‘I'm too deep': Bay Area table tennis prodigy struggles with her love of the sport

San Francisco Chronicle​

a day ago

It's been a big year for Sally Moyland, the 18-year-old table tennis prodigy from Fremont who became a national champion and made her first two Grand Smash appearances before the end of summer break. At 17, she traveled to Paris as an alternate for the U.S. national team. By age 12, she played against — and impressed — Lily Zhang, now a four-time Olympian.
Moyland continues to check off boxes ahead of schedule, in a sport she once loved.
'It's mainly been just hardship almost every day,' Moyland said. 'It's always hard. The only happy moment is at the end of the tournament if you win.
'I guess my younger self liked challenges a little too much.'
Years before table tennis demanded that she dedicate upwards of six hours to it every day, Moyland played recreationally most summer mornings in Taiwan.
She often visited to spend time with her grandmother, who consistently woke up before dawn to swim. 'Imagine a 7-year-old getting hauled to a swimming pool, all I did was get in her way,' said Moyland, who subsequently landed at a local community center so her grandma could swim in peace. The sport was more fun for her then.
'When I was younger, it was pretty simple,' Moyland said. 'Anytime anyone asked me, 'Why do you play?' it's just, 'I like the sport, I really love the sport,' which I did. But now it's maybe more, well, firstly, my parents have put in too much time and energy for me to just say, 'I'm done.' '
Moyland has been homeschooled since fifth grade in the U.S. and Taiwan. When in California, she attended East Bay Academy of Arts and Science as the homeschool's lone student. Her dad served as the principal, janitor and every role in between. And in 2018, her mom resigned from a managerial position at Adobe to accompany her on travels abroad for training and tournaments.
'Man, it was a good job — but it was a good job because I got to get free cookies,' Moyland said. 'Anyway, so she quit, and she took care of me when I was in Taiwan because grandma was kind of going mad. I was too much to handle.'
Moyland has mostly practiced in Taiwan, and occasionally in Poland or Japan, but rarely in the U.S. The going rate for individual sessions with the best Bay Area coaches is around $120 an hour, per Moyland, and top table tennis competitions are almost exclusively held in Europe and Asia.
The U.S. Smash in Las Vegas, where Moyland and multiple other Bay Area standouts competed last week, was the first-ever Grand Smash — equivalent to a tennis major — hosted on American soil. Milpitas native Kanak Jha, No. 28 in the men's singles ITTF Table Tennis World Ranking, moved to Sweden when he was 15 years old and currently lives in Germany: 'There are times where it can feel like a lonely journey. … To have a profession in the sport, you have to move abroad. There's simply not enough money in the United States to be a professional table tennis player.'
Moyland has lived the lifestyle of a pro table tennis player since she was 10, when she 'really committed' to the sport. There remains a short list of goals she would like to achieve. Competing at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles is toward the top. She also said she has 'put a question mark' on the 2032 Summer Games, unsure whether she will still be playing by then. She would be in the prime of her career.
There is more to life than table tennis, after all.
Moyland said she'll consider going to college once her table tennis career has run its course. Growing up, her dream job often depended on the soap operas she watched. An author, a doctor, even a firefighter, an especially short-lived aspiration: 'I can't carry anybody.' And the latest, a lawyer.
'Do I really want to retire after '28?' Moyland said. 'I don't know. Maybe.
'I don't see myself going to 40, 50, which some people do. They just play a league and live off that. I think I'll probably move on to something else in life at some point.'
Zhang, who grew up in Palo Alto and attended Cal, said there was no women's table tennis player in the U.S. whom she could model her career after. She built it from scratch. To date, the 29-year-old has won six national championships. Her world ranking stands at No. 28 with 840 points. Amy Wang, 22, is the next closest with 450 points at No. 56. And rounding out the list of Americans in the top 100 is Moyland, at No. 98.
Moyland is more than capable of climbing the leaderboard. Whether she wants to, and for how long, is an entirely different question.
'It's such a complex and, I think at least in the U.S., widely misunderstood sport,' Zhang said. 'People don't see it as a real sport. They think, 'Oh, it's pingpong, it's a basement sport, you play with your friends in the office or at the Christmas party,' but they don't realize how physical and intense and exciting the sport really is. I might be biased, but I genuinely think it's one of the most difficult sports to master and to be top in the world at because it's so detailed, so precise.
'If you start past 10 years old, you're pretty much out.'
Moyland dislocated her left knee a couple of years before the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials. She opted to put off surgery and played in a brace. Recurrent dislocations followed. Three months before trials, she underwent surgery to repair a severely torn medial patellofemoral ligament. She hasn't yet rehabbed back to full strength, estimating it to be at around 90%, meaning the knee that saw her punch a ticket to the Olympics as an alternate was much weaker.
Somewhere along the way, Moyland's motivation turned into obligation. It hasn't stifled her talent. It has curbed her love of the sport.
In her eyes, there is no turning back. At least for the time being.
'If you do anything every day for six hours a day, I think it'll get boring at some point,' she said. 'You just kind of got to deal with it.
'I'm (in) too deep.'