"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles." These timeless words, written by Chinese general Sun Tzu 2500 years ago and echoed by Rage Against the Machine in the 1992 song, "Know Your Enemy," find recent relevance for the US Olympic table tennis team. Recently arrived in Tokyo, Team USA have spent an extra year getting extra prepared for the pandemic-postponed Olympiad. Olympic veterans Lily Zhang and Kanak Jha are already seeded, awaiting opponents from qualifying rounds. Meanwhile, Olympic first-timers Juan Liu (second from left) and Nikhil Kumar (second from right) are in said qualifying rounds, beginning Saturday, July 24. Kumar makes his Olympic debut across the table from Mongolia's Lkhagvasuren Enkhbat. Liu, meanwhile, takes on Olufunke Oshonaike of Nigeria. Oshonaike is making her seventh Olympic appearance, tying the record for table tennis players. Their teammates Huijing Wang (left) and Xin Zhou (right) will be on hand for team events. There, each squad will face a stiff challenge right out of the gate. The unseeded US women will face #5 Taiwan (or Chinese Taipei, if Xi Jinping is within earshot), a traditional powerhouse boasting Chen Szu-Yu, Cheng Hsien-Tzu and world #8 Cheng I-Ching. Similarly, the unseeded US men face fifth-seeded Sweden, a country known for occasionally disrupting Chinese hegemony in table tennis. The Swedish squad consists of Kristian Karlsson, Anton Källberg and Europe's top-ranked player, world #9 Mattias Falck. "If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat," continued Sun Tzu. "If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle." Facing seemingly insurmountable odds against prohibitive favorites like China, Germany and the host nation, Japan, Team USA could use a rallying cry. Perhaps they can find the needed inspiration in the aforementioned song, adrenaline rising with every spittle-soaked syllable from Rage Against the Machine frontman Zack De La Rocha: "Action must be taken/We don't need the key, we'll break in."

More at USATT