Australia’s Miao Miao and Jian Fang Lay are set to make history after today being selected for their fourth Olympic Teams.

The pair have been Australia's table tennis stalwarts since the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games and, like Leisel Jones in the swimming, will be Australia’s first athletes in their sport to compete at four Olympics.

Miao is no stranger to making history. The 31-year-old from Melbourne is already Australia’s highest achiever in Olympic table tennis after finishing in fifth place alongside Shirley Zhou in the doubles at the Sydney 2000 Games.

"My first Olympics was the Sydney 2000 Olympics which is in Australia - my home country," Miao said. "The second Olympics was 2004 Athens - which is where the Olympics began. And then the third Olympics was in 2008 in Beijing - which is my original country where I’m from."

Adding to Miao's already impressive Olympic rundown, she will now head to London - the first country to host the Olympics three times.

Born in China, Miao moved to Australia in 1997 after spending three years in Poland where her father was the national coach.

Her teammate Jian Fang Lay was also born in China and moved to Australia in 1994. At 39, Lay is the oldest member of the team and her experience was apparent at the Olympic trials, dominating her younger opponents to finish as the top qualifier.

In the men’s singles, Australia’s top ranked player William Henzell will head to London in the form of his career.

The 29-year-old fended off his younger rivals in an undefeated run at the Oceania Olympic qualification tournament in Sydney.

A dual Olympian from Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008, Henzell is himself also a history maker in the sport.

As a 22-year-old at the Athens Games, he became the first Australian male to win matches in both the singles and doubles events. He then made further history when he reached the third round of the singles at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

“My Olympic experience will definitely help me in London,” the 29-year-old from Melbourne said.

“In Athens I was overawed by the whole experience of being at an Olympics and in Beijing I think I really learned from that. I stayed away from the hype and focused on my competition and played some of the best table tennis of my life. In London I hope to really build on that and continue the hard work that I have been doing in training.”

Claiming the second singles spot on offer is 20-year-old Justin Han.

Born in China, Han moved to Australia in 2008 to study and has since made Sydney his home. At the Olympic qualification tournament, the young athlete finished as the second qualifier after Henzell, taking down New Zealander Phillip Xiao in the Stage 2 final.

Under new Olympic regulations, each national team at the London Games will be restricted to just two players in the singles instead of three. This rule was introduced after China won every medal in the individual table tennis events at the Beijing Games. It is anticipated that a further two Australian athletes (one female and one male) will be nominated for selection at the conclusion of the Final World Olympic Qualification Tournament in May.

Table tennis will take place at ExCeL Arena from Saturday 28 July to Wednesday 8 August. There are four gold medals on offer in total - men’s and women’s singles, men’s and women’s teams.

Alice Wheeler
AOC