“Athletes Making a Difference.”
Courtesy of Sean O’Neill
Our next inductee charted his own course as a player, Junior Team Member, Junior Olympic Gold Medalist, Collegiate Champ, World Team Member, USOC AAC Rep & Anti-Doping Committee Chair, USATT Board Member, ITTF’s Athlete Commission and a person that truly made a difference both on and off the table.
Ashu Jain was born in New Delhi, India and arrived in Edison, NJ on Independence Day in 1990 as an 11-year-old thanks to parents wanting a better life for their family.
Having played with his dad in India, Ashu followed his older brother, Deepak to the highly regarded Westfield Table Tennis club the following year.
Ashu was a creative and sometimes indolent player and a bit of a late bloomer – winning Jr. Olympic Golds in the under 18s in 1997 over Andy Li and the Under 22s in 1998 over Jimmy Guan.
He continued to improve after leaving the juniors winning the Macy Block in Pittsburgh, U22s at the Nationals, and U2600 at the 2000 Fort Lauderdale’s US Open over future Olympian Mark Hazinski.
One could point to his summer of 1999 training trip to Romania under the encouragement of Jon Bosika to be a major turning point in his table tennis career. Seeing how international players train and prepare left an edible mark on Ashu.
Thanks to a family that strongly valued education, Ashu was accepted into the prestigious University of Michigan College of Engineering. Ashu continued to develop as a player, revamped the school’s club team, coached the school’s novice players and topped it off by winning the 2000 ACUI National Championships over defending Champion and Hall of Fame Board Member – Brian Pace.
Who says you can’t improve as a college student?
Going into the 2001 World Trials for Osaka, Japan, Ashu wasn’t a favorite, but didn’t count himself out either. With the top 4 positions eventually going to: David Zhuang, Mark Hazinski, Eric Owens and Barney Reed, Jr, the final spot was up for grabs for Ashu, Brian Pace, Shashin Shodan and Tahl Leibovitz.
Heading into round 7, Ashu sported a 2 win and 4 loss record, but had played the top 3 players. The hungry Wolverine then took out Atlanta’s Lee McCool, deuce in the 4th and survived a 2-1 deficit of always crafty Loc Ngo to win in 5. Things were looking good for the combined engineering/physics student, but then very painful lost occurred to lobbing Brooklyn Club owner Nison Aronov in straight games. To make matters worse, Ashu suffered a shoulder injury at the end of the final game. Ouch! And double ouch! At 4 wins and 5 losses his final match was a must win and his opponent was Barney, Jr. who was sitting at 6-3 and assured a spot on the team.
Here is Larry’s Hodges’ magazine match call – Jain led most the first game of this counterlooping duel, and won 21-18. He was blown out in the second, 21-13. Reed led 19-15 in the third but loses five straight (19-20) before calling a time out. He deuced it, but Ashu got an edge to get game point. Barney rolled a ball off the end to lose it – 22-20.
In game four. Ashu led 20-15 match point, Reed serving. Then 20-16… 20-17… 20-18… 20-19! But then Reed serves and backhands weakly off the table – and the match is over. Or is it’? Apparently, Jain moved the table in returning the serve, and so instead of winning, it is deuce! There is no protest. Reed whiffs a backhand loop to go down match point, and Jain wins on a net dribbler. Match to new USA Team Member, Ashu Jain, 18,-13,20,20.”
Booking his ticket to Osaka, Ashu would now be in the awkward position to ask his U of M advisors how to handle missing so much class for the Worlds. With their blessing, he would take a leave of absence to best prepare for Japan and in the process learn that he also needed to self-fund the 5th position to play for Team USA. After a posting on about.com, Ashu had the required funds to wear the Red, White and Blue as our Table Tennis community came for a very appreciative Ashu.
Now for most players these achievements on the table would have been enough to satisfy one’s table tennis craving, not Ashu. At the suggestion of Eric Owens, Ashu entered the world of NGB governance with USATT, USOPC and the ITTF becoming his new playground.
Serving on the USOC’s Athlete Advisory Council for two full terms along with leadership responsibilities is a very serious undertaking. Especially when you are on the committee that is helping create USADA’s initial board of directors and policies.
The ITTF’s athlete commission also tapped Ashu’s management skills where he was elected vice-chair by committee members like Belgium’s Jean-Michel Saive, Belarussian Vladimir Samsonov, China’s Wang Liqin, and Germany’s Timo Boll.
Ashu said his finest achievement with this group was obtaining athlete voting rights on the Board and Executive Committees of ITTF. He also led intra-committee meetings creating greater awareness and communication between various arms of ITTF.
One additional award of serving on the USOC’s AAC is you also sit on the USATT Board of Directors. Generally, this entails 2-3 meetings a year and regular email correspondence.
However, USATT was undergoing severe reform, and to save USATT from decertification by the USOC, Ashu was appointed as the chairman of Governance Reform Committee that was tasked with a complete revamp of the USATT, including creating a new organizational system, electing a new Board of Directors, and creating new bylaws.
Under the new Board, he groomed many other athletes like, Han Xiao, that took on leadership roles within the USATT, a time when athletes were perhaps the most integral in the USATT committee structure ever.
Ashu Jain’s leadership and commitment to the betterment of the sport, has left a significant impact throughout the intertwined fabric of USATT, USOC, and ITTF and we welcome him into the US Table Tennis Hall of Fame this evening proving once again, that Athletes can and do make a difference.