Why is Olympic table tennis respected in Asia but not so much in the U.S.?
With Team USA table tennis heading to the Paris Olympics, its members are looking to net more love for their craft.
With Team USA table tennis heading to the Paris Olympics, its members are looking to net more love for their craft.
Members of the Olympic team say that though table tennis has long enjoyed popularity around the world, particularly in Asia, it continues to lack the respect and interest that basketball and other more mainstream sports command in the U.S. As the all-Asian American roster looks forward to playing on the world stage after Friday’s opening ceremony, pros Kanak Jha and Lily Zhang said they’re hoping to drive more awareness and smash misconceptions around the game.
“A lot of people — they don’t really understand the sport, which is why they might not respect it as much as other traditionally American sports,” Zhang, 28, told NBC News. “They don’t realize how much physicality and athleticism and mental training goes into table tennis.”
Kanak Jha of the United States at the 2021 World Table Tennis Championships Finals in Houston.Xinhua News Agency / Xinhua News Agency via Getty Images fileJha and Zhang, along with teammate Amy Wang, will begin competing Saturday, when the singles matches kick off, hoping to bring home the United States’ first medal in the sport.The all-Asian American team reflects table tennis’ popularity in the community, one that’s been growing for the past few decades. Experts have mentioned that as people from China, India and other Asian countries, who value the sport, immigrate to the U.S., their children are in large part leading the charge in drawing more eyes to it. They’ve led to more complexes being built and bigger dreams in the field.
Still, however, most in the U.S., including some within the Asian American community, continue to regard table tennis as a hobby played in family basements or at bars, rather than a game that requires rigorous preparation, the athletes say. Jha, who moved to Europe at 15 years old to pursue table tennis professionally, said the sport involves heavily physical and tactical aspects. So his training regimen is no joke, involving a mix of “explosive” speed training and strength training like weightlifting.
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