Miao Miao should feel pretty much at home in the sold-out University stadium at the Beijing Olympics. She’ll be ensconced in a tightly-knit Australian team with colleagues she’s teamed up with many times before. She’ll be cheered on by friends, relatives and fans who will have come all the way from Australia to watch her play. And it goes without saying that she’ll also have the support of plenty of Chinese spectators as well. You don’t acquire a name like that in Broadmeadows, where Miao Miao lives, unless you’re a moggie with an unimaginative owner. “Of course more people will support the Chinese team, but I’m also known in China. I have fans and friends there who expect me to win and play well. I have lots of people to support me. My uncle, auntie and cousins live in Tianjin, only 120km away from Beijing. They might come out to watch my games.” The same might be said for her teammates on the women’s team, fellow two-time Olympian Fang Lay, and first-timer Stephanie Sang.

Regardless of this “hometown” advantage, Miao, as she’s known to Australian friends, faces the most daunting job of any of Australia’s Olympians. At the highest level, table tennis one of the most difficult sports to medal in. The very best have a vast range of unbelievable skills. In addition, for these Games, China is host, and China happens to be the home of table tennis. Nothing matters more to China’s spectators and government than the country’s performance at the table. “They want all the gold medals in table tennis, of course.” Since the sport was introduced to the Games at Seoul in 1988, China has indeed won almost every gold medal – 16 of the 20 so far. “It’s like swimming in Australia, maybe even more.”

Still, Miao is unconcerned. She’s used to the cauldron that is table tennis in her old country, and has competed – not as often as she’d like – against the world’s best. She knows what to do.

“For these big games, mental is very important. If your technique is just below the best, your mental can still be strong. In big competition, they get nervous. Other things happen. If your mind is not strong, even if you’ve got good technique, you can’t perform in a game. You have to be mentally stronger than the players who are better than you.” Miao Miao does a lot of mental preparation, spending hours laying on her back and visualising every aspect of her opponent’s game, imagining them being overwhelmed by her strengths.

Fortunately for Miao Miao, her father is her coach. “He’s very famous in China, because he was a coach of the Tianjin state team for 30-40 years, then we moved to Poland to coach the national team. He played for the Chinese national team as a young man. I believe my dad and what he says in a game. His players have become very famous as well, from China and also from Poland. Everyone loves him. I’m lucky to have my dad as a coach.”

The move from Poland to Australia was initiated by Australian officials who saw her play and wanted her for the Sydney Games. Dad was part of the package deal. “The visa was very easy to get. They asked my dad to help the national team prepare for Sydney 2000.”

Miao Miao attained our highest finish (fifth) at an Olympic Games in Sydney, and has won silver and bronze medals at Commonwealth Games in doubles and mixed. She’s won Oceana Championships, and National championships at different levels here, in Poland and in China. In fact, she’s represented all three nations at times in her career.

Like all kids in China, Miao Miao began playing with the pen-hold grip, and changed after two years, which, in table-tennis, is relatively late. “I discussed this with my dad and we decided that it was better for me this way; for my style of play.” That style of play is extremely aggressive – almost incongruously so, if you ever meet Miao Miao, who is tiny and petite almost to the point of fragility. Although she spent a lot of time in Europe, and trained extensively with Polish girls, she remained influenced by the Chinese style of play. “It is very strong and fast. They stand very close to the table. The Europeans stand back, very slow and consistent. They still attack, but just the timing is later, and it’s a totally different style.” Miao Miao sees her strengths as her service and attack. Topspin is not really a part of her game, and she’d never contemplate going defensive. “I try to attack every ball earlier than everyone else, and hit flat with variation placements. Sometimes topspin, but the topspin is not the main part of my game.”

Most non-table-tennis fans must wonder how a top-level player develops the incredible speed and reflexes to play at the highest level. “Training and exercise. You need training at the table for a long time, not just two hours a week or something, which some people do. You have to be serious at the table, and train physically as well, for speed. Weights, plus short and fast work, sit ups, push-ups. You don’t want big muscles, but strong. The eyes need practice at the table so they always follow the ball, even fast. It’s quite tiring, the concentration and focus to follow the ball all the time – which spin is coming, which direction, how much spin, how fast. But table tennis is good for people who haven’t tried it. You never get injured, you can practice to get your eyes good, you’re moving around. It’s a good sport. Even my injuries didn’t come from playing.”

Miao Miao’s career has been interrupted by injury, study and the undernourished state of Australian table tennis which is not supported by an immense, state-sponsored system like China’s. She’s dropped the study for the time-being (it was a foundation course to help her get into university), and has recovered from wrist and shoulder problems (the wrist injury came about when she fell over running). But she still spends a lot of her time helping her mother in her fish and chip business in Melbourne’s Surrey Hills, which is a long way from Broadmeadows. “The professional players usually travel all over for events, but I’m not travelling much. Maybe for one event I’ll travel, but this year, nothing, because this year we held the Oceana championships. Australian table tennis doesn’t have much funding for players to travel around. I think this affects our performance. And if you’re playing more tournaments, your ranking is going up, and it’s a better draw for them.”

Miao is, nevertheless, confident. “I hope Beijing will be the best of my Olympics, and there will be so many more people. It will be exciting and I hope to do my best, and show my performance, concentrate on what I need to do in the game, and I think the results will come naturally.”

By the way, Miao Miao is one of the few people I’ve met able to answer the question on everyone’s lips: which is the harder language, Polish or Chinese? “Speaking, it’s Polish. Writing, it’s Chinese. That’s very hard.” But this polyglot, three nationed, three-time Olympian can play table tennis fluently in any language.

Published in Inside Sport, July 2008