WICHITA, Kan. (KAKE) - Table tennis has been an Olympic sport since 1988-  but Major League Table Tennis is actually in its inaugural season now. In fact, its regular season wrapped up right here in Wichita this weekend. 

Major League Table Tennis- the newest professional sporting league- still in its inaugural season took a stop in Wichita for their final regular season game. 

“All the teams are fighting as hard as they can to qualify for the playoffs where the teams will fight for over $100,000 in Chicago in 3 weeks,” said Sean O’Neill, commentator for MLTT. 

 

Wichita hosted multiple Olympians competing for the chance to play in the championships at the end of April. 

Lily Zhang- a soon-to-be four-time Olympian- was right here in the ICT playing for MLTT. 

“Being able to be a part of this is so cool. And to be able to see a real league in the US is also something I never would have dreamed would happen since I started playing it so I love it,” said Lily Zhang, a professional table tennis player. 

It takes a lot of hard work, skill, and practice to be competitive. 

 

“A professional table tennis athlete basically do normally 1 hour of weight training a day and 1 hour of running a day. On top of the table tennis training. So table tennis on a high level is very very physically demanding,” said Christian Lillieroos, Portland Paddlers coach. 

Professional table tennis players can make the ball spin up to 9000 times per minute. And they can serve the ball at speeds up to 80 miles per hour. All that happens while the players are only 9 feet away.

4 Teams competed at Koch Arena each with 8 players. There are a total of 64 players in the League, and the tournament hosted in Wichita was centered on the Western division. 

Another thing that makes Major League Table Tennis stand out? Diversity. 

40 countries are represented in the League, and the players range in age from 15 to 44. 

Table tennis is the fastest ball sport in the world and one of the only sports that allows men and women to directly compete.  

 

Rachel Sung is the first woman to ever play both singles and doubles in an MLTT match. She'll be at the Olympics in Paris this summer. 

“I think growing up playing table tennis, I never expected to reach where I am today. So it's really- when you look back- it's pretty emotional. It’s a good journey but I'm really happy and I think it really made a big part of who I am,” said Rachel Sung, soon-to-be Olympic athlete.