A sign painted on the wall says it all: "HOME OF CHAMPIONS." The structure supported by the wall is the India Community Center (ICC). The aforementioned champions supported by the structure include seven Olympians. Supporting all of the above is ICC director Rajul Sheth (pictured). Born in India, the mechanical engineer Sheth was also a mainstay of the Gujarat state team from 1990 to 2001. Moving to the Bay Area, he could not find adequate table tennis facilities. True to his trade, he engineered a solution. It started small, as great things usually do. Sheth arranged to keep a few tables in the lobby of the ICC in Milpitas, California, a multi-purpose facility offering everything from public speaking to dance classes. From these humble beginnings, successes succeeded. Either there is something in the Milpitas water that spontaneously generates world-class table talent, or Sheth has a world-class talent for developing it. Four of the six current members of the US Olympic table tennis team are products of the ICC, including the entire US Men's Team of Kanak Jha, Xin Zhou and Nikhil Kumar, all born in the Bay Area. Another California native representing the ICC is reigning US women's champion Lily Zhang, a scant three weeks from her third Olympic appearance. "Three athletes qualified for 2012 London Olympics—all 3 were training with me at ICC," Sheth proudly recounts. "We sent players to Rio, including Kanak who started with me in 2004. Nikhil played here from 2008 to 2017." Rajul Sheth's son Ved Sheth, 15, is yet another ICC success story. The young paddler recently punched well above his weight to earn a spot on the US National Under-19 team. Currently rated 2411 in USATT, Ved could very well become the eighth ICC Olympian in 2024. While remarkable, Ved Sheth's success really should not be all that surprising. After all, he literally grew up in the HOME OF CHAMPIONS.

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