From China to Rio: A Millennial's View of the Games

(ATR) Your millennial reporter Emma Li learns about table tennis’s plans to reach the young generation through new social competitions.

I almost never watch table tennis. I found myself watching the Olympics women’s finals happen in front of me, and I was drawn in.Swoosh, spin, smash, and swing. Oh, you thought she was going to hit it this way? Nope, it’s a smash to the other side. What is she thinking of next?

While I was captivated by the fast-paced match, I couldn’t help but notice the age of my fellow audience members. A look around the arena told me they ranged from mid-30s to graying hair. Where are my young people at?

Organizations around the world are trying hard to appeal to the young generation. The International Table Tennis Federation is no exception. To find out more about the lack of youth interest, I talked to the ITTF marketing director Steve Dainton.

I wonder why millennials like me don’t keep up with table tennis. He thinks it’s because professional table tennis is too complicated. The format is too formal and the technicalities aren’t exactly easy to understand.

"The IOC was telling us we need to appeal to the youth," Dainton said, "But we can’t just expect young people to like what we’re doing. We have to do what young people like."

The ITTF are planning on something quite different to lure young people in. It’s called Table Tennis X or just TTX. TTX plans to host lively social events that will feature DJs and possibly plenty of alcoholic drinks. It can be a night out with your squad on the beach, or in a downtown bar. People will basically play amateur table tennis with fewer rules, easier equipment, and more color. You get a bigger ball and a personalized paddle, so no more just black or red.

I must say, traditional table tennis does not have the most pleasing aesthetics. Even though I suck at table tennis and would never make it to the top in TTX, I’ll just design a paddle prettier than my opponents and beat their sense of style. Plus, participation is key.

"This is not for the table tennis people," Dainton added, "This is for the outside—people who are playing in the basement, the champion of the street, or people who think they are the best."

I could think of a few people off the top of my head that think they’re fire at table tennis. Are they really? I know they would love the challenge to prove themselves.

To be honest, when I first heard Dainton start talking about it, it sounded to me like some middle-aged people trying to sound hip and cool. The longer I thought about it, I keep picturing TTX as a something my friends and I would give a shot at. Maybe even an activity we look forward to.

The TTX project is still in beginning stages. The website and the idea is up, but not much more. The next step for the ITTF is to come up with the event structure.

Something tells me that there needs to be more to it than just changing the format of table tennis if you want to appeal to millennials. There actually is interest for table tennis among us, but for some reason, it isn’t carrying through beyond game rooms and basements. A lot of my friends love playing table tennis and watching other people play, but we’ve never followed the professional games. Furthermore, now fewer millennials are hoping to participate in table tennis, professionally or not. The decrease is especially noticeable in youth from China, the country that currently dominates table tennis. Why is that?

I also have a feeling the complexity of professional table tennis isn’t the only problem. After watching the women’s finals, I went to watch fencing, another one-on-one sport. Fencing is by no means easy to understand, and the technicalities are much more complicated than I have space here to explain. But fencing has been growing in popularity significantly, especially among young people. At fencing events, I often sit in the crowd among other young people, many of who don’t really understand the rules but love to watch. We have heated discussions and it’s always a blast.

But this upward popularity trend isn’t happening with table tennis and some other sports that young people really should be interested in. How can you successfully appeal to my generation? I don’t know, but a good place to start is keeping an open mind to new ideas and change.

To sustain the flame of the Olympic Movement, we will have to hand the torch on to the future generation. We can begin by kindling their burning passion for sports.

Hi! My name is Emma Li and I'm a 17-year-old student at an international high school in Shanghai, China. I love journalism, fencing, and puppies. I'm at the Rio Olympics as a summer intern for Around the Rings, and I'll be publishing a blog post everyday about my experiences at the Olympics from the unique perspective of a millennial.

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