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Experience, youth on Aussie Olympic table tennis team

3 minute read

Australia's table tennis team for the Paris Olympics features four Games debutants.

Australia's six-strong table tennis team for the Paris Olympics features four debutants including a 37-year-old achieving a life-long ambition.

Min Hyung Jee has been the nation's top-ranked female player for six years but the Paris Games starting late next month is her first Olympics.

"It's emotional and surreal, it took me so long to qualify ... just very grateful to have this opportunity," she said.

Jee will play in singles and team events, while partnering another Olympic debutant, Nicholas Lum, an emerging 19-year-old, in the mixed doubles.

"Making my first Olympic team is undoubtedly one of the greatest feelings I'll ever experience as an athlete," Lum said.

"It has been my childhood dream ... since the day I picked up a racket."

Another pair of 19-year-olds - Hwan Bae (men's team) and Finn Luu (men's team, singles) will contest their first Olympics.

The trio of youngsters have competed against each other while rising through Australia's junior ranks in the past six years.

"If you had told me when I was still playing in the under-13 age group that all three of us would be competing together at the 2024 Paris Olympics, I would have just laughed," Lum said.

"It's so wholesome to see how far we've come and how much we've grown and improved since our first matches against each other."

Melissa Tapper (34, women's singles) will compete at her third Games and 36-year-old Michelle Bromley (women's team) is set for her second Olympics.

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