Last Updated on September 10, 2024
Table Tennis perfectly captures the soul of the National Senior Games. It’s wildly fun. It engages people socially. It activates the mind. It takes physical skill, yet it’s accessible to athletes of all ages and all abilities. It reminds us of our youth, rallying back and forth in our parent’s garage for bragging rights over friends and family.
It’s a game for everyone. But of all the senior table tennis players in the world, none loom quite as large as Lily Yip.
Yip started playing professionally at the age of 12 in her native China. This pingpong prodigy would later move to the United States and, after becoming a citizen in 1991, represented the U.S. at the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games.
She would win six career medals at the Pan American Games, and was inducted into the Table Tennis Hall of Fame in 2004. Now in her 60s, despite racking up plenty of medals over the past decade, Yip has embraced the National Senior Games as a chance to play for the love of the game.
“In my golden age, I just did it for fun now,” Yip told Growing Bolder at the 2023 National Senior Games. “I feel that my mind is still young. I still can compete, not only in pingpong but I also compete in table tennis. I want to be an inspiration for most senior people.”
Yip isn’t just inspiring people with her skills. She’s sharing her secrets. After spending years as an Olympic coach, she opened the Lily Yip Table Tennis Center in New Jersey, teaching players of all ages and skill levels to embrace the game.
She brings her students over the age of 50 with her to the National Senior Games, where they enjoy the competition and see, firsthand, how playing organized sports health can lead to happy and healthy aging. Yip notices a difference in how aging is treated around the globe, and urges others to take care of their own health.
“In China at 60, I am an elder, people are going to bow to me,” Yip explained. “They show you so much respect.
“For our seniors in America, it’s pretty individual. We have to take care ourself. Health’s number one, invest in your health. Eat well, watch your diet and listen to your body. Do some exercise, but don’t overdo it. But look forward always.”
Yip leads by example, still maintaining the fire of wanting to win, but playing for the love of the game, all the while with a smile beaming across her face.
“Even though I lost today, I’m still smiling,” Yip said. “I just have fun now. Winning [makes me] smile the most, but so does being healthy. That’s the most important thing, and makes me smile.”
