Even a person who knows nothing about table tennis would know after
watching the athletes play in Larkins Hall that it is a game of
concentration and quick reflexes. Athletes of all ages seem to enjoy
this sport as it is one that challenges the competitors both mentally
and physically. Table tennis is not a sport that requires as much
endurance as say track and field, but the heat of Larkins Hall did
take its toll on the athletes. Looking at it from a player's experience,
it looked like this...
Saturday morning, much too early and still stiff from prior days
events of badminton and bowling, nervousness returns. I'm no athlete,
neither before my heart transplant of 4 years ago, nor since. Later,
emotions would fill my eyes with tears when I see my age of 55 listed
on the swim event listing - the oldest by 10 years of the swimmers
in that event - emotions of joy at being alive here with family
and so many friends (both old and new - and some I haven't even
met yet) and tears as seeing that '55' in print - I've never been
here before, oldest of the pack!
Entering the gym filled with other anxious faces, the summer heat
and humidity hit you in the face. Beads of sweat form quickly and
persist despite repeated toweling. I follow the "athlete check in
here" signs. "You're playing NOW on table 4." I look up the name
of my - about to become new - friend and hope he is either very
good and will dispatch me quickly or - well, back 40 years ago,
I was a real scrapper in the neighborhood games - of course we called
it "Ping Pong" then. My wife of 33 years, now a cheerleader in the
humid bleachers, and I played many a game during our courtship back
then. Knees and muscle cramps were neither a concern nor a factor
then. Maybe I could win a match here today? Wow, could my name move
up to the next level of the '46 - 55 men's' ladder?
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AUDIO:
Listen here to an interview
with 16 year old Nick Winn of Indiana at the 1998 Games
Flashback to 1996:
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