A Year in Review 2021

While 2021 proved to be another unpredictable year, it was still a historic year with plenty of things to celebrate from the past 12 months.

The largest multi-sport event, the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, saw Australia’s table tennis athletes soar to new heights, while the next generation of Australian representatives found great form on their European Tour.

Closer to home the inaugural TTA Tour - which will continue in 2022 - got underway. TTA’s participation programs including Spinneroos also continued their early successes at both club and school levels. 

Let’s take a look at the highlights of 2021!

Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games

Australia’s Olympic and Paralympic table tennis teams enjoyed an array of records and success in Tokyo.

Jian Fang Lay wrote herself into the history book after becoming one of only two Australian women to compete at six Olympic Games. In Tokyo, she matched her best result in the women’s singles by reaching the third round.  

Meanwhile, Melissa Tapper and Heming Hu became the first Australian table tennis players to compete in Mixed Doubles at the Olympic Games. The event made its Olympic debut with the Australian duo facing no.8 seed France in the Round of 16. 

The Australian Paralympic Team created further history during their time in Japan’s capital. Lina Lei and Qian Yang ended a 37-year drought when they won gold medals in the Women's Singles Class 9 and Class 10 respectively. 

The last Australian to win Paralympic gold in the sport was Terry Biggs at the Stoke Mandeville Games in New York 1984. 

That wasn’t where the records stopped. In the Men’s Team event Class 9-10, Ma Lin, Joel Coughlan and Nathan Pellissier guaranteed Australia their most successful Paralympic Table Tennis campaign after securing a semi-finals berth before going on to clinch silver. Meanwhile, the trio of Lei, Yang and Tapper claimed silver for Australia in Women's Class 9-10 Teams after conceding defeat to defending Paralympic Team Champions Poland in the final. 

Sam von Einem (Men’s Singles Class 11) and Lin Ma (Men’s Singles Class 9) also came away with silver medals. 

Tokyo marked Australia’s most successful table tennis medal haul at a Paralympic Games, with two gold and four silver medals - the previous record was one gold and three bronze in Tokyo in 1964.

National Hopes Week & Challenge

A record 58 entries from seven States/Territories took part in the four-day training camp and one-day competition at LOOPS Table Tennis from 12-16 April 2021. It also marked an important milestone in the recovery from the pandemic as the last edition in January 2020 was the final national event before COVID-19 forced the postponement and then cancellation of all other national events in 2020.  

Inaugural TTA Tour

The new concept provided a national level competition opportunity for both National Squad and non-National Squad athletes. 

While only one of the two events planned for 2021 (Sydney) could go ahead, with Melbourne being cancelled due to a COVID-19 lockdown, it was a great starting block that will enable expansion in 2022. 

TTA is looking forward to seeing players show their skills on a national level come 2022!

Participation Programs

TTA’s entry-level program, Spinneroos continue to be rolled out at both club and school level throughout Australia, including some new initiatives such as Girls Only Spinneroos. The program has continued to make its mark on Sport Australia’s Sporting Schools. The My Gender My Strength initiative with support from the International Table Tennis Federation - to help increase female participation in the sport, saw five clubs selected to host Girls Spinneroos program.

While the final participation figures aren’t set to be finalised until late-January 2022, there has been a strong rebound to approach pre-pandemic levels with more than 125,000 participants across all levels of the sport in Australia. 

What’s up with 2022?

Next year will see the return of national tournaments for table tennis in Australia. 

The TTA Tour will grow to four events, with the addition of Canberra and Brisbane, while the National Senior, Youth, Junior & Para Championships and National Veterans Championships, which were both cancelled in 2020 and 2021, are back on the cards. The National Hopes Week & Challenge is set to be bigger and better once again and the Australian Qualification Tournament for the 2022 Commonwealth Games will be hotly contested.

One of the highlights of 2022 is set to be the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham with Australia’s team looking to add to their 12 medals since the introduction of table tennis at Manchester 2002.