Jian Fang Lay

Fast Facts

Sport: Table Tennis
Event: Women's Table Tennis
Olympic History: Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, Beijing 2008, London 2012, Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020
Year Born: 1973
State Born: Wengzhou, China

About Jian

Jian Fang-Lay made history at the Tokyo Olympic Games by joining Mary Hanna (equestrian) as the only women to have competed at six Olympic Games for Australia.

Born in China, Fang Lay headed to Australia in 1994 and soon after retired from the sport she grew up playing. She didn’t stay away for long though and eventually achieved her Olympic dream at the Sydney 2000 Games, where she competed in the doubles alongside Stella Zhou. She lined up in both the singles and doubles events in Athens, securing her first win in an Olympic competition when she defeated Croatia’s Cornelia Vaida in the first round of the singles event.

She would go on to win in the opening round of the singles competitions in Beijing 2008 and London 2012 but bowed out in each of the team events in the first round at both of those Games. 

In Rio, she lined up alongside Melissa Tapper and Sally Zhang in the team event where Australia went down 3-0 to North Korea. She had her best singles tournament of her Olympic career though, defeating Russia’s Maria Dolgikh and Austria’s Sofia Polcanova in the opening two rounds of the competition. She would bow out in the third round to Indonesia’s multiple World Championship medallist Mengyu Yu.

Having won four silver and three bronze Commonwealth Games medals, Fang Lay is undoubtedly one of the nation’s all-time greats of the sport.

In recent years, the 48-year-old has won the Oceania Cup on the three occasions, 2017 in Suva, 2018 in Port Vila and 2019 in Bora Bora.

Fang Lay, now a veteran athlete, made her sixth Australian Olympic Team in Tokyo, competing in the women's table tennis singles and doubles events. 

Jian would once again enjoy a strong start to the women's individual competition, defeating Cuban athlete Daniela Fonseca in straight sets. Showcasing her quality, she would go on to defeat both Italian Debora Vivarelli and Li Q in the first two rounds proper, pushing her into the third round of the tournament.

She would, unfortunately, fall short of medal contention, however, after a loss against German player Han Y in straight sets.  

Fang Lay would then link up with fellow Australians Melissa Tapper and Michelle Bromley for the women's teams event. The squad would, unfortunately, be defeated in the first round of the tournament, losing to team Germany 3-0, Jian losing a tense single game 2-3.