After the 2024 Paris Olympics, the LA cycle began. Looking back at 2025, what stood out for China’s table tennis team was not a single win but a batch of names in their early twenties starting to carry real weight.

Mixed doubles was the steadiest line. Lin Shidong and Kuai Man strung together titles through late 2024 and 2025, taking the mixed doubles crowns at both the Singapore and U.S. Smash events. By year’s end they topped the ITTF mixed doubles ranking with 7,273 points, firmly positioned as a key pair for the LA cycle. In the Singapore Smash final that February they beat Japan’s Sora Matsushima and Miwa Harimoto 3-1 — the win landing on Kuai Man’s birthday.

In singles and team events the youngsters kept climbing. At the Doha Worlds China took four of the five golds (all but men’s doubles); Wang Chuqin won his first world singles title and Sun Yingsha defended hers. But the event also exposed a soft spot: both Chinese men’s doubles pairs exited early, the first time since 1975 that China left a Worlds without a men’s doubles medal. CTTA president Wang Liqin said plainly afterward that the new cycle must step up the development of young players.

At the year-end Mixed Team World Cup in Chengdu, China went unbeaten for a third straight title. Xu Yingbin, in his first appearance, earned his first world title and became China’s 120th world champion; Lin Shidong played all eleven matches, the only player to appear in every tie.

Across other events the youngsters kept banking experience. Xiang Peng took the men’s singles crown at the Incheon Champions and then beat Hugo Calderano 4-3 in the China Smash quarterfinals, climbing to world No. 9. Chen Junsong, a wild-card entrant ranked outside the top 100, overturned Tomokazu Harimoto in the first round and reached the singles quarterfinals. Chen Yuanyu also claimed a singles title in Muscat early in the year.

Veterans Wang Chuqin, Sun Yingsha and Wang Manyu remain the core, but what reassured in 2025 was this: when the stars were scouted and pressured, there were real players behind them ready to step up. Men’s doubles is the homework for the new cycle; the depth of the pipeline, though, is far more solid than a year ago.