Table Tennis Players Feeling Right at Home in Paris

PARIS, Jul. 24 (Korea Bizwire) — After flying 14 hours to Paris, the South Korean table tennis team for the upcoming Olympics has found a home away from home in the French capital.

The players have been training in South Paris Arena 4, their competition venue, since Sunday. And when they first walked into the arena, they were all struck by the familiarity.

From its size to the tables used for competition, the arena reminded them of the special table tennis venue set up inside the Busan Exhibition and Convention Center (BEXCO) in South Korea’s southeastern port city of Busan during the world championships in February.

“The atmosphere here is quite similar to BEXCO from the world championships,” Joo Sae-hyuk, head coach of the men’s team in Paris, said Tuesday. “As soon as the players arrived here, they said, ‘This feels just like Busan.’”

South Paris Arena is an exhibition and convention center, just like BEXCO. Organizers have split the hall No. 4 in half, using one as a training venue for the players and the other as a competition zone with four tables surrounded by spectator stands.

Players accustomed to competing inside smaller gyms may need some time to get their bearings at South Paris Arena, but it likely won’t be the case for South Koreans.

Joo noted that even the tables are familiar.

DHS Rainbow II will be the official table in Paris. DHS also supplied official tables for the 2023 Asian championships held in South Korea in September, and also the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, later the same month.

The Korea Table Tennis Association purchased DHS tables after the Asian championships, so that its athletes could train with them for the Asian Games. South Korea won eight medals in Hangzhou, including its first gold since 2002.

Joo hopes his players’ experience with DHS tables will lead to similarly strong results in Paris.

“Even on the same model of tables, the ball tends to bounce a bit differently because of tiny differences on their surfaces,” Joo said. “But tables here have similar surfaces as the ones we trained on back home.”

With China once again expected to dominate the competition, South Korea is chasing medals in the men’s and women’s team events, and the mixed doubles.

South Korea has been shut out of ping pong medals since grabbing the men’s team silver medal in 2012, and Shin Yu-bin will be leading the charge to end the drought in Paris.

She will team up with Lim Jong-hoon in the mixed doubles. Shin and Jeon Ji-hee, who captured the Asian Games gold medal in the women’s doubles, will be together in the doubles portion of the women’s team event.

With so much riding on the shoulders of the 20-year-old, Shin’s health is of utmost importance. It’s not ideal for South Korea, then, that Shin has been battling cold symptoms for a few days.

“I guess her immune system has been weak,” women’s team head coach Oh Kwang-heon said. “She’s recovering. It’s not a major concern, but she does have some symptoms remaining.”

Shin had been competing around the globe since May, making stops in Brazil, Slovenia, Nigeria and Thailand before traveling to France.

She coughed a bit during her media availability earlier Tuesday but said, “I am feeling much better.”

Oh said Shin had not yet spread her virus to her teammates. Lim, Shin’s mixed doubles partner, said he had been trying his best to stay healthy himself.

“Whenever it seems like Yu-bin is about to cough, I get away from her,” Lim said with a smile. “It’s unfortunate she’s feeling sick, but it’s better to make sure no one else comes down with it. Her feelings may be hurt there, but I don’t have a choice.”

Shin has come a long way from being a largely unproven teenager who was gone early in her Olympic debut three years ago in Tokyo. Having overcome a nagging wrist injury, Shin will now take aim at her first Olympic medal.

“I don’t know how high I can go here,” Shin said. “I want to push myself as much as I can.”

(Yonhap)