Name: Wang Liqin
Date of birth: June 18, 1978 in Shanghai
Olympic entry: Men's table tennis
Career highlights: Gold in men's doubles at Sydney 2000, bronze in men's singles at Athens 2004. Also won 2001, 2005, 2007 World Championships singles titles.
Wang Liqin is determined to live up to his name. The character 'li' stands for inspire, while 'qin' conjures the notion of diligence. Indeed, no one in the star-studded Chinese table tennis team can match Wang when it comes to hard work.
He keeps voluminous diaries on virtually every competitive match he has played and reviews the play-by-play logs every time he encounters a foe.
Wang, at 30 the oldest player on the men's squad, is usually the last one to leave the training sessions. At an internal fitness lecture, he was once singled out by the team physician for having the 'perfect' abdominal muscles. The audience included admiring teammates, most of whom were in their early 20s.