Indian TT's road to Olympics

India’s table tennis Stars are charting a path to the Paris Olympics later this year. This is how they're doing it

- Arunjanardhan

The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Team Table Tennis Championships that begins in Busan, South Korea, on 16 February will mark India's first chance of qualifying for the Paris 2024 Olympics this summer. With athletes from China continuing to dominate the sport-including the world's top five male and top four female players-India's best chance of success in TT in Paris will come from the team event and mixed doubles.

Currently ranked No. 15 and 17 in the world respectively, the Indian men's and women's teams will have to make it to the quarterfinals in Busan to qualify for Paris, failing which they would have to rely on the world rankings (as of March 2024) to sneak in.

The latter is more challenging, given that team rankings are based on individual player rankings. India's highest-ranked male player, Harmeet Desai, is No.68, followed by Manav Thakkar at 87, while among the women, Manika Batra is at No. 37 and Sreeja Akula is 49. But if an Indian team qualifies, through Busan, India will also automatically get two singles spots for Paris.

"The team is, let's say, my baby. I want to get these guys there," says A. Sharath Kamal, the 41-year-old senior pro whose ranking has dropped to 97, while referring to the other top players.

For individual places," Sharath adds, "there'll be one spot within all of us because we have to play South Asia region, and in that region, India is by far the best.