Olympics: Luxembourg Table Tennis Player Ni Xia Lian Through to 2nd Round

The 2024 Summer Olympic Games officially kicked off in Paris, France on Friday 26 July 2024.

The following day, three Team Lëtzebuerg athletes competed in the first round of the table tennis individual competitions (Round of 64).

In the men's singles, 25-year-old Luka Mladenovic lost 0-4 to his Danish opponent, Jonathan Groth. In the women's singles, 31-year-old Sarah De Nutte lost 2-4 against Portugal's Jieni Shao.

The sole Luxembourg athlete to go through to the second round was Ni Xia Lian, who won her match against Turkey's Sibel Altinkaya with a score of 4-2. The next round (Singles Round of 32) will begin on the evening of Monday 29 July 2024.

61-year-old Ni Xia Lian is competing in her sixth Olympics. Originally from China, she has played for Luxembourg since moving there in the early 1990s.

Ni Xia Lian carried the Luxembourgish flag, together with Bob Bartemes, at the opening ceremony in Paris this year.

The opening weekend also saw members of the Grand Ducal family (including Grand Duke Henri) and Luxembourg's Prime Minister, Luc Frieden, and Sports Minister, Georges Mischo, visit the Team Lëtzebuerg athletes at the Olympic Village in Paris.

Thirteen Luxembourg athletes qualified for the Paris 2024 Summer Olympic Games. Pit Klein already finished 50th with 650 points in the men's individual archery recurve ranking (pre-qualification) round, and will go up against Colombia's Santiago Arcila on Thursday 1 August 2024.

The next (confirmed) Luxembourg athletes in action are Ralph Daleiden-Ciuferri (swimming - men's 100m freestyle) and Nicolas Wagner-Ehlinger (equestrian - dressage), starting on Tuesday 30 July 2024. Further schedule details here.