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OLIN’S INTRODUCTION
Olin joined BTT in October of 2025 as the first non-NJ resident, extending BTT's reach to Westchester, NY, where he attends the French-American School of New York as an 11th grader. He is excited to contribute to BTT’s vibrant community as he is always on the look out to promote his favorite sport, from teaching a friend who struggles with concentration to joining his first coach to lead a youth group at Westchester Table Tennis Center (WTTC) on Saturdays.
Olin's first experience with table tennis was playing with his brother on the kitchen table, using a portable net, during the Covid pandemic. Subsequently, he took his first lesson at the WTTC. The latter proved a welcoming environment, where people of all ages and skill levels came together to enjoy the game. In January of 2022 he played his first competitive match at the WTTC League making friends and building lasting connections along the way from elderly participants in the Parkinson’s group, to other students in the club. Since then Olin has played over 540 matches at the WTTC League, ranking 1st by November of 2023, a position which he still holds until now. In addition, Olin regularly participates in the Westchester Open and Joola Teams tournaments. This past year he played his first WTT tournament and US Nationals. He has also participated in tournaments in Bulgaria while visiting his grandparents there. Another one of Olin’s special powers is to communicate in three different languages, Bulgarian, French and English, on a daily basis at the native level. When Olin does not play table tennis, he likes to hike, play video games with friends and do math. He is gearing up to study theoretical mathematics in college, hoping to do research in the future.
MY VERY FIRST EVENT AS A MEMBER OF BTT
At the beginning of October Jerry, a veteran of Behind The Table, texted that he had an engagement and would have to skip our group lesson at Joyous TT Club. He was to visit Yale and then play a friendly doubles tournament at the Peach Blossom Haven Community Center (PBH), together with members of the Yale TT Club. The event was organized by BTT and he asked if I was interested to join. I did not hesitate. I had thought for a while of ways to promote my favorite sport and seeing others interested in the same goal was exciting.
While I was not able to join the Yale tour due to my school work load, my parents drove me to PBH some time after 5pm for a dinner with all the participants, followed by the doubles tournament. We were met at the door by the friendly staff at PBH and we lent them a hand in setting up the tennis tables while waiting for everyone to arrive. Slowly familiar faces began to trickle in. While table tennis is always listed as one of the top 10 most popular sports in the world, it resembles a village in the US, where most participants have crossed paths at some point in time. I saw Ishan from Match Point, whom I had played at the Westchester Open and then came in Emma and her mom Wen, who was busy organizing the dinner for everyone. Some of the members of the Yale TT Club were familiar as well, and then others whom I expected to see, turned out had already graduated. By the time everyone came, close to ten tennis tables were set and the players were busy loading up on calories from the tasty Japanese food BTT had ordered for everyone.
Before the tournament started all twenty two of us took a group photo. You can see me in the back in the green T-shirt, behind Jerry (on the left) and my doubles partner from the Yale TT Club (on the right):
Everyone was paired up, but as I joined the event at the last moment, my name had slipped out of the preliminary matching. Nevertheless, the issue was quickly resolved and I found myself on the same team as one of the Yale players, who was rated over 2000. Before the matches, I received my inaugural BTT T-shirt and we all gathered for some last minute instructions.
The energy was high, everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, while still putting effort to reach the finals. Unlike a rated tournament, where participants stress over lost games, missed points, loose nets, edges and illegal serves, this community event was warm, welcoming, full of laughter and cheer. I had played some of my opponents in the past and others I had simply crossed paths with at tournaments, but playing them in this friendly environment built deeper connections.
Time flew by, and after winning three matches, my doubles partner had to leave to prepare for her work week — pursuing a PhD in biomedical research at Yale is no joke! Instead I joined forces with one of my opponents from our third match, whose doubles partner also had to leave, and we headed into the semifinals, where our opposing team gave us trouble but we still prevailed. While the matches were lots of fun, especially on tables 1 and 2 where we enjoyed an audience of onlookers and parents, the highlight for me was playing between matches with Kevin Guo, a current Yale math student, and former member of the Canadian National Team.
Time flies when one is having fun and before we knew it it was close to 8:30pm. PBH was about to close and we needed to wrap up faster than anticipated. The solution was easy: why not have 4 winners, rather than only 2?! The more the merrier:
We got home around 10:30pm. I was exhausted, yet content. At the end of the day, I felt fortunate to have found a community of like-minded people, willing to put time and effort in promoting table tennis. As the first member of BTT from New York, I am happy to help BTT extend its reach beyond New Jersey. And the cherry on the cake was winning the tournament. Jerry rightly pointed out that I did have an advantage, having initially been paired with another 2000+ player. However, that was beyond my control—as a new BTT member, I suppose I just had some 'beginner’s luck'. 🙂
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