At the Paris Games, athletes want to cheer for their competitors
Table Tennis in the U.S. at the Olympics: A Moment in the Spot: Lily Wang and Anthony Sung
Table tennis was introduced at the 1988 Summer Olympics and has been dominated by China. Out of 37 opportunities for a gold medal, Chinese athletes have won 32.
Only 11 other countries have won any medal at all. All of them are in Asia or Europe, where professional leagues and full-time training groups are robust.
The Major League Table Tennis began last year. Table tennis players in the U.S. must train and travel on their own to tournaments overseas, which are crucial to gain experience in high-level international competition.
“It’s tough. It takes away from you focusing on the table and your skills and what you need to do to improve,” Zhang said. “If we had that team around us, I think that medal is not so far-fetched anymore.”
There is a side effect to the lack of a strong culture around table tennis, which is the confidence of normal people who mistakenly think they can compete with the likes of Wang and Zhang.
It happens often enough that they’ve grown numb to the insult, they said. Wang said occasionally she relents and agrees to a match with her opponent. “Usually it’s sad for them,” she said. They know that table tennis is difficult.
“My first goal was to beat my parents, then my sister, and then it developed from there,” Zhang recalled. Each can recall when they first beat their most challenging family opponent: eight years old for Wang, 10 years old for Zhang. Sung’s twin sister was also a competitive player and she took a long time to reach that milestone. She said that it was not quick.
Their goals in Paris were modest. In the singles event she reached the round of 16, which was the best result of her career. Wang and Sung are new to Olympics and hope to return.
Source: U.S table tennis team has a moment in the spotlight, helped along by an All-Star fan
U.S. women’s table tennis played in the best-of-five finals at the Twentieth and Ninth Games
The U.S. women’s team faced Germany on Tuesday for their first match of the season. Ultimately, the U.S. lost after battling back from a 2-0 deficit to force a fifth match in the best-of-five series.
“I have noticed a lot more people actually paying attention to our sport this time around in the Olympics,” said Sung. A lot of my friends haveTexted “Oh, my God.” Like, all my other friends know about this, and they want to watch now, too.’ So I think it’s definitely the step in media that we needed.”
The table tennis players gave back the favor. A week later, the women showed up at Team USA’s practice and were excited to meet the gold medal winning team.
Where the mascot will come from? An interview with a soccer star and a member of the US Olympic women’s volleyball team
The guard for the Minnesota Wolves is not, though, being spoken of as such by a person. He believed that should they play, he would not be shut out. “Eleven to zero?” he said, incredulously. “I don’t believe it. I scored at least once.
Three women are professionals who have been playing for years at the highest level of table tennis: the 28-year-old Olympic veteran, the two new players, the 20-year-old and 21-year-old.
Hundreds of American athletes were mingling together in their blazers before the ceremony. The video opens with Steph Curry bringing a group of women to meet Anthony Edwards, who was on the USA basketball team.
It is the kind of encounter that only happens at the Olympics. An NBA star and the U.S. women’s table tennis team, engaging in some friendly trash talk.
The only person who might one-up Snoop for the biggest Olympics fan title — who also wears the honorary badge — might be Antoine Griezmann. A french soccer player couldn’t play in the Olympics due to his commitments at Attico Madrid.
If you want to know where the action is happening at a given time, you need to follow his X feed, where he issues “Alertes Medailles” when hardware is won for France. He was described as a voluntary one-man wire service by the New York Times.
Five days of competition remain. You wonder where the mascot will come from next, like a Where’s Waldo?
He’s everywhere — saddling up next to Martha Stewart at the equestrian events in Versailles, Snooping around street skateboarding and fencing, being blown away by Simone Biles’ talent.
Laudatores at the Games: Losing a Favorite Athletician: Anthony Edwards’s Game to the Women’s Team
Steph Curry, who knows his teammate has a habit of boasting his multi-sport athleticism, riled Edwards up, telling him that the team would shut him out in a game of table tennis 21-0. The person thinks he has a chance to put up a point against them.
Anthony Edwards, a charismatic member of Team USA’s basketball squad, went to a table tennis match to support the women’s team last week, enthusiastically cheering on U.S. star Lily Zhang.
The Olympic veterans have given the women, all of whom are in their first Games, some advice on handling the pressure and playing for Team USA. But Durant and James — who between them have six gold medals — are in the audience looking for pointers too. They are trying to learn 3-on-3 from us. “They’re asking us about the game.”
The support from NBA superstars means a lot to a quarter of the women’s roster. She said that they talk to us and care about how our team is doing. “We always support them and we love to watch them play. To see that reciprocated, it’s great for the game.”
Why should Olympians at the Paris Games come so early in their quest for the Olympics? — A survey of the French Open competition winners at the LHC
In between their own competitions, and despite the pressure and their busy schedules, many Olympians have made it a priority to show up for their peers at the Paris Games.