Chinese table tennis stars Sun Yingsha, Wang Manyu finish undergraduate studies
Olympic champions graduate from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, will head to Tsinghua University to pursue master’s degrees in sports studies
Sun Yingsha and Wang Manyu wore academic gowns to take graduation photos with faculty and peers as members of the undergraduate class of 2019 at Shanghai Jiao Tong University on Thursday.
The two Olympic table tennis champions will head to Tsinghua University this September to pursue master’s degrees in sports studies.
Aged 25 and 29 respectively, the duo entered Shanghai Jiao Tong University seven years ago under an exam-exemption scheme, majoring in human resource management at the Antai College of Economics and Management.
According to an earlier admission list for exam-exempt postgraduate students released by Tsinghua University’s School of Social Sciences, Sun scored 92.04 and Wang scored 89.44 in the comprehensive evaluation, securing tentative admission into the class of 2026 sports studies programme for the September intake.
As undergraduate programmes in China typically take four years to complete, the timeline prompted some netizens to ask: “Did they apply for delayed graduation?”
Other users questioned the authenticity and academic rigour of their education, asking, “Do they even have time to study when they train every day?”