Feng Tianwei

Feng Tianwei is a retired Singaporean table tennis player.

The medal came 48 years after Tan Howe Liang won the country's first medal, a silver in weightlifting in the lightweight category at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome.

This was the first time Singapore had won an Olympic medal since its independence in 1965.

Feng was born on 31 August 1986 in Harbin, Heilongjiang, People's Republic of China.

She is the only daughter of Feng Qingzhi, a granary worker, and his wife Li Chunping, an employee of a department store.

Feng's parents, who were poor, lived frugally for years to pay for her table tennis training.

Her father suffered from multiple sclerosis, but she was not told how severe his illness was.

He died in 2002, weeks before Feng tried out for China's national B squad.

Although Feng topped the qualifying matches a month later and was called up for the national team in 2003, she suffered from a long illness; a source close to her said it was "because she missed her father too much".

Feng left China in 2005 to play in the Japanese professional league.

While there she was spotted by Liu Guodong, then a coach with the Singapore Table Tennis Association, in 2006.

Born in Harbin, China, she permanently moved to Singapore at the age of 20 under the Foreign Sports Talent Scheme in March 2007 and commenced her international career in competitive table tennis the following month.

In March 2007 she was invited to train in Singapore under the Foreign Sports Talent Scheme.

Feng made her international début for Singapore in June 2007 as an under-21 player at the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Pro Tour Volkswagen Korean Open.

As a singles player, Feng was ranked 73rd in the world in August 2007.

In 2007, she achieved a silver medal in the singles at the ITTF Pro Tour Chinese Taipei Open, her compatriot Li beating her to take the gold.

Feng represented Singapore for the first time in the Olympic Games at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

On 15 August 2008, the Singapore team comprising Feng and her teammates Li Jiawei and Wang Yuegu defeated South Korea 3–2 in the semifinals.

The team lost to China in the final, obtaining the silver medal.

This was Singapore's first Olympic medal in 48 years and its first as an independent nation.

She became a Singapore citizen in January 2008.

Feng was a member of the silver medal-winning team at the World Team Championships in Guangzhou in 2008 and defeated the top seed Zhang Yining from China in the Quarter-finals of the Asian Cup held in Sapporo between 29 and 30 March 2008, eventually achieving second place behind China's Guo Yue.

She rose to the top 10 world rankings within a year.

Feng represented Singapore for the first time at the 2008 Summer Olympics in the women's team tournament.

She contributed to Singapore's 3–2 win against South Korea in the semifinals by defeating Dang Ye-seo and Park Mi-young in two singles matches.

Feng's match against Park was closely fought, with Feng eventually overcoming Park 3–1.

Singapore was assisted by the implementation of the expedite system when the game failed to be completed in ten minutes.

The system unsettled Park, and Feng won two minutes after its introduction in the match when Park committed a service fault.

Interviewed afterwards, Feng said: "I definitely did not expect that [Park's error]. It was a surprise and the best birthday present I've ever gotten."

On 17 August 2008, Feng and her teammates achieved a silver medal in women's table tennis after losing to China in three matches.

Feng played the starting singles match, winning the first game but eventually losing to China's Wang Nan 1–3.

At the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Feng defeated Kasumi Ishikawa of Japan 4–0 to win the women's singles bronze medal, Singapore's first Olympic singles medal since the 1960 Summer Olympics.

She would later won the bronze medal at the women's team event with Li and Wang against South Korea.

This was the first time Singapore had won two medals at an Olympic Games.

On 15 March 2015, Feng defeated Zhu Yuling and Liu Shiwen at the 2015 Asian Cup in Jaipur to be crowned Asian Cup Champion for the first time.

At the same time, she broke China's 7 consecutive years of dominance in this tournament.

On 25 October 2016, the Singapore Table Tennis Association announced that it would not be renewing its contract with Feng, citing the need for rejuvenation of the national team.

However, STTA has confirmed to support her for future international competitions if she meets the selection criteria.

A few months after her exit from STTA, she went on to beat then world number one and Olympic gold medalist Ding Ning 3–2 in the Chinese Table Tennis Super League.

On 11 October 2019, Feng defeated Chen Meng, then ranked world number one, in 4 straight games, causing the biggest upset in the 2019 German Open.