THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 25, 1996 TAG: 9607250536
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: Olympics '96: from Atlanta
SOURCE: Tom Robinson
LENGTH: 74 lines
You have played Ping-Pong. I have played Ping-Pong. Amy Feng plays table tennis. And believe me, never the two shall meet.
At the Georgia World Congress Center on Wednesday, eight tables were going at once. It was tons of table tennis. Olympic-sized table tennis. Almost too much table tennis to behold.
It was the women's singles competition, and the ticks and tocks of our familiarity were buried by thwacks, squeals, service tosses as high as 10 feet and viciously spinning orange balls.
Feng, America's best women's player, did her part. She toasted her Slovakian foe in two sets in the big basement that is the underground World Congress Center.
Every four years, this is what happens to table tennis and the other unloved Olympic sports. It rises from suburban cellars, snags maybe a flash of network time, enjoys polite applause from people who couldn't get basketball tickets, then returns to the cult status by which most Americans know it.
``Prime Sports taped our U.S. Open three weeks ago,'' says Trish Downing, spokeswoman for USA Table Tennis, ``but when they're going to run it, I don't know. Probably as filler at 2 a.m., unfortunately.''
Oh, well. It is what it is - a sport many have played but few short of Forrest Gump, that ficticious table tennis machine, appreciate as an elite athletic challenge.
``A lot of people relate to Forrest Gump when they talk to me,'' says U.S. singles player Jim Butler, who starts round-robin play today. ``It brought us a fair share of publicity.''
That soon faded. USA Table Tennis' official rolls list about 7,500 players, though Downing says about 20 million have played the game. Contrast that with table tennis power China, where an estimated 60 million actively play in schools, clubs and even the streets.
Feng, 27, used to be one of them. So were three of the other five U.S. Olympians - Lily Yip, Wei Wang and David Zhuang, as well as coach Zhenshi Li, all China-born.
Because so many Chinese have left their homeland for greater opportunity, these Olympics have an even thicker Oriental feel. While all medal winners could be Chinese, they won't necessarily represent China.
Feng, ranked 45th in the world, is not considered a medal threat. But Feng, in America since 1992 and a U.S. citizen since February, probably would not be an Olympian had she not left China.
She began to sour on the favoritism in the Chinese system 10 years ago when she was second in the national finals but not chosen to play in the world championships. In '92, when Feng visited friends in Rockville, Md., she never left.
She took various jobs, got married and rose to the top of the U.S. roster from the clubs that exist in the D.C. area, as they do in other large Asian-American areas such as San Francisco and New York.
In the clubs, Feng says she sees mostly men, older ones at that. Which is one of many things that must change if native-born Americans are to boost the U.S. table tennis profile.
``They don't have the whole system,'' says Feng, who was playing two hours a day when she was 8. ``A lot of kids, they want to play, but they don't have place to go. We don't have enough table tennis club, enough coach to support them to play.
``I see people over 20 years old, they just start playing. They can keep their hobby, but you never can become professional player. It's just too late.''
That's why USA Table Tennis is developing ways to get into elementary and high school physical education classes, and into organized clubs at colleges.
There, at least to start, it can even be pedestrian Ping-Pong. Kids have to walk before they learn to whap! ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS photo
Lily Yip of the U.S. on Wednesday continued her march through the
double-elimination portion of the table tennis competition.
KEYWORDS: OLYMPICS by CNB