August 15, 2004 11:04 am
Ping, Reed out of table tennis contention
ATHENS, Greece - Minutes after losing four matches to Singapore in women's doubles table tennis Sunday, 17-year-old Whitney Ping looked and sounded disappointed.
``It was a tough game that didn't start out well,'' said Ping, who along with partner Jasna Reed, played Paey Fern Tan and Xueling Zhang of Singapore at the Galatsi Olympic Hall.
``Both of those players are Chinese who went to play on the Singapore team,'' Ping said, referring to China's stronghold on the sport of table tennis.
Singapore won the matches 11-8, 11-4, 11-5 and 13-11.
The other American women's doubles team of Jun Gao and Tawny Banh won their match against Venezuela and will meet Korea Monday.
Ping, of Beaverton, Ore., the youngest member of the U.S. table tennis team, says finding challenging competitors in the United States has been difficult. To train, she spent a semester in Sweden.
Ping is paired with the 34-year-old Reed, a four-time Olympian who won a bronze medal in women's doubles for her native Yugoslavia at the 1998 Olympics in Seoul. But Reed said she didn't give the younger Ping any advice on how to deal with the Olympics.
``The Olympics is the biggest tournament for any athlete and all you can do is play your best,'' Reed said.
Even though she's out of competition, Ping will remain in Athens to support other U.S. athletes, she said, including swimmer Michael Phelps.
After the Olympics, Ping will to Oregon finish her last semester of high school. She also will start filling out college applications. Her picks are Stanford, the University of California at Los Angeles and possibly Northwestern University.
``The past few years have been geared toward the Olympics and so far, it was been unbelievable,'' Ping said. ``Walking with the other athletes during opening ceremonies was one of the best moments of my life.''
Her next goal, she said, is to make the team for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
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