TABLE TENNIS AT THE PAN AM GAMES#

USA Table Tennis proudly ushers in a new era of players for the Olympic Games Paris 2024, led by veteran women’s player and three-time Olympian Lily Zhang (2012, 2016, 2020). Young, hungry and ready to make a splash, the women’s team has dominated Pan American play in 2023. Zhang plays professionally, is ranked in the top 30 in the world, and is USA Table Tennis’ queen bee. A UC Berkeley graduate, she resides in the San Francisco Bay Area and trains in the United States. Amy Wang and Rachel Sung are classmates at UCLA and won the U.S.' first medal in table tennis at the World University Games this summer in Chengdu, China.

Sally Moyland completes the top women and is only 16, but is now a strong contender on the youth and senior circuits, having won the Pan American U19 Championship women’s title. All four women are Chinese American and represent the four corners of the nation (Lily – San Francisco Bay Area, Amy – New Jersey, Sally – Houston, Rachel – San Francisco Bay Area). The U.S. qualified a team to the Olympic Games Paris 2024 and will be able to send three players, which will be chosen at the Olympic Trials in the Spring of 2024.

The men’s players are less dominant but equally dedicated. The U.S. men’s team did not qualify a team to Paris and will now have to qualify through continental singles opportunities. While the women players are Chinese-American, the top men players are Indian-American, showcasing the impact our sport has on the Asian-American community.

Brother duo Nandan Naresh and Sid Naresh from Chicago, Ilinois, are fiercely dedicated to the sport and would be first time Olympians. Kanak Jha and Nikhil Kumar, 2020 Olympians and U.S. national champions are also in the mix, but were not able to compete at the qualifying events in 2023. However, they can still qualify through the continental singles events.

• Lily Zhang — The most dominant U.S. female table tennis player in the last two decades remains Lily Zhang. She is a six-time U.S. national women’s champion (2012, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019,2022), three-time time Olympian (2012, 2016, 2020) and bronze medalist at the 2014 Youth Olympic Games marking her down in history as the first ever medal in an Olympic Games by a U.S. athlete. Zhang made the U.S. women’s national team at the age of 12, the youngest athlete ever to do so. Now 27, she is the most recognizable face of U.S. Table Tennis and competes professionally worldwide. She is currently ranked 26^th in the world and is one of the highest rankings achieved by a U.S. player. A native of Palo Alto, California, Zhang returned to train and reside in California after a stint training in Europe during her early twenties.
  
• Amy Wang — Wang is the 2023 Pan American women’s singles champion and lead performer at the event. She is currently the female player with the most wins against teammate Zhang. Wang won the 2021 U.S. National Championships and 2022 U.S. Open over Zhang. In 2023, she won the U.S. National Women’s Championship title for the second time. Quiet and reserved, Wang plays with a style that is surprisingly intense given her nonchalant nature. She is the 2023 U.S. national collegiate women’s singles champion and has recently completed her freshman year at UCLA. Originally from New Jersey, she has trained primarily at Lily Yip Table Tennis Center.
  
• Rachel Sung — She has a twin sister, Joanna Sung, who also plays table tennis, and they have played doubles together. Sung is left-handed while sister Joanna is right-handed. While her sister has stopped competing nationally, Sung has continued to impress on the national stage. In 2023, she won the U.S. national women’s doubles championship title alongside teammate Wang. The pair also won the 2023 U.S. national collegiate doubles title together earlier this year. She is the only left-handed player on the team, making her a great asset for doubles and is a native of the Bay Area in California.
  
• Sid Naresh & Nandan Naresh — Table Tennis is a family affair for the Naresh brothers. Both of their parents play and travel with them to competitions. The brother duo from the Chicago area enjoyed a great year, setting them up to “peak at the right time” for Paris 2024. Nandan Naresh, the younger brother, won the U19 and adult national team trials. Sid Naresh deferred his acceptance to Berkeley in the Fall of 2023 for two years to play professionally in a league in Germany. They adore their family dog, a lab.