Liu Guodong

Liu Guodong, male, was born on April 17, 1974, in Xinxiang City, Henan Province, China. His father, Liu Zhansheng, once served as a table tennis coach for the Xinxiang Sports Commission and later founded table tennis schools in Xinxiang, Henan (1999) and Xiamen, Fujian (2006). Liu Zhansheng passed away in 2011. His mother is Wen Yuxiang. Liu Guodong’s brother, Liu Guoliang, is a Chinese table tennis player who won singles titles at the Olympic Games, World Championships and World Cup (completing the sport’s “Grand Slam”) and has served as head coach of the Chinese national table tennis team.

Influenced by his father, Liu Guodong began learning table tennis at a young age. In 1984 and 1985 he defeated his brother Liu Guoliang in consecutive years at the Henan Provincial Games to win the championship, became a member of the Henan provincial team, and later joined the Bayi team. In 1993, at just 19, he decided to retire from professional table tennis, feeling that achieving a world championship was unlikely. After retiring, Liu Guodong worked at a bank in Panyu, Guangdong. In 1994 he resigned from the bank and rejoined the Chinese national table tennis team as a practice partner, beginning work related to table tennis again.

In 2000, with the support of his parents and brother, Liu Guodong began setting up his own table tennis club and worked as a coach. In 2003 he established the “Shaanxi Galaxy Guoliang Club” in Xi’an, Shaanxi, which achieved a third-place finish in the Chinese Table Tennis Super League. In 2004 he joined the Chinese men’s coaching staff as a trainee. In 2005 the Shaanxi Galaxy team he coached won the Super League championship and successfully defended the title in 2006. During his coaching tenure he developed young players such as Ma Long and Hao Shuai.

In 2006 Liu Guodong accepted an invitation from the Singapore Table Tennis Association to become head coach of the Singapore women’s team, signing a three-year contract. Under his guidance, the Singapore women’s team achieved historic results, including runner-up at the 2008 World Team Table Tennis Championships and the women’s team silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. On August 17, 2008, Singapore lost to China in the Beijing Olympic women’s team final and won the silver medal, Singapore’s first Olympic medal since the 1960 Games. That contract ended in December 2008.

In October 2008 Liu Guodong became head coach of the Ningbo Haitian Club and led the team to the 2009 Super League championship. In December 2008 he also signed on as head coach and technical advisor of the Indonesian national table tennis team, with a term lasting until June 2010; he left the position early for family reasons.

In April 2015 Liu Guodong became head coach of the Hong Kong men’s table tennis team. Under his guidance, player Wong Chun-ting (Huang Zhenting) won the bronze medal at the 2016 Men’s World Cup, becoming the first Hong Kong athlete to win a men’s singles medal at one of the sport’s three major world events. In 2020 he led Hong Kong to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics in men’s team, mixed doubles and men’s singles. At the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, the men’s team exited in the round of 16; Wong Chun-ting and Lam Siu-hang (Lin Zhaoheng) were eliminated in the men’s singles round of 32; and the mixed doubles pair Wong Chun-ting/Doo Hoi Kem (Huang Zhenting/Du Kaiqin) reached the quarterfinals. In 2022 he led the Hong Kong men’s team into the quarterfinals at the World Team Table Tennis Championships held in Chengdu, China.

In 2024, at the World Team Table Tennis Championships in Busan, South Korea, Liu Guodong’s Hong Kong team did not advance to the last 16. Family members include his wife Ma Ping; the couple married in 2005 and have a daughter, Liu Yihan, born in 2009. In 2018 Liu Yihan joined Hong Kong’s green channel elite team.

As of June 2024, Liu Guodong has extensive coaching experience in table tennis, has led multiple teams to national and international honors, and has received various professional recognitions and awards over his career.