Sweat beaded on Kanak Jha's forehead Thursday Day as He hunched forward, his chestnut eyes consumed by the white plastic ball, his right hand making delicate semi-circles with his ping pong paddle. He kept his left hand in the pocket of his shorts so he could pull out a different ball in the event of a mistake by him or his practice partner, so he'd never have to stop. Jha has spent most of his life completely focused and in a rush. He is an Olympian at 16, among the first United States representative created at the 2000s, the youngest member of this season's U.S. delegation and the youngest ping pong player in the case of history. He had an expert trainer at age 6. He transferred to Sweden a year ago to train and play professionally. He's the reigning U.S. champion.
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Every competition-addled man and boy in the United States has Descended into a cellar or trudged out to a garage into a tiny play pingpong. It's a sport everyone plays, and also the best player in the nation is a 16-year-old kid who likes going to the movies but can't drive himself there. In a sport dominated by Asian nations, especially China, Jha may be American's greatest hope to win its first medal in the sport, if not this Olympics than in an future Games. He needs to add strength to compete with the world's best players. Jha stands near the table to mitigate his dearth of power, and he favors his wicked forehand smash to his backhand. But when he plays with teens, those his era, from powerhouse countries, he often wins.
"He can change the game," stated Timothy Wang explained, Who's making his second Olympic appearance. "Definitely, he's got the capability to conquer them as long as he could continue working hard." Wang said he often forgets he is traveling or training using a 16-year-old. On the flight to Rio, Jha participated in an internet Monopoly game with Wang, USA Ping pong CEO Gordon Kaye and a computer-based participant. As the match progressed, Wang accumulated enough money and land that it became evident he'd win. Jha hatched a desperate, diabolical strategy - he exchanged all his resources into the computer to get nothing. "I lost to Tim, so I knew I couldn't let Tim triumph," Jha said. "I just gave everything I possessed to the computer, so the computer will win. And Tim got pretty angry."
The movement, Wang said, reflects Jha's playing style. Tenacity Is not a quality often associated with ping pong, but it has come to define Jha from the eyes of teammates. "He sort of bites on to your leg," Wang said. "Even if he is down, he is never out. It doesn't matter if he is down, 10-0. He won't just give up."
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Jha played his first match of ping pong at age 5, when he Tagged along with his sister, Prachi, and parents to a recreation centre in his hometown of San Jose. He kept playing and fell in love. He showed enough natural talent that he started entering tournaments at age 6. At one of those he met Stefan Feth, a local trainer who took him under his tutelage. The more Jha played ping pong, the more he loved it. From 2012, at age 12, Jha made the national under-15 team. He made the federal men's semifinals - in which he lost to Wang, who was then 21 - another year, at age 13.
"I never really noticed him earlier," Wang said. "In the quarterfinals, he beat a different competitor. I had been expecting to play another man. After he won, I had to totally change my game plan."
This past Year, Jha transferred to Sweden to live with his sister, who Was training in an attempt to make the Rio Games. (She finally fell short.) Every single day, he trained for 2 A' or three hours in the morning, took a rest, then drilled for the following two or three hours in the day.
"After a little while, it gets occasionally a little mentally Tiring, particularly in the event that you don't have any tournaments coming up for like three, four weeks," Jha said. "Sometimes, it simply gets exhausting ping pong practice robot."
The work paid off when Jha created the Olympic team. On his 16th birthday this past June, he threw out the first pitch in a New York Mets game. He walked off the plane to Rio with a smile plastered on his face. He Spotted Michael Phelps walking off the same elevator that he had been getting on in the Olympic Village. He found himself one place ahead of Rafael Nadal while ordering Lunch daily. Following a media conference Thursday afternoon, Jha posed on The dais while a teammate snapped a mobile phone picture. "Be sure you get The title tag," he explained. Every once in a while, Jha really does act his age.
