In 2004, Ryu Seung-min (pictured) fought for Korean pride as he won the Olympic gold medal. Now he is fighting a very different kind of battle. As president of the Korea Table Tennis Association (KTTA), Ryu was working closely with the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) to bring the 2020 World Team Table Tennis Championships to Busan, South Korea. The prestigious biennial tournament was slated to run March 22-29. Much has changed in the world, however, since the outbreak of the deadly COVID-19 coronavirus in China. Thousands of lives are already lost as new infections skyrocket, leaving governments around the world scrambling to protect their citizens. With the discovery of infections in the Republic of Korea, concerns rose about the wisdom of inviting players from around the world to engage in an indoor sport with extremely high aerobic demand. When the World Health Organization confirmed a growing number of coronavirus-related deaths in the Korean peninsula, the ITTF and KTTA made the decision to prioritize public health, and the safety of the world's finest athletes, by postponing the World Championships. The USA women's and men's teams have already qualified for the tournament, but they will have to wait until at least June 21 to commence play. As the ITTF works on rescheduling the other events impinged upon by this rescheduling, the world's leading health authorities are working tirelessly to combat the novel threat to humanity. Under president Thomas Weikert, the ITTF has also made substantial contributions to the hardest-hit areas, donating warm clothing and 600,000 surgical masks to the quarantined Chinese city of Wuhan where the virus originated. In the face of a deadly enemy, true leaders like Weikert and Ryu Seung-min are bringing people together for the common good. At the moment, however, it seems the best way to protect the common good is to keep people apart.

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