Team China Olympic Line-up

Dear Alois and Jeff,

I am very much confused for China's line-up in the London Olympics. Wang Hao and Zhang Jike are qualified already for the singles events, but as for Ma Long, who still qualified in the Asian Olympic Qualification, why isn't he participating in singles? Why only on team events? If so as Liu Guoliang has said, how come Koki Niwa who has won the first round of the Asian Olympic Qualification is also for team events only? Is it true that only 2 players are allowed for singles per country? How come this wasn't the same when China snagged all the olympic medals in 2008 (Ma Lin, Wang Hao, Wang Liqin)? If Ma Long is only going to participate by team event, and suppose he teams up with, for example, Wang Hao, will Zhang Jike still participate in doubles or will China still find Xu Xin as the fourth member to line-up with Zhang? I am so confused. Please help.

Hi Cloud,

Here is a quote out of the Explanatory Guide for the Olympics:  

The first two (2) players of each gender from each NOC to qualify for the Olympic Games will participate in the Singles events. The order used to determine which players have qualified first is ITTF World Ranking, then continental qualification events, then the Final World Qualification Tournament. The qualifying order within each level will also be taken into account.

If a third (3rd) player qualifies from any NOC, he or she will provisionally qualify for the Team event (see below Qualification: Team events).

I hope this helps.  So Wang Hao ad Zhang Jike will play singles and Ma Long will play in the teams event only with the other two.  The team events have 3 players per team.

They have changed these regulations in the past few Olympic Games.