We have known since February of 2020 the makeup of the US Olympic table tennis team. Now, we know who will carry the proverbial torch after the summer games in Tokyo. As with last year's US Olympic Trials, the women's and men's team captains were installed before their respective crews self-selected through a Hunger Games-style battle of attrition. Once again, reigning US national champions Lily Zhang and Kanak Jha hold the top spots by dint of their world rankings, each listed at #30. Their teammates for the next year, then, would be determined by pure meritocracy at the 2021-22 US National Adult Team Trials. The aspirants from across the fruited plain gathered in Fort Worth, Texas from May 21-24. The top seven women would join Zhang on the US women's team, with the most meritorious septet of gentlemen falling in line behind Jha. The tournament served not only as a qualifier for the 2021 Pan American Championships, to be held at a location yet to be determined this November 8-14, but also the 2021 World Table Tennis Championships Finals this November 23-29 in Houston and the World Team Championships next year in Chengdu, China. Interestingly, the second-ranked woman in the US did not compete for the team. Yue "Jennifer" Wu is ranked right behind Lily Zhang at world #32, but only one spot is awarded for the highest-ranked player in the world's top 50, an honor which fell to Zhang. With Wu out of the way, Amy Wang won the tournament after going 4-1 in the qualifying round-robin. "After a year and a half of not competing, I was really excited to travel and play again," said the exultant Wang. "Having to adjust to the long matches each day was difficult since it has been a while since I’ve played so many consecutive games. Aside from everything else, this tournament has been a good experience and feels awesome to make the team again!" Zhang and Wang are backed up by, in order from 3rd to 8th place, Sarah Jalli, Huijing Wang, Tiffany Ke, Xinyue Wang, Rachel Yang, and Linda Shu. Jalli looks to be a major asset to Team USA for years to come, the finalist being only 15 years old. The qualification was also a fitting coming of age milestone for Sharon Alguetti (pictured), who turned 20 one week before the tournament. After going 5-0 in his round-robin, he posted parallel perfection in the knockout rounds. "It was a crazy tournament, which only got better as it progressed," marveled Alguetti. "Coming into it my goal was just to make the national team, not thinking too much about final positions, but somehow a miracle happened. I'm speechless, still can't believe I can achieve something so incredible in this sport!" After Jha and Alguetti, the US Men's Team is rounded out by Nikhil Kumar, Jishan Liang, Dan Liu, Kai Zhang, Yahao Zhang, and Earl James Alto. With trials, one expects to find error, the traditional pairing. For Sharon Alguetti, however, there was no place for error in his reign of terror. This, like the emergence of wunderkind Sarah Jalli, certainly bodes well for the future of Team USA.

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