Lin Shidong

Lin was picked for the Hainan provincial team in 2015.^[8] After winning the singles title at the national youth championships in 2020, Lin joined the Chinese national second team.^[1] He is the first person from Hainan province to be a member of the Chinese national team.

In 2022, Lin was promoted to the national first team.^[8] He won his first WTT title at the WTT Feeder European Summer Series 2022 held in Budapest.^[9] He represented China at the 2022 ITTF World Youth Championships, winning four gold medals including the U-19 singles title.^[10]

In 2023, Lin Shidong won the WTT Contender series event in Amman.^[11] He paired with Kuai Man in the mixed doubles event at the 2023 World Championships, winning bronze in his first appearance at the Championships.^[12] After claiming the men's singles title at the All China Table Tennis Championships,^[8] Lin successfully defended his four titles at the 2023 ITTF World Youth Championships.^[13]

After the 2024 Summer Olympics, Lin Shidong won the men's singles titles at the WTT Contender Almaty and WTT Champions Macao in September.^[14][15] He continued his success in October by defeating Ma Long in the final to win the WTT China Smash.^[16] His winning streak ended in the men's singles final at the Asian Championships, where he was defeated by Tomokazu Harimoto.^[17] Lin subsequently claimed two additional singles titles at the WTT Contender Muscat and WTT Champions Frankfurt.^[18][19]

In 2025, Lin won the WTT Singapore Smash title by defeating Liang Jingkun in the final,^[20] and subsequently reached the No. 1 position in the ITTF world rankings in February.^[21] He competed at the ITTF Men's World Cup as the top-ranked player, advancing to the final where he finished as runner-up to Hugo Calderano.^[22] At the 2025 World Championships, Lin was the only male Chinese player to compete in three events and entered as the top seed in both singles and mixed doubles (with Kuai Man). He was eliminated in the quarterfinals of all three events and did not medal.^[23][24][25]

In summer 2025, Lin participated in the WTT United States Smash, he lost in the semi-final against Tomokazu Harimoto 3-4.^[26] Then Lin joined WTT Champions Yokohama and had a surprising lost to Dang Qiu in the round of 16.^[27] The next tournament is the Europa Smash in Sweden, where Lin reached the final after successively taking revenge against Dang Qiu in the quarterfinal 4-0 then beating French Simon Gauzy in a thrilling game 4-3. In the final, Lin lost 3-4 to Truls Moregard.^[28] Before the last grand smash, Lin went to do The WTT champions in Macao but lost 3-4 in the quarterfinal against Anders Lind. Meanwhile, his compatriot Wang Chuqin won the title, allowing himself to get 1000 ranking points and surpass Lin to become the world no.1 again.^[29]