From Ping-Pong Diplomacy to pickleball friendship, 70-year-old Judy Hoarfrost made another visit to China, 55 years after her historic trip, this time leading a group of American youths to the pickleball courts of Jiangxi.
NANCHANG, May 19 (Xinhua) -- 55 years after her first visit, Judy Hoarfrost returned to China not with a ping-pong paddle alone, but with a pickleball delegation, bringing a group of American youths, most of whom had never been to China before.
At 70, she still moves nimbly on the court, swinging her paddle with ease. After every rally, she taps paddles with her Chinese partner to celebrate a good shot or offer encouragement after a missed one.
When she first set foot in China in 1971, Hoarfrost was the youngest member of the U.S. table tennis delegation invited to play exhibition games with Chinese players that helped break the ice between the two countries.
"55 years ago, that trip to China changed my life," Hoarfrost said. "Now, seeing the young people of our two countries laughing side by side on the pickleball court, I am convinced that sports have always been the sincerest bridge between peoples."
In April, Hoarfrost attended commemorations marking the 55th anniversary of China-U.S. Ping-Pong Diplomacy. One month later, she witnessed another chapter unfold in a pickleball event.
At a pickleball training base in Ganzhou City, in east China's Jiangxi Province, Chinese and American players teamed up and played side by side on courts tucked amid green mountains and clear waters.
"When you have children, it's like you're reliving those years yourself," said Hoarfrost, a mother of three and grandmother of seven. "You're living it in a new way, and that's what it's like to pass the torch on to this new generation of pickleball or table tennis players. Whatever sport it is, it doesn't really matter."
Hoarfrost ran a table tennis company after retiring from the U.S. national team. The sport brought her back to China time and again over the decades. Speaking of pickleball, she sees it as simply another way to connect people.
"What I love about pickleball is that it doesn't matter what age you are, if you're a strong athlete or not, what language you speak, what your job is," she said. "You just go out on the court, maybe with other strangers, you play doubles, and after a game you're no longer strangers."
Watching Chinese and American players play together on court, she said, "It's still a small ball moving the big ball."
Hoarfrost said any relationship is built on friendship and trust. "You develop that by getting to know each other, by spending time with each other, by being open-minded and just becoming friends."
"I think it's really important to give youth those opportunities, because it's only by really meeting each other that you can understand what you have in common," she said. ■
