After a nail-biting wait, the final two athletes who will represent Australia in table tennis have today been officially selected to the 2012 Australian Olympic Team.

Robert Frank and Vivian Tan qualified to play in the teams component of the table tennis competition back in March but had to wait until the final qualification tournament in May concluded before entries could be finalised.

“Words can’t describe how exciting it is to be going to my first Games,” 22-year-old Frank said. “I wasn’t able to get excited for ages after qualifying but now that it’s here and I just am over the moon.”

For Frank, selection to the 2012 Team is the realisation of a dream he has harboured since he was a kid.

“I played my first senior nationals when I was just 14 and I was up against all these great Olympians and I thought how amazing it would be to be like them one day,” he said.

“In 2007 I just missed selection for the Beijing Olympics. That was a really motivating experience for me that I have used for the last four years and brought with me to the trials this year.

“I knew what it would take to get me on the Team but at the same time I knew how easy it would be to miss out. I just had to put those thoughts away and concentrate on making the Team.”

The teams event which was brought into the Olympic program in 2008, will see Frank join William Henzell and Justin Han, in a combination of singles and doubles matches.

“William and I know each other very well,” Frank said of his teammate and business partner Henzell. “We have a lot of doubles experience together and know each other’s game really well. We will get to London and do our best to perform as well as we can. China is obviously the driving force in table tennis but there are some really strong nations from Asia and Europe such as Japan, Sweden and Germany who will make us work.”

Chinese-born athlete Vivian Tan will join her teammates Miao Miao and Jian Fang Lay in the women’s team event. The Sydney-based player will make her Olympic debut at the age of 34.

Remarkably, she retired from competition in 1997 in China and 10 years later in Australia she dusted off her racquet and has never looked back. She went close to qualifying for the 2008 Beijing Games before representing Australia at the 2010 World Championships in Moscow and 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi. 

View all Table Tennis athlete profiles here>>>

Alice Wheeler
Australian Olympic Committee