China’s most famous Taylor Swift fan saw his wildest dreams come to pass on Sunday afternoon when Fan Zhendong finally secured a long-sought individual Olympic gold medal. The nine-time world champion extended another Chinese gold rush in Olympic table tennis by seeing off Sweden’s Truls Möregårdh over four tense sets, adding the men’s singles title to previous wins for the country in the women’s singles and the mixed doubles with just the team events to come. China have now won 35 of the 40 gold medals and 63 of the 118 total medals since the sport was introduced to the Olympics in 1988.
The 28-year-old Fan is already a massive celebrity in China, where the sport is a national obsession. But the unapologetic Swiftie has seen his global profile explode during these Olympics thanks to unearthed social media clips that have activated the American singer’s online fanbase.
“Music is universal,” Fan wrote on Weibo this year. “Great musicians like Taylor Swift bring us healing power and confidence. I hope everyone can feel the charm from her.”
Confidence was not Fan’s problem on Sunday afternoon, even after he surprisingly dropped the opening set 11-7. All he had to do was stay within touching distance, waiting on the moment to unleash his forceful forehand when the openings surfaced. Everything changed after Fan took the second set and held off a stiff rally from Möregårdh in the third, winning both 11-9 to stake a lead of two sets to one.
“The first two games [Möregårdh] was excellent in his defence and also he was very active in his attacks,” Fan said. “So it took me a little time to get into the groove if you will, to really get into my game and then to break his rhythm. Those were the challenges.”
Fan, whose nickname Xiao Pang translates to Little Fatty, enchanted a flag-waving Chinese contingent that created a cauldron-like atmosphere in the 6,400‑seat exhibition hall with fearless shotmaking, deft footwork and arguably the world’s finest backhand to take control of the long rallies. This was him trying.
By the start of the decisive fourth set Fan was out of the woods and on course for gold.
After finally winning the title on his sixth championship point with a pinpoint backhand down the line, he pirouetted towards the sea of red with his arms crossed in satisfaction, having improved on his silver medal from three years ago. Fan’s best day was the culmination of a bejewelled career that has included 13 world championship medals and an Olympic team gold. Shortly after, he shared a song off Swift’s latest album with a lyric connoting victory: touch down.
His affection for Swift came under a wider spotlight after the semi-final win against the French teenage sensation Félix Lebrun on Friday, when a clip resurfaced of the Guangzhou native crushing the bridge of Cruel Summer while surrounded by Swift fans – all the more extraordinary given Fan rarely conducts interviews in English. Before long Swifties worldwide began superimposing Fan’s face on Swift posters and stickers in a show of support for the former world No 1.
🇨🇳｜Chinese table tennis player and Olympic champion, Fan Zhendong, went to #SingaporeTSTheErasTour and crossed the bridge of Cruel Summer. pic.twitter.com/LkgVg98Eup
— 🇨🇳🤍Taylor Swift China (@tayswiftchina) March 9, 2024
That Fan’s historic win happened in August, the title of one of Swift’s songs, was not lost on a fandom whose penchant for numerology, Easter eggs and broader tasseography has become the stuff of folklore.
But table tennis is serious business in mainland China and Fan’s fandom has not always been so generously received. It came under a harsh spotlight in March, when he was upset by his then 18‑year‑old compatriot Lin Shidong in a World Table Tennis event in Singapore. Online critics attributed the defeat to Fan’s attendance at the Eras Tour days earlier at the Singapore National Stadium, prompting him to defend himself on social media.
“I am an athlete cultivated by my country,” Fan said. “It’s my duty to fight for the country and I’ve never slacked on this for more than 10 years. In my free time, I am just an ordinary young man. I have normal hobbies and I have my social network. I will continue to be true to my heart under the premise of following the law and the rules.”
It is possible that Fan, who has been troubled by the behaviour of obsessive fans, can relate all too well to the darker side of the mania surrounding Swift. Last year he called on his millions of followers to “be rational and boycott fandom culture” after someone broke into his Beijing hotel room and stole his underwear, posting on Weibo: “I beg my fans to allow me to be an ordinary person.”
All of that was a distant memory on Sunday, though, when Fan hauled in the one title that has eluded him.
His triumph was the main event of a session during which Lebrun won France’s first Olympic table tennis medal in 24 years. The 17-year-old with the square‑rimmed glasses and anachronistic penhold grip, who has become one of the breakout stars of these Paris Olympics, swept aside Brazil’s Hugo Calderano in the bronze-medal match in front of a rollicking crowd that sounded airhorns and held French tricolor flags aloft with each point.
The highest-ranked men’s player outside China, Lebrun’s success – including a run in the doubles with his older brother, Alexis – made him an overnight celebrity in the host country. Zinedine Zidane came to watch the brothers on Wednesday, while the USA basketball star Tyrese Haliburton posted on X: “The Lebrun brothers are electric.” Spectators and press turned away by the stewards packed the gangways, craning to get pictures from the stairs.
After winning France’s second ever Olympic medal in the men’s singles and the first since Jean-Philippe Gatien took silver in 1992, he took a victory lap in front of the adoring masses. Yet in the end the day belonged to Fan, an Olympic champion for ever and always.
