Chen Jing (table tennis)


Chen Jing is a table tennis player and Olympic champion for China, and later Olympic medalist for Chinese Taipei.

Early Life

Chen Jing was born on September 20, 1960 in Wuhan, Hubei Province. At the age of 11, she was the champion of the youth bracket in a table tennis tournament hosted by the Children's Palace in Wuhan, and was selected for the Hubei Province team. At the age of 18, she was selected for the Chinese national team.

Professional Career

She received a golden medal in singles and a silver medal in doubles at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul.
In 1991, she defected to Taiwan after failing to make the national team in 1990, where she won the Taiwanese national table tennis competition and joined the Taiwanese national team. Competing for Chinese Taipei, she received a silver medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, the only medal for Taipei in those Olympics. She received a bronze medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.

Personal Life

In 1992, she started studying at Princeton University, where she assumed a position as the coach of the Princeton table tennis team and studied English. After the 1996 Olympics, she returned to Taipei Physical Education College to obtain her Masters' Degree. In 2003, she started studying at South China Normal University to obtain her Doctorate in Sports Psychology.