Heming Hu started playing table tennis in his garage when he was just six years old.
He jokes that his parents introduced him to the sport to keep him away from “bad things” like “drugs” or mixing with the 'wrong group'.
“At the start, I didn’t like it at all and I just wanted to play other sports like soccer and tennis,” Hu told The Feed.
“Growing up in China, my parents saw table tennis as an amazing sport and they were worried about [my brothers and me] playing sports like soccer and AFL... and... getting hurt.”
Hu said he knew early on, he’d either have to really love the sport or give it up completely.
“I didn't feel like there was ever an in-between where I could just play for fun.”
A “charismatic” coach ignited Hu’s passion for the sport. Hu told The Feed, he sacrificed a lot for his Olympic dream, including moving to China at age 16 to chase his passion.
He jokes that as a kid he had “zero social life” and even now, he lives a very “disciplined life.”
Rattling off the list of possible injuries athletes can get from playing the sport, he said the idea that table tennis is injury-proof is a misconception.
“Being a table tennis player, you’re always in a forward-leaning position, you’re always having to twist and turn and make quick movements having play impact with the floor,” he said.
“A lot of people have had knee operations and lower back surgeries.”
At 22, Hu qualified for his first Olympics and represented Australia in Rio in 2016. In 2019, he became Australia’s number one in the sport after winning the national championship.
Hu told The Feed he owes his success in his sport to his family.
When he was a teenager, Hu’s mother accompanied him to play full-time in China. For years, his father drove him an hour to practice every day. And his brother, who worked as a part-time coach, took on extra players so Hu’s family could afford to hire a high-level coach.
“Thinking about it all now, I couldn't do any of this without my family.”
Now 27 years old, Hu will again represent Australia at the Tokyo Olympics and hopes the postponing of the Games will work to his advantage.
Hu Heming of Australia serves during the men's singles Group C match against Quari Aruna of Nigeria at the 2019 ITTF Men's World Cup in Chengd Source: Getty
“Back in 2019, I got so egotistical that no one could tell me nothing. I was in a very narrow-minded place in 2020,” Hu said.
“Early on, I had a very disappointing Olympic trials, I was in a very bad place, I had a lot of relationship issues, which affected me on the court.”
“The whole COVID thing has given me a lot of time to do countless amounts of personal development.”
Playbooks rolled out for athletes this week detail the strict rules they will be obliged to follow at the Olympics.
All athletes entering Japan must agree to have their location monitored by GPS, download several apps, sign a pledge to follow the rules, maintain social distancing and stay off public transportation for the first 14 days.
Breaking the rules may result in athletes being deported, having medals stripped from them or being issued fines.
For Hu, whose family normally travel to watch him compete, this year's Olympics will be a very different affair.
“It's going to be very different because my parents, my brothers, my sister in law, our best mates, they're not going to be able to come and watch me like last time,” he said.
“But putting it in perspective, I’m really grateful to be able to have a Games because when Corona just started, I honestly thought it wasn’t gonna happen.”
