Table Tennis, Olympics 2024: Sharath Kamal - ‘Have an empty spot in the cabinet for Olympic medal’

Achanta Sharath Kamal will turn 42 a fortnight before the 2024 Paris Olympic Games get underway in July. The table tennis star, who will be one of the oldest athletes in the Indian contingent, will be the country’s flag-bearer at the opening ceremony in what will be his fifth Summer Olympic Games.

Sharath Kamal’s reasoning for competing in such a physically demanding sport like table tennis at the age of 42 is simple. His trophy cabinet, which has multiple Asian Games and Commonwealth Games medals, is still missing a coveted Olympic Games medal.

“When you look at my closet, I had the gold medals at the Commonwealth Games, the bronze medal at the Asian Games. But there's one place which is still empty, which is the Olympic medal,” Sharath Kamal said at a virtual interaction organised by the Sports Authority of India in association with the Indian Olympic Association and the Table Tennis Federation of India.

“That drives me because [in] 2004, when I played my first Olympic games, I really didn't know the magnitude of what it was to, first, to just represent the country at the Olympic Games, and second, go on to win a medal for the country.

“So I started my journey there and...

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