For decades in the US, table tennis has lived a double life: one of the most widely played sports in the country, yet still dismissed by many as a basement pursuit. Now, unexpectedly, it is having a cultural moment.<\/p>\n
The release of Marty Supreme<\/a>, a film steeped in obsession and myth, and loosely based on postwar American table tennis champion Marty Reisman, has pushed ping-pong into the pop-culture mainstream \u2013 just as US Major League Table Tennis sells out matches, clubs report growing interest, and younger players pick up paddles for the first time.<\/p>\n \u201cThe movie has been a catalyst,\u201d says David Silberman, cofounder of PingPod<\/a>, which operates table tennis venues across the US northeast. \u201cWe\u2019re starting to see it in the data of our business.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2022, Silberman started playing table tennis regularly with Marty Supreme<\/a> director Josh Safdie \u2013 whom he describes as \u201ca solid beginner player\u201d by competitive standards \u2013 at Pingpod\u2019s Midtown, New York location. \u201cHe\u2019s fascinated by the sport \u2026 and how it\u2019s always been considered a second-rate sport,\u201d says Silberman.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen Christmas Day came along and the movie premiered we pretty much immediately saw a 20-40% spike in year-on-year new customer reservations, and existing customer utilisation went up 10-15%. Clearly a wave of new people are picking up the paddle.\u201d<\/p>\n Major League Table Tennis (MLTT), the first professional table tennis league in the US, established in 2023, just set an all-time regular season ticket sales record, according to founder Flint Lane. \u201cNo doubt some of that is Marty related.\u201d<\/p>\n Lily Zhang is a six-time US national champion and four-time Olympian. Photograph: Jung Yeon-Je\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n The sport already had momentum, adds MLTT senior vice-president for marketing, Matt Parker, \u201cbut the film has helped reintroduce it to a younger, culture-driven audience that\u2019s now showing up at matches and engaging with our content.\u201d<\/p>\n MLTT\u2019s first event since the release of Marty Supreme sold out in Portland, Oregon, at the beginning of the month \u2013 marking the first sellout<\/a> and the highest regular-season attendance weekend in league history, with more than 2,000 tickets sold.<\/p>\n \u201cTable tennis is definitely having a moment right now, and I love to see it,\u201d says Lily Zhang, a six-time US national champion in women\u2019s singles who in November became the first woman<\/a> to rank No 1 on MLTT\u2019s power rankings list. \u201cIt\u2019s been a long time coming. Marty Supreme<\/a> has definitely launched table tennis into the pop culture mainstream, but I would love to see more of that interest translate over to the professional side and in supporting current professional players, because we could really use it.\u201d<\/p>\n A 2024 Wall Street Journal profile on Zhang, a four-time Olympian who reached the round of 16 at the Paris Olympics, highlighted<\/a> how difficult it is for even the best table tennis players to make a living in the sport in the US. Estimates have long<\/a> placed US participation in table tennis at about 16 million Americans per year, though it is a casual pursuit for most.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are often surprised when they hear that I\u2019m a professional player \u2013 \u2018ping pong is an Olympic sport?\u2019 \u2013 and a lot of them like to tell me they could \u2018probably beat\u2019 me in a match just because they\u2019ve played a lot in their basement,\u201d adds Zhang. \u201cI laugh it off, but it\u2019s really because there is such a lack of understanding of how intense, technical and challenging the professional game is.\u201d<\/p>\n The lack of appreciation of the skills of table tennis Olympians was perhaps on show in a recent BBC interview with Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet, who played the titular Marty in Marty Supreme, winning the Golden Globe<\/a> for best actor ahead of the Oscars in March. The interviewer asked him<\/a> if he may be able to make the team for the LA Olympics in 2028. Chalamet humbly responded there was less than a one-a-million chance despite having begun training for the role in 2018.<\/p>\n Fans look on as the Chicago Wind take on the Texas Smash during the Major League Tennis Championship last year in Philadelphia. Photograph: Isaiah Vazquez\/Getty Images<\/p>\n On Instagram, a series of clips<\/a> from professional table tennis matches feature surreal replays of intense rallies of such a velocity which almost defy belief. It appears to be a matter of time before the American public gets hooked on the drama, and the MLTT says that \u201cwagering is set to launch in the coming months, further expanding fan engagement opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n But while the film has helped spark curiosity, it has also exposed a deeper tension between the chaotic fantasy on screen and the quieter reality of a sport that, for millions of players, is less about rage and lone-wolf genius than focus, discipline, longevity and mental health.\u201cThe film has created a cultural ripple,\u201d says Luba Sadovska, co-owner of North Shore Table Tennis Club in Vancouver, Canada, and a former Czechoslovakian national representative player. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing new people coming forward who want to join the club as members. A lot of them played years ago, so it really feels like they\u2019re reconnecting with their younger selves.\u201d<\/p>\n Her club hosted a hardbat paddle doubles<\/a> tournament after the movie\u2019s release, since part of the Marty Supreme tale is his frustration at being beaten by a Japanese player who was an early adopter of the spongier bat that helped foster the modern game. \u201cIt was an absolute blast \u2013 great energy, lots of laughter, and a really strong sense of community,\u201d says Sadovska.<\/p>\n But inside the sport, \u201cit\u2019s also prompted a kind of reckoning \u2013 about what gets mythologized, what gets left out, and what table tennis actually offers in real life.\u201d Anger doesn\u2019t have a place in real table tennis, she says, since it is considered a weakness \u201cand professional players don\u2019t show their weaknesses that easily.\u201d<\/p>\n At Vitality Pong Neuro Active Clinic, which Sadovska co-founded, table tennis is played as a neuroactive training tool for people with Parkinson\u2019s, Alzheimer\u2019s, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and following strokes. \u201cThey\u2019re looking [to attune their] focus and resilience, without burning out or breaking down.\u201d<\/p>\n The rapidity of table tennis, with the required quick reflexes, the spin of the ball and the instantaneous processing and coordination demanded of even amateur players, underpins its \u201cprofound\u201d set of mental health benefits, adds Silberman, whose company hit a $50m valuation in 2024<\/a>. \u201cIt staves off neurodegenerative diseases,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s just unequivocally a good thing in our society.\u201d<\/p>\n