Category profile
- Dominance
- 86
- Peak
- 92
- Longevity
- 80
- Honours
- 88
- Statistics
- 86
Career timeline · Titles per season
| Season | Titles per season | Share of career |
|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 2 | |
| 2000 | 3 | |
| 2001 | 4 | |
| 2002 | 3 | |
| 2003 | 4 | |
| 2004 | 5 | |
| 2005 | 4 | |
| 2006 | 4 | |
| 2007 | 3 | |
| 2008 | 5 | |
| 2009 | 3 | |
| 2010 | 2 | |
| 2011 | 2 | |
| 2012 | 1 | |
| 2013 | 1 |
Data sources
- ITTF
- Olympedia
Figures come from public records and are normalised per sport. See the methodology for category weights. Method
Why Ma Lin ranks #7 in Table Tennis
Ma Lin ranks 7th among Table Tennis athletes on GOAT Rank and 756th of 1063 across every sport in the index. The published GOAT Score of 86.4 is the weighted result of five verified category scores: Dominance 86, Peak 92, Longevity 80, Honours 88, Statistics 86. Those categories are normalised against the full Table Tennis reference universe of 295 records, not a shortlist, so the position reflects the whole sport rather than a handful of famous names.
The record covers 1998–2013 with 15 documented competitive seasons. The strongest single season in that series is 2004, 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 olympic golds 3, world cup titles 4, world championship team golds 5, olympic singles titles 1.
Immediately ahead sits Fan Zhendong on 88.5, a gap of 2.1 points. Directly behind is Jun Mizutani on 84.9. 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.
Ma Lin GOAT Score explained
- Dominance86/100 · weight 25%
- Measures how far Ma Lin 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 2004. Scored 92/100.
- Longevity80/100 · weight 20%
- Rewards staying at that level over time: 15 years of competition and 15 recorded seasons. Scored 80/100.
- Honours88/100 · weight 20%
- Counts documented titles, majors and awards in the verified record. Scored 88/100.
- Statistics86/100 · weight 15%
- Normalises the raw career numbers against everyone in the sport reporting the same metric. Scored 86/100.
Top Ma Lin comparisons
Ma Lin — frequently asked
- Is Ma Lin the GOAT?
- Not on the current data. Ma Lin ranks 7th in Table Tennis with a GOAT Score of 86.4, behind Ma Long on 97.3.
- What is Ma Lin's GOAT Score?
- 86.4 out of 100. It is the weighted sum of Dominance 86 (25%), Peak 92 (20%), Longevity 80 (20%), Honours 88 (20%), Statistics 86 (15%), computed from the verified career record.
- Where does Ma Lin rank all time?
- 756th of 1063 eligible athletes in the cross-sport index, and 7th within Table Tennis.
- Ma Lin vs Fan Zhendong: who ranks higher?
- Fan Zhendong, on 88.5 against Ma Lin's 86.4 — a margin of 2.1 points.