How it unfolded
On August 11, 2016, at Riocentro Pavilion 3, 27-year-old Ma Long beat defending champion Zhang Jike 4-0. Ma had already won the 2015 World Championships in Suzhou and the World Cup in both 2012 and 2015, and this gold completed a career Grand Slam across the World Championships, World Cup and Olympics. He became only the fourth man to do so, after Liu Guoliang, Kong Linghui and Zhang Jike. For a long time, Ma had carried a reputation for folding on the biggest stages, having failed to clear the semifinal at the 2011 and 2013 World Championships and not even competing in singles at the London 2012 Olympics. The Rio final completely overturned that reputation. Ma attacked early on the return of serve, never giving Zhang's powerful backhand a chance to settle, and took all four games. After the final point he dropped to his knees beside the table and spread his arms, declaring the start of his own era.
Why it still matters
This is the moment the argument over the sport's greatest player was effectively settled. Ma went on to defend his singles title at Tokyo 2020, becoming the only man to win two or more of each of the sport's three major titles, and by Paris 2024 had accumulated six Olympic golds including team events, making him the most decorated Olympic table tennis player in history. Rio's 4-0 marked the turning point of that career and the moment China's men's program passed from the Wang Liqin-Ma Lin generation to the Ma Long-Fan Zhendong generation.