With the London Olympics 2012 medal tally showing a total medal count tie between Team USA and China at the top, the latter of the two nations is guaranteed another gold on Wednesday. No, the event hasn't already happened, but it will feature two Chinese competitors squaring off in the finals.
The current 2012 Olympics medal count has both the United States and China with 23 total medals. However, China is at the top spot with 13 gold medals overall, compared to the 9 the U.S. has won so far. On Wednesday, China will add one more gold to the total, unless of course the event is postponed, canceled, or there's some unforeseeable circumstance.
According to Yahoo! Sports, Ding Ning and Li Xiaoxia will compete against each other in the finals of women's table tennis. Li enters as the match's underdog, after she eliminated Kasumi Ishikawa of Japan on the semifinals. She'll face the defending world champion, Ding, who eliminated Feng Tianwei of Singapore.
The two competitors have played multiple times before, with Ding winning six out of ten of their contests. However, Li is not going to let that stop her from trying for the upset. She commented:
"I'm not going to feel pressure because the gold medal is already guaranteed for our team. I will not be concerned by the underdog name."
It's expected that many million fans back in China will be watching and rooting for their favorite in this matchup. According to the #1 player, Ding, she and Li are good friends, but that probably won't factor into any pre-game plans. Ding said:
"We are quite close. It's good the Chinese people will have some much interest in us. But I will just try to concentrate. Anyway, the outcome is unpredictable."
It should be an exciting match for China, as well as Ding and Li. No matter who wins the showdown, these two women's table tennis stars will know that their country is going to have the gold medal locked up in this particular event. For those wondering about Team USA's participant, Wu Jiaduo won her 3rd round matchup 4-2 over Czech's Iveta Vacenenovska, but then fell by a score of 4-2 to Singapore Feng Tianwei on Monday. Unfortunately, table tennis just doesn't seem to get the same attention in the United States as sports like swimming, gymnastics, and basketball.
The question is, will this particular win help the overall London Olympics medal count in terms of China continuing to edge out the United States on Wednesday?
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