They were all playing for something bigger. At the Aurora Games, held from August 20-25 in Albany, New York, elite women athletes from around the globe gathered to compete across seven disciplines. The Aurora Games mission statement is: "To invite the women of the world to meet every two years to celebrate their accomplishments and bold visions for the future set against a backdrop of world class sports competition and entertainment." This year marks the debut of table tennis at the august occasion. The fan-friendly format pitted local continental representatives against top players from around the world. Lily Zhang, and Wu Yue, DBA "Team Americas," are seasoned Team USA veterans, flying the Stars and Bars at numerous international competitions, including the Olympics. "Team World," represented by Izabela Lupulesku of Serbia and Germany’s Sophia Klee, put up a spirited fight but also kept things in perspective. As Klee, the 16-year-old German delegate expressed, “I think here, in this competition, it’s not important to win or to lose – just to have fun and show the people how great table tennis is.” Her Serbian teammate Lupulesku, at 19 making her maiden voyage to the United States, was optimistic that the event could help promote our sport. “I feel like a lot of people don’t understand table tennis,” stated Lupulesku. “It’s great that here we can promote our sport and people can see that it’s not really easy to play table tennis.” Indeed it is not, especially against the likes of Wu Yue, 29, and reigning national champion Lily Zhang, 23. It was easy, however, to impress the spectators with their intense rallies. Ryan Willard of USA Table Tennis was thrilled with the crowd's response, gushing, “I feed off the energy of the crowd, so hearing everyone ‘oohing’ and ‘aahing’ and all the ups and downs and rollercoasters everyone goes through – I just love when people have a great time and get to appreciate the sport.” “I just love the message that the games are sending out – supporting women, women in professional sports," said Zhang. "I hope that we can do our small part in inspiring young girls to also keep playing sports.” With such a successful showing, table tennis is sure to become a fixture of the Aurora Games. Mark your calendar for 2021. And 2023!

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