SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea's top female table tennis player, China-born Jeon Ji-hee, has an easy explanation for why she had to leave her homeland to compete in the game she loves.
"There are way too many good players in China," Jeon said after a pre-Olympics practice session. "It's extremely hard to make it to the national team."
This simple recognition has led to an exodus of Chinese talent — and to worries that it will take more than the wanderings of China's second-tier athletes to save a sport so thoroughly dominated by one nation.