By Stephanie Takach

The Olympic Table Tennis Trials have taken over Drexel University for the weekend. As I was eating lunch today, I saw two players and their coach enjoying their lunch and wanted to get a closer look.

Razvan Cretu has been a table tennis athlete since he was our years old. He grew up in Romania and began playing after his parents notice that he had a lot of excess energy. When Cretu was 14 years old he went to Greece and Sweden to continue his table tennis career before moving to the US in 1992.

Cretu explained that table tennis is much bigger in Asia and Europe than in the US.

“That’s where the money is,” he said.

A typical week for Cretu involves six days, eight hours a day preparing for competitions. He spends three hours in the gym and four hours practicing with a partner or a robot. He made the U.S. National Team in 1997 and 1998.

Aside from table tennis, Cretu likes to play tennis, basketball and football.

Tahl Leibovitz has been playing table tennis for 15 years and has already qualified for the Para-Olympic Team, a disabled table tennis team.

He began playing table tennis after he learned that it would help his reflects for martial arts. He plays matches 2-3 times a week for practice.

In the trials, the top four contenders will face the top four contenders from Canada for a spot in the Olympics. The top five will make the U.S. National team.