US Table Tennis, a sport in the US that has faces many struggles and in which the US has never medaled, has gotten a huge lift in visibility during the Paris Olympics. This viral video from the day of the Olympics Opening Ceremony started this process, as this NPR article points out, The notoriety from NBA players definitely helped, but there are some other very notable achievements from this team composed completely of Asian Americans.
Table Tennis players in the US, as I mentioned, face a number of difficult challenges. Until last year, there were no US professional Table Tennis leagues until the formation of Major League Table Tennis. US players needed to go overseas to Asia or Europe to get experience against high level competition. In the NPR article, the US’s best table tennis player Lily Zhang says that the lack of a professional table tennis culture makes people think that they, like Anthony Edwards, can complete with the her and her teammates:
You wouldn’t go up to Michael Phelps or Simone Biles and be like, ‘Hey, I could beat you in swimming or doing a flip.’ Because people don’t see professional table tennis, they don’t realize what goes into it.
You can see this lack of respect and surprise when they realize at what a high level when the team members Amy Wang and Rachel Sung were featured on Good Morning America and The Today Show.
Individual team members have had their own unique challenges. Lily Zhang’s parents pressure her to get a more stable job. I can just hear that kind of discussion coming from Asian American parents! Kanak Jha lost a year of competition because of a failed drug test. He wasn’t caught using drugs – he forgot to add a 1 (US country code) to his phone number on a form and missed the required test.
Some of the visibility I mentioned comes from the respect shown by more famous athletes. Anthony Edwards, to his credit, went to watch Lily Zhang’s match and was cheering enthusiastically. Steph Curry also showed them much respect by having the Women’s Team sign a ping pong ball for him (see video below).
More importantly, Team USA Table Tennis made some progress. While winning no medals, Lily Zhang managed to reach the round of 16. Kanak Jha also reached the round of 16, making his Olympic run the best ever for a Team USA male Table Tennis player.
