For many table tennis fans, the winner of the men’s singles Olympic gold this year in Paris 2024 will undoubtedly be a player from the People’s Republic of China. In the end, Chinese players make up the top five worldwide rankings.

The question that remains, though, is who will do it: Will Fan Zhendong, the silver medallist in the singles competition at Tokyo 2020, or Wang Chuqin, the current world number one, be the man?

Fan was defeated by the renowned Ma Long in the Tokyo final; Wang, the new kid on the block who won gold at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires 2018—would be competing in his first “adult” Olympics at the age of 24 after being left off of the Tokyo team competition.

Wang seems like the obvious choice, since Fan’s form appears to be hitting a rough patch and Ma is not anticipated to compete in the singles event in Paris. After all, he is a player who, in 2019, at the age of 19, defeated Ma in doubles to win the world championship.

But in a recent interview with World Table Tennis and Olympics.com, Wang claims he did not place much value on his ranking as the second-best player in the world, ahead of his previous doubles partner.

“Perhaps your accomplishments over the last year are reflected in the world ranking,” he muses. “It is not an easy feat to come in second, particularly with my teammates and the level rising. Based on my results over the past year, reaching second (at the time) was pretty good. That’s all it is.”

But there might be more to it than that, as Fan has dropped behind Wang once more in the standings and Wang has added another title, the Singapore Smash, to his collection.