However, Tokyo silver medallist Fan Zhendong defeated the 24-year-old in the following round.
Yesterday, July 31, at the Olympic Games in Paris, Kanak Jha made history by becoming the first American to advance to the round of 16 in men’s table tennis. In the next round he, however, lost 4-0 to Tokyo silver medalist Fan Zhendong.
The 120th-ranked player in the world, Jha, defeated Greece’s Panagiotis Gionis 4-2 in the round of 16 match, according to the Associated Press. The 24-year-old Indian American said he was “feeling relieved,” after winning the “tough” match. Earlier, he became the first U.S. male table tennis player to reach round 32 at the olympic games since since Jimmy Butler in 1992.
Jha is a five-time U.S. national champion and a Pan American champion who trains and competes primarily in Germany. He also made a quarterfinal appearance in the world championship. This is Jha’s third time in the Olympics as he also competed in Rio in 2016 and Tokyo in 2021. He was 16 when he qualified for the Rio Olympics in 2016, as the youngest member of Team USA. But lost early. Five years later, in Tokyo, he again lost early.
He was on track to make it to the Olympics for a third time, but a suspension in March 2023, almost sent him back to square one, causing him to miss 17 months of his career. Being cut off from his source of income, he went home to Milpitas, California, and practiced, prepared, and hoped.
Jha had no ranking points upon his return from suspension. He had to compete in two separate trials to earn a spot in Paris. To assist with paying for training, travel, lodging, and hiring a private coach, he established a GoFundMe page. “Every dollar was spent in preparation for this Olympics,” he told Sports Illustrated. He told the Associated Press that “it’s impossible to be a professional table tennis player living in the U.S. financially.”
Jha’s battle to qualify for the Paris Olympics serves as a metaphor for the state of table tennis in the United States. Although there are “well-established professional leagues both in Europe and Asia,” the United States only started Major League Table Tennis last year. Flint Lane, a software entrepreneur and table tennis enthusiast, founded the league. This is according to the AP.
There were not any true elite training groups for men that you could train in full-time, according to Jha. “Now there are also a few starting up, so it’s coming slowly, but you still cannot compare it with Asia and Europe, which have huge systems in place for the sport.”
It’s a similar story for the women. Lily Zhang, who lost in the round of 16 in Paris this week, told the AP that she “would love to see more being done for the sport” in the U.S. She works part-time — for her sponsor — “to be able to make enough money to train and compete,” the AP added.
In the meantime, “taking steps to grow the sport and improve conditions for athletes back home” is what USA Table Tennis told the AP. It named two national training centers for Olympic and Paralympic athletes as “the building blocks to our future success” and stated that it “has been increasing funding and growing participation in the sport over the past few years.”
