As COVID-19 became the dominant story of 2020, life as we knew it (and, for nearly a million people and rapidly counting, life itself) ceased to be. For those of us blessed enough to only have our entertainment options limited, we tried to keep things in perspective as major sporting events like March Madness and Wimbledon were canceled outright, without even the false hope of rescheduling. (Not even the Little League World Series was spared the wrath, much to the chagrin of 2019 world champion team from Louisiana.) Now, the 2020 US National Table Tennis Championships too have officially gone the way of the dodo. USA Table Tennis (USATT) CEO Virginia Sung broke the news today in a press release. "USATT has decided to reschedule the US Nationals to protect and promote the health, safety and well-being of the American table tennis community and our society more generally," said Sung. The 2020 US Nationals, originally scheduled for July 6-10 this summer in Las Vegas, were at first rescheduled for December. Now, they have been re-rescheduled for early July, 2021. "When we moved the original date from July of 2020 to this December, we had reason to believe that there would be significant progress on the containment and treatment of COVID-19," explained Sung. "However, our current analysis leads us to believe that it is in the best interest of our participants, patrons, officials and staff to provide additional time for the medical community and public health authorities to gain more control over the health risks associated with the coronavirus." For the USATT, cramming two national championships into a 2021 already bursting at the seams with rescheduled events proved unrealistic. In addition to the aforementioned Olympics in Tokyo, the rescheduled 2020 World Team Table Tennis Championships will run next February-March in Busan, South Korea. The United States was scheduled to host its first ever World Championships next June 17-26 in Houston, but the long-overdue stateside debut has been postponed indefinitely. Therefore, the 2021 US Nationals at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas will serve as an unhurried tune-up for the Olympics. "We are hopeful that by scheduling the tournament to kick off on Independence Day in 2021, we’ll all be able to celebrate our nation’s birthday by returning to competitive fun at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas," concluded Sung. While defending singles champions Lily Zhang and Kanak Jha will be looking to extend their win streaks, players of all levels will rejoice for the sheer joy of simply getting to play at all. (The Louisiana Little League team, however, will mostly have aged out by next summer. They will be forced to pick on someone their own size in the Intermediate League, where regional rivals Alabama return as world champions.) Play ball!

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