Indian American Kanak Jha Becomes First U.S. Table Tennis Player to Reach Last 16 at Paris Olympics

Kanak Jha secured the U.S. its best Olympic run in men’s table tennis by reaching the last 16 at the Paris Olympic Games yesterday (July 31). In the next round he, however, lost 4-0 to Tokyo silver medalist Fan Zhendong. 

At the round 16 game, Jha, the 120th-ranked player in the world, beat Panagiotis Gionis of Greece 4-2, the Associated Press reported. 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, who trains and mostly plays in Germany, is a five-time U.S. national champion, and Pan American champion. 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. 

When he returned from his suspension, Jha had no ranking points. He had to compete in two separate trials to earn a spot in Paris. He started a GoFundme to help cover costs for training, travel, accommodation, and hiring a private coach. “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 struggle to make it to the Olympics in Paris is indicative of the plight of table tennis in the U.S. The AP notes that while there are “well-established professional leagues both in Europe and Asia, the U.S. only launched its own league — Major League Table Tennis — last year, founded by software entrepreneur and table tennis enthusiast Flint Lane.

“For the men’s side there were no real high-level training groups that you can train full-time in,” Jha said. “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.”

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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.

Meanwhile, USA Table Tennis told AP that it has been “taking steps to grow the sport and improve conditions for athletes  back home.” It said it “has been increasing funding and growing participation in the sport over the past few years,” and designated two national training centers for Olympic and Paralympic athletes as “the building blocks to our future success.”

(Photo, World Table Tennis X page)