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I have always been curious, for a country that has approx 320,000,000 people, why is the USA not one of the table tennis greats?
From what I can gather, table tennis is a very popular sport over there (appears in films and stuff and there are lots of Americans on TTD!) and I'm sure there are millions who play, yet countries with much smaller populations and numbers of players seem to be much more successful at the very top of the rankings.
This re-inforces the fact that China's success is probably not hugely influenced by their giant population (granted it helps a bit) but more by their culture and attitude towards the sport and their super intense drive for success.
Is it a funding issue? Or is it just a cultural issue, in that other sports get a lot more focus (American Football, Baseball etc)?
Or is it even an issue at all?
I'd love to hear your opinions on this
PS: I don't mean any offence by creating this thread, I am just interested to hear other peoples opinions. There are plenty of fantastic USA based table tennis players, this thread is more about why not so many are at the very top.
From what I can gather, table tennis is a very popular sport over there (appears in films and stuff and there are lots of Americans on TTD!) and I'm sure there are millions who play, yet countries with much smaller populations and numbers of players seem to be much more successful at the very top of the rankings.
This re-inforces the fact that China's success is probably not hugely influenced by their giant population (granted it helps a bit) but more by their culture and attitude towards the sport and their super intense drive for success.
Is it a funding issue? Or is it just a cultural issue, in that other sports get a lot more focus (American Football, Baseball etc)?
Or is it even an issue at all?
I'd love to hear your opinions on this
PS: I don't mean any offence by creating this thread, I am just interested to hear other peoples opinions. There are plenty of fantastic USA based table tennis players, this thread is more about why not so many are at the very top.
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