaches are not locally born to help those countries to win medals too!
singapore does not play for money they play to make singapore proud and who cares if thre china born it makes no diffrence
Even China won, Singapore did a good job! Well done, SINGAPORE!!!
@adelefi, Z.Y.X: Right! ^_- Keep going Team Singapore.
U will see Singapore winning gold medal in London Olympic over China!!!