Petra Sorling, the first ever female president of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), reflected on the remarkable year 2024 for the sport and her vision for the future in an exclusive interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN).
The year 2024 was the busiest year in the history of table tennis, the president said, with the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals in February, followed by a series of World Table Tennis competitions, the Paris Olympics, ITTF World Youth Championships 2024 in Sweden, and the ITTF Mixed Team World Cup Chengdu 2024 -- the ultimate showdown to cap off the season.
Sorling believes the ITTF's development programs are paying off, with the organization working hard across all continents to support the growth of the sport.
"Here I believe and as ITTF president, that also our development programs pays off because we are working very hard in all the continents to support them. And also last year we had, for example, a training camp in Egypt where the Chinese expertise also came from CTTA (China Table Tennis Association) to help and support. So how we can also grow our sports and make it more diverse is actually also by teaching and educating each other. For example, in the Tokyo Olympic Games, we had four continents in the men's quarterfinals. That was for us, something that was kind of a breakthrough, where we can see that our program is working," Sorling said.
The ITTF president praised China's leadership in table tennis and its commitment to gender equality, highlighting the fame and popularity of Chinese female players like Sun Yingsha, who is now topping the ITTF women's singles rankings.
"I see, first of all, China is a leading nation in table tennis and you are actually a front runner in gender equality. We can see your female stars here. They are as much appreciated and sometimes even more, like Sun Yingsha, for example. She's so famous, she's so big and this is very encouraging for us also to spread up message around the world to make -- let's say those role models also famous -- so that other continents also promote and have role models on the female table tennis side. It’s very, very important and that's why I feel that this mixed team World Cup here is another one concrete action where actually we promote everybody's playing with the same conditions together. And for many of the female players here to play in front of a full house of spectators, it is both enjoyable and educational," she said.
Sorling believes table tennis can be a powerful tool for social change.
"I really think that table tennis is a good tool actually to change people's life, and to change people's life -- in our ITTF foundation we say table tennis for a better life. And just some weeks ago actually, we hosted a health festival, where we had table tennis as a tool for people suffering from Alzheimer and Parkinson. So we know that our sport is a sport you can play everywhere, you can play it for life. So it is very meaningful and that's also why we try also to use table tennis when there are conflicts, and we have also a long tradition as ping-pong diplomacy was already in 1971. So I strongly believe that table tennis can play a role," Sorling said.
ITTF President hails 2024 as landmark year for global table tennis
