PARIS — Question No. 1 at the table tennis news conference late Tuesday afternoon went to the North Koreans, whose silver medals in mixed doubles had just brought the first Olympic hardware since 2016 to the reclusive dictatorship. The question concerned how this curious No. 16 seed had reached such lofty caliber here when it seldom competes internationally, and also whether perhaps it had gathered some mettle by training in the table tennis empire of China.
“We trained in our own country,” Ri Jong-sik answered through interpretation, from the far end of the table and the right edge of the four athletes present, his microphone off as the moderator scrambled over to help.
“We trained in our own country,” he repeated, microphone on.
Question No. 2 went to China’s gold medalists, ranked No. 1 in the world, and it concerned what they had found most difficult in their several-year path that ended in gold with a 4-2 conquest of the North Koreans. Sun Yingsha supplied a long answer full of hosannas for the opponent, including, “Throughout the match I think the North Korean pair is quite rare in the international arena,” and, “We never fight them before,” and, “I think they do have strong strengths,” and, “I think they have a distinctive style of play.”
Along North Korea’s stunning trek through the bracket past No. 2 seed Japan, No. 8 seed Sweden and No. 4 seed Hong Kong, beaten opponents had commented to several news agencies about the pair’s singular style and unusual use of long pimples on their paddles.
Sun called them “a formidable opponent,” and, true, the score had gone 11-6, 7-11, 11-8, 11-5, 7-11, 11-8. That sixth game had gotten to 8-8 with some points of dazzling duration before the Chinese made their closing burst to 11-8 and then saw Ri Jong-sik’s last shot go long. They then looked at each other in wonder as gold medalists and rejoiced while the runners-up grabbed a large North Korean flag and posed for photos, then walked around the outer edge of the arena waving to the loud Chinese crowd and to the five people near the media section who had waved North Korea flags.
The Chinese followed that orbit moments later.
Their fans made those slightly shrieking roars yet again.
Question No. 3 went back to the North Koreans, human beings from a citizenry so rarely seen or heard by other citizenries, and concerned how it felt to win the country’s first medals in eight years.
“We learned from Chinese team which is always number one,” Kim Kum-yong said. “We will do better next time to win the gold next time.”
Question No. 4 went back to the Chinese, about the fine delirium in the South Paris Arena Building 4, with the flags waving and the cheers booming with every China point and China’s national anthem sung with relish.
“First of all,” Wang Chuqin said, “I’m very grateful to be here, to make it to Paris, and to see so many Chinese fans, and to hear their cheers, and their cries.”
Question No. 5 went to the Chinese and dealt with intra-team communication, to which Sun, in her welcome dispensing of words, spoke of the need “to improve your communication skills” and of how China had watched video of each opponent and how, helpfully against North Korea, “We trained to play against the different styles.”
Question No. 6 went back to the Koreans, and mentioned having “read online” that they had trained in China and saying, “Could you tell us more?”
“We can learn a lot from them,” Kim said, “and we prepared a lot for the Olympics, so we have somewhat of a tie with Chinese team, which is the world’s best. Of course it wasn’t enough at the end. We did a good performance, but there’s some regret and we learned a lot from them.”
