This story aired in the August 28, 2025 episode of Crosscurrents.
In the U.S., table tennis often gets overlooked — seen more as a casual game than a competitive sport. But a new pro league is looking to change that.
Major League Table Tennis is opening its third season this September 5th at the Alameda County Fairgrounds. And one decorated Bay Area athlete is helping lead the charge for the sport to be taken seriously.
We go court-side to meet this four-time Olympian and find out how she is still able to find joy in the game.
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Story Transcript:
REPORTER: For a lot of fans, the game looks chaotic. Fast breaks, full contact, bodies flying. But, not all sports are built the same. With table tennis, there’s a different kind of rhythm. For the players it can still feel chaotic. You have to perform your best in front of everyone, every night. But there’s also a peace in it that comes with the love of the game. For someone like Lily Zhang, this game –– the chaos and the calm –– is where she rediscovers herself.
SPORTS ANNOUNCER EVAN LEPLER: Good evening and welcome again everybody. Evan Lepler alongside Sean O'Neill.
REPORTER: It’s mid-way through season 2 for the first ever table tennis league in the U.S. and it’s being played right here in the Bay. The bleachers are crowded with fans and everyone is excited to see the hometown hero.
EVAN: There's no doubt what the big story of the day is. Four time Olympian Lily Zhang makes her return to Major League Table Tennis, her first appearance for season two. What do you expect from Lily?
REPORTER: It’s fitting that Lily is making her first appearance this season right here, where she grew up. Last year in Pleasanton, this was the place she lit up the crowd with multiple dramatic wins.
Flint Lane, who started this professional league is sitting courtside, overseeing tonight’s event.
FLINT LANE: I've been a recreational table tennis player my whole life.
REPORTER: Flint is the founder of several successful tech companies. However, after the last one was acquired, he found himself at a crossroads.
FLINT: I decided it would be exciting to start the first professional table tennis league in this country. And that was March 1st, 2023, and we were off to the races. So we're now a year and a half in.
REPORTER: Major League Table Tennis now has ten teams from across the country competing in a unique format. Combining men’s and women’s singles, doubles, and a fast-paced tiebreaker called the “Golden Game.” It’s fast, loud, and fan-friendly. More than just ping pong in a basement. The league is designed to elevate the sport, by introducing table tennis to the U.S. as a serious game giving elite players a real stage.
FLINT: If you think about the Bay Area, you don't go to a Golden State Warriors game. You go to a Steph Curry game. When the Bay Area Blasters are playing, they want to see homegrown product, Lily Zhang the Olympian, come play. So, teams are just an assembly of personalities.
REPORTER: Being a personality comes with pressure. So before the lights, before the cheers, before the game. There's always a moment of silence. A chance to check in with yourself and ask, why am I still doing this?
LILY ZHANG: I think for me it's reminding myself why I started playing. Why I first picked up the paddle, why I wanted to play more, why it became my dream to go to the Olympics and try to channel that because sometimes you lose yourself in the results. So, for me, it's just really taking a big step back and finding the “little me.” Asking her, why do you like playing?
REPORTER: You see, throughout life, sometimes we forget the why. Why we do what we do? When you’re grinding nonstop, chasing goals, chasing greatness, sometimes that love begins to fade. Even someone like Lily, a four time Olympian, six time U.S. women’s singles champ has experienced burnout. When that happens it’s important to reflect and rewind, not to the tournaments or trophies. To the roots, where a 7 year old Lily found joy playing table tennis with her parents.
LILY: They are both from China. Table tennis is China's national sport. Everyone plays for fun.
REPORTER: For Lily, that fun started in an unlikely place. Her family was living on Stanford’s college campus at the time and in the laundry room, there was a ping pong table.
LILY: So every time we went to go do laundry, I would just play there with them just to kill time.
REPORTER: But she didn't start taking the sport more seriously until she was about the age of 9.
LILY: That's when a friend took me to like a local table tennis club. I started actually taking lessons and started really loving it
REPORTER: That’s when the game becomes more: when you fall in love with it competitively. It becomes the chase and with chasing greatness means saying no to things that may get in the way. So, the days of her doing normal kid things per se, were over.
LILY: Instead of hanging out with friends and going to concerts. I was always practicing and flying abroad to tournaments. I actually missed maybe a third to a half of school every year.
REPORTER: It was a different kind of childhood. One where plane tickets replaced study groups and training sessions replaced teenage memories. However, that sacrifice paid off because at the age of 16 she participated in the 2013 Olympic games.
She spoke with KALW 12 years ago right before heading to London.
LILY ZHANG KALW ARCHIVE TAPE: Hi, I am Lily Zhang and I'm from Palo Alto. When I was 9 or 10, my dream became to go to the Olympics
REPORTER: Even at this age, she had big dreams.
LILY ZHANG KALW ARCHIVE TAPE: Well, I think this year since I'm still pretty young,I think that I have still a few more tries and so this time I'm just gonna try and go out there and play my best, hopefully beat a few people. In the future, I kind of wanna win a medal for the U.S.
REPORTER: Today, over a decade later. I played those same exact words back to her.
LILY: It's really wonderful to hear that even my little self had that mindset. I think for a little while I lost that and I started putting that pressure on myself. That's why I experienced a lot of burnout and negative effects.
REPORTER: After competing in her second Olympics in Rio, Lily chose to step away and live a “normal” life for a while. Attending school, the college lifestyle. Her parents had always emphasized education and she didn’t see a clear path forward in table tennis. So she let the dream go but sometimes what’s “normal” isn’t right.
LILY: I felt like something was really missing in my life and I couldn't put words to it. It felt pretty empty like day to day.
REPORTER: So, in 2018 after Lily graduated, she decided to go all in. No more juggling school and training, no backup plan. Just table tennis.
However, the path forward was still blurry. There wasn’t a major table tennis league in the U.S. yet. So, she had to move overseas to Europe to pursue professional table tennis fully. That is until two years ago, when aMajor Table Tennis league was finally launched here in the U.S.
Which brings us back to the present, this game in Pleasanton. Lily is all in and that means giving up that “normal” life again to be the face of the league.
LILY: Cause we have to travel so much. So, it's giving up that consistency or stability with friends and family.
REPORTER: For elite athletes, the pressure isn’t just from the outside, it’s on the inside. Being good isn’t good enough.
LILY: It's win or nothing a lot of the times.It kind of feels like life or death sometimes. As dramatic as that sounds,it feels like that in the moment.
REPORTER: Over time, Lily has realized that the mindset of win or nothing can leave you empty. Especially when the little Lily who played for the love of the game gets lost in all the pressure.
LILY: I think what is most important is to go back to that mindset and try to remind myself of that every day. So, that's what I'm doing right now. Trying to not put enormous goals onto myself and just try to enjoy the sport and see where it takes me.
REPORTER: It has taken her all around the world competing in multiple Olympics. Now she’s playing professionally in the Bay Area where she grew up. Even though Lily has accomplished so much, maybe Lily’s biggest win isn’t just about victories. It’s about returning to the joy. To the love of the game. To the reason she started in the first place.
