Category profile
- Dominance
- 86
- Peak
- 92
- Longevity
- 76
- Honours
- 90
- Statistics
- 88
Career timeline · Titles per season
| Season | Titles per season | Share of career |
|---|---|---|
| 1979 | 50 | |
| 1980 | 62 | |
| 1981 | 74 | |
| 1982 | 85 | |
| 1983 | 97 | |
| 1984 | 87 | |
| 1985 | 76 | |
| 1986 | 66 | |
| 1987 | 56 | |
| 1988 | 45 | |
| 1989 | 35 |
Data sources
- ITTF official records
- World Table Tennis rankings
- Olympedia
Figures come from public records and are normalised per sport. See the methodology for category weights. Method
Why Cai Zhenhua ranks #12 in Table Tennis
Cai Zhenhua ranks 12th among Table Tennis athletes on GOAT Rank and 3251st of 4013 across every sport in the index. The published GOAT Score of 86.3 is the weighted result of five verified category scores: Dominance 86, Peak 92, Longevity 76, Honours 90, Statistics 88. Those categories are normalised against the full Table Tennis reference universe of 291 records, not a shortlist, so the position reflects the whole sport rather than a handful of famous names.
The record covers 1979–1989 with 11 documented competitive seasons. The strongest single season in that series is 1983, which sets the Peak component at 92. Peak is the defining strength of the profile at 92 out of 100, and it carries 20% of the final score. The underlying career record includes world team titles 4, world doubles titles 2, world cup medals 2, asian championship titles 3.
Immediately ahead sits Ma Lin on 86.4, a gap of 0.1 points. Directly behind is Ni Xialian on 86.2. The position moves whenever the verified record moves: new titles, new seasons or a corrected source all feed straight back into the same formula, and every change is dated on this profile.
Cai Zhenhua GOAT Score explained
- Dominance86/100 · weight 25%
- Measures how far Cai stood above the field while competing. Scored 86/100 against the full Table Tennis cohort.
- Peak92/100 · weight 20%
- Rates the best sustained stretch of the career, centred on 1983. Scored 92/100.
- Longevity76/100 · weight 20%
- Rewards staying at that level over time: 10 years of competition and 11 recorded seasons. Scored 76/100.
- Honours90/100 · weight 20%
- Counts documented titles, majors and awards in the verified record. Scored 90/100.
- Statistics88/100 · weight 15%
- Normalises the raw career numbers against everyone in the sport reporting the same metric. Scored 88/100.
Top Cai comparisons
Cai Zhenhua — frequently asked
- Is Cai Zhenhua the GOAT?
- Not on the current data. Cai Zhenhua ranks 12th in Table Tennis with a GOAT Score of 86.3, behind Ma Long on 97.3.
- What is Cai Zhenhua's GOAT Score?
- 86.3 out of 100. It is the weighted sum of Dominance 86 (25%), Peak 92 (20%), Longevity 76 (20%), Honours 90 (20%), Statistics 88 (15%), computed from the verified career record.
- Where does Cai Zhenhua rank all time?
- 3251st of 4013 eligible athletes in the cross-sport index, and 12th within Table Tennis.
- Cai Zhenhua vs Ma Lin: who ranks higher?
- Ma Lin, on 86.4 against Cai Zhenhua's 86.3 — a margin of 0.1 points.