At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Jing Junhong finished fourth in the women’s singles. She had reached the semi-finals, lost to China’s Li Ju, then lost the bronze-medal match to Chen Jing. Singapore had been hoping for a medal, and she missed it by one match.
Around that time she was ranked 12th in the world by the International Table Tennis Federation. She sat down for a wide-ranging interview, and the answers showed a player whose steadiness came as much from family and hard-won perspective as from talent.
Beyond the paddle
She said then that her other talent was in the kitchen. She often cooked Shanghainese dishes at home, and her husband, himself a former national player, was her biggest fan, perhaps with an eye on dinner.
Her tastes were modest. A cheap pair of blue sunglasses was her idea of a trinket. Her one real weakness was seafood, which she liked to hunt down wherever she travelled. She also described her son as her biggest luxury, since she spent her time and money on him.
Fame, she joked, had its limits. Strangers at the market sometimes thought she resembled the player on television, then decided she could not be her. She took it with a laugh and said athletes should simply stick to the game.
Late start, steady will
Jing was born in Shanghai on 13 October 1968. Her parents were a teacher and an engineer. She was spotted at eight, later than many peers who had trained seriously for two years already. Her parents, she said, were relaxed about it and cared more that she listened to her teacher.
Her motto, as she explained in 2000, was that success demands sacrifice. Talent only takes a player so far, and focused, single-minded work does the rest. She told younger players not to fret about winning and to concentrate on hitting each ball well.
Singapore, and the critics
The Singapore Women’s Hall of Fame records that she became a Singapore citizen in 1994. In 2000 she was in her tenth year in Singapore, and she addressed the criticism that a China-born player should not represent the country. She said her sacrifices had been matched by those of coaches, sponsors and supporters. Denying her credit, she argued, would deny them theirs too.
The results backed her up. By then she had won SEA Games medals, silver at the 1995 Commonwealth Championships, and a place in the quarter-finals at Atlanta in 1996. ActiveSG notes that her fourth place in Sydney brought one of her Sportswoman of the Year awards.
Motherhood and the comeback
In 2000 she called motherhood her second occupation. Her son was about two, and she said a bad day at practice no longer meant a bad evening, because he greeted her warmly whatever the score. After training she dropped her gear and spent the evening with her family, with walks, shopping or toys, and sometimes a trip to Johor for a meal with her husband.
She was candid about the hard stretch after his birth. She took a year off during pregnancy, put on a lot of weight and took months to regain her form. When she returned she kept losing, and she almost quit. A sports psychologist helped her focus on her strengths, and that pulled her out of the slump.
At 32 she rejected the idea that she was winding down. She called it her golden age, with her body still strong and her experience rich. She pointed to rivals past 30 who remained in the world’s top ten.
Her role models were Michael Jordan and Andre Agassi, both of whom had left their sports and returned at the top. Her routine was punishing, with about six hours of training a day from 9.30am, a weekly massage, a lunchtime nap at the training centre and a sports psychologist on call.
Where she is now
Her third Olympic appearance was at Athens in 2004, where she reached the third round. She had also played at Atlanta in 1996, and the Singapore Table Tennis Association lists all three Games among its Olympians.
She moved into coaching. The association says she was tasked with grooming younger players from 2015, and that Team Singapore achieved its best finishes at the SEA Junior and Cadet Championships since 2016. From April 2022 she was reappointed Head Coach of the National Women’s Team.
The Singapore Women’s Hall of Fame says she helped lay the ground for the players who later ended Singapore’s 48-year wait for an Olympic medal.
FAQ
Did Jing Junhong win an Olympic medal?
No. She finished fourth in the women’s singles at Sydney 2000, after losing the bronze-medal match.
Which Olympics did she compete in?
She played in Atlanta in 1996, Sydney in 2000 and Athens in 2004, according to the Singapore Table Tennis Association.