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U.S. OLYMPICS TEAM Kanak Jha, 21, is the top-ranked U.S. table tennis player. |
No other Olympic sport has a greater Asian American presence than table tennis. All six members and the two alternates are Asian Americans.
The highest-ranked player is 21-year old Kanak Jha, ranked No. 25 in the world. Among the women, Lilly Zhang is ranked No. 28. Both were on the U.S. team in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
Other members of the U.S. Olympic team are:
- Juan Liu
- Huijing Wang
- Nikhil Kumar
- Xin Zhou
- Alternates - Chen Wang & Yijun Feng
No American has ever won an Olympic medal in the sport dominated by China but both Zhang and Jha earned Youth Olympic bronze medals.
“The U.S has never been very strong in table tennis, so for me to win a medal for the U.S. is amazing," said Jha.
“For me and Lily to both win a medal shows, that the U.S. is slowly getting better and can hopefully do well at the senior level in the future.”
“The U.S has never been very strong in table tennis, so for me to win a medal for the U.S. is amazing," said Jha.
“For me and Lily to both win a medal shows, that the U.S. is slowly getting better and can hopefully do well at the senior level in the future.”
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U.S. TABLE TENNIS The United States table tennis team members and their coaches will compete at the Tokyo Olympics. |
Kumar, 17, is the youngest member of the team. He became the first American born in in this century to qualify for an Olympics.
Wang, 39, is set to become the second-oldest woman U.S. Olympic table tennis player since it was added to the program in 1988. Liu is a former Chinese national team player who became a U.S. citizen in 2016, according to TeamUSA.org.
Wang, 39, is set to become the second-oldest woman U.S. Olympic table tennis player since it was added to the program in 1988. Liu is a former Chinese national team player who became a U.S. citizen in 2016, according to TeamUSA.org.
While Jha and Zhang are the highest ranked U.S. players, Liu may be the surprise for the U.S. team.
Liu, who became a citizen of the U.S. in 2016 and is co-owner of the New York Indoor Sports Club in College Point, has become one of the most dominant players in the U.S. She won both the national championship and US Open title in 2018, and reached the US Open semifinals in 2019. She has not lost to a U.S. woman, and she helped the U.S. defeat Canada last year to lock down a team quota spot for Tokyo.
While she was still in China, Liu played in the Super League for almost 10 years. Now, in New York, it’s a balance of table tennis and family. She didn’t even know until last year whether she would be eligible for the Olympics as a U.S. athlete.
“The high level of competition and training really have helped me a lot in recovering my physical condition and training technique, but the game and the skills have developed since the time when I was in the national team in China, so I still have to work on many things,” Liu said.
Liu, who became a citizen of the U.S. in 2016 and is co-owner of the New York Indoor Sports Club in College Point, has become one of the most dominant players in the U.S. She won both the national championship and US Open title in 2018, and reached the US Open semifinals in 2019. She has not lost to a U.S. woman, and she helped the U.S. defeat Canada last year to lock down a team quota spot for Tokyo.
While she was still in China, Liu played in the Super League for almost 10 years. Now, in New York, it’s a balance of table tennis and family. She didn’t even know until last year whether she would be eligible for the Olympics as a U.S. athlete.
“The high level of competition and training really have helped me a lot in recovering my physical condition and training technique, but the game and the skills have developed since the time when I was in the national team in China, so I still have to work on many things,” Liu said.
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