The Famous 766-Shot Rally Was Not an Olympic Record
The 766-shot rally happened at the 2017 Qatar Open, not the Olympics. See a documented Olympic rally statistic and how record claims differ.
The famous 766-shot rally was not played at the Olympics. Li Jie of the Netherlands and Hitomi Sato of Japan exchanged shots for 10 minutes, 13 seconds at the 2017 Qatar Open, an ITTF World Tour event. Those figures cannot answer the Olympic-record question. NBC Sports’ contemporary report explicitly identifies the tournament.
Neither that report nor the Olympic match sheet below establishes an all-time Olympic maximum—by stroke count or duration. The distinction matters: a documented long rally is not necessarily a verified record.
Why the 766-shot rally can look like an Olympic answer
NBC’s story appeared in its Olympics section under the OlympicTalk byline and used a photograph from Rio 2016. It also described Li Jie as a Rio Olympian. But an Olympian playing a World Tour event does not make that event part of the Olympic Games. The same report places Li and Sato at the Qatar Open.
The rally began at 0–0 and was interrupted by a stray ball from a neighbouring court—not by either player missing. NPR’s report corroborates the players, tournament and interruption. So it is more precise to describe it as a 766-shot rally than a point won after 766 shots.
What an actual Olympic rally statistic looks like
London 2012’s official results book provides a useful example. In the women’s team quarterfinal between China and the Netherlands on 4 August 2012, Guo Yue defeated Li Jiao 3–0. Their detailed match sheet records:
| Scope | Longest rally, in strokes |
|---|---|
| Game 1 | 11 |
| Game 2 | 10 |
| Game 3 | 19 |
| Entire Guo Yue–Li Jiao match | 19 |
Source: London 2012 official results, page 303, retained by the LA84 Foundation.
Nineteen is the maximum for that match, not a claim to the Olympic record. The example shows why the scope matters: a match-level statistic cannot establish the longest rally across every Olympic edition.
Keep the record categories separate
“Longest” can mean most strokes or most elapsed time. A defensible Olympic record claim needs the players, Games edition, event, measurement and evidence that its scope is all-time—not simply one memorable clip or match sheet.
The Guinness endurance record is another separate category. As of 24 October 2026, its public listing gives 15 hours, 49 minutes, 35 seconds, achieved by Emil Ohlsson and Fredrik Nilsson in Malmö, Sweden, on 18 April 2025. That is not an Olympic result. Guinness World Records lists the achievement’s location and date.
For those non-Olympic comparisons, see our guide to the longest table tennis rally.