"Haters are my motivators." This quote, variously attributed to Nikki Minaj, Ellen DeGeneres and others, has launched a thousand memes. This empowering sentiment could find no better living embodiment than in Ibrahim Hamadtou (pictured). Hamadtou was born in Damietta, Egypt in 1973. At ten, he lost both of his arms when he fell between the cars of a moving train. "In our village, we could only play, at that time, table tennis and soccer—that's why I played both," recounts Hamadtou. "It was logical to play soccer first due to my case; then I played table tennis as a challenge." Said challenge initially came about in the form of a remarkably rude remark. "I was in the club where I was officiating a match between two of my friends," recalls Hamadtou. "They disagreed on a point. When I counted the point in favor of one of them, the other player told me, 'Do not interfere as you will never be able to play.' It was that statement that fired me up to decide to play table tennis." From this cruel comment came a now-legendary transformation. After much trial and error, Hamadtou learned to play by holding the racket handle in his mouth. he learned to balance the ball on one foot and toss it above his head in order to serve. Playing over the table, his head motion naturally creates an effective sidespin-slice. When the rally gets going, he uses his entire body to whip the racket at the ball, generating considerable speed and topspin. Hamadtou's nimble neck really began turning heads when he qualified for the 2016 Rio Paralympics at 43. An ITTF video compilation of his playing went viral, viewed 3.4 million times. Now, Hamadtou has once again qualified for the Paralympics, setting sail for Tokyo after years of training. For an added degree of unfathomable difficulty, he even learned to hold the paddle while wearing a mask due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Alas, he failed to advance from his Men's Class 6 qualifying group, swept 3-0 by both South Korea's Park Hong Kyu and China's Chen Chao. Nonetheless, Hamadtou has earned a shout-out from one of the biggest names in racket sports. "Amazing… I am in awe of this @ibrahim_hamadto," posted none other than 20-time tennis Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic, the Serbian player currently ranked #1 in the world, to his over nine million followers on Instagram. Whether or not Hamadtou qualifies for Paris 2024 at the age of 51 is immaterial. He has already won the respect of his peers and the admiration of the world. To the rude player at the table tennis club so many years ago, we join Ibrahim Hamadtou in thanking you for the motivation.

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