The Ping-Pong Community Is ‘Hyped’ for Its Moment With ‘Marty Supreme’

Have you already noticed an increase in the number of people looking to play ping-pong since the trailer came out? 

We’ve seen mostly in social media posts people saying, “I have to start playing.” We did see some activities in people who are passersby signing up, new users. But I don't know if I could correlate the new sign-ups to the movie. We don’t have that data.  

How big of a bump in participation do you think you'll see after the movie arrives?  

I will give you this data. I don’t have a numerical value, but we did really see an impact right after the [2024 Summer] Olympics, where we saw Steph Curry and the Antman and other NBA players were talking to our women’s table tennis team and even went to the extent of watching our U.S. women’s team play, where some of our players finished further than expected. We did see a spike in PingPod use or sign-ups, and also participants in our community league. I would assume that this movie will double the impact of that. This is quite a Queen’s Gambit moment for us. It’s going to be a good incoming year for us.  

We’ve seen Hollywood romanticize other niche sports, like boxing, golf, and horse racing. Why has Hollywood largely ignored ping-pong?   

I would not blame Hollywood for ignoring the sport. What I would say is table tennis is a very fun sport, but I would equate it to a highly skilled sport where you don’t get to enjoy it the first time around. You’ve got to have good touch and good coordination, where in other sports, right off the bat, it’s easy for you, like pickleball. That being said, not too many Hollywood stars dabble in playing table tennis. You have to spend at least two weeks before you can rally and at least understand the sport. In table tennis, the competition is very fierce. The Asian market dominates it, and not so much in the North American market.  

So the United States has never won an Olympic medal in table tennis since they were first handed out in 1988. What will it take for the U.S. to finally win one in Los Angeles in 2028?  

I think whatever support Kanak [Jha, a highly ranked U.S. men’s table tennis player] is receiving from the private sector or public sector and from his family, if we don’t stabilize it, we should double it. Not only him, but our women’s team has the potential to get a medal in LA. It’s not a dream. It is something that’s within the horizon with the right preparation and the right support. We can get there. We have the blueprint to be successful and compete on the international level. We need to have more exposure and more sponsors, and more visibility and more awareness about the sport. Major League Table Tennis is doing a phenomenal job in raising awareness and putting a structure together for a league, an NBA-type league, for table tennis.  

Getting back to the movie, how would you rate Chalamet’s game?  

I actually know about his game. He did play in PingPod sometimes. He has a decent game. It’s not only for show. He knows how to play, and he’s been coached by several good coaches and athletes. He has an advanced game at table tennis.  

How much training would it take for someone to look like a table tennis pro on camera?  

If he’s undergoing training from our coaches, I would say he could look good on camera in two weeks or three weeks.  

How much training do you think Chalamet had?  

We’ve been following it, so I think he had more than a year of training. I didn’t follow day to day, but he had consistent training.  

But you would smoke Chalamet at ping-pong, right?  

Easily. [Laughs.] 

Are you aware of the Marty Supreme jacket?  

I’ve seen one in some postings, just not on the streets.  

GQ said it could be the defining garment of 2025, as it’s generated its own buzz. If you’re going to rock that jacket, does that mean you need to be good at ping-pong?  
 
You don’t need to be good at ping-pong. It’s a representation of not only the movie, but of what Marty [Reisman] did. He put U.S. table tennis on the map.  

But I’d imagine it’s gotta be pretty cool for the ping-pong community to be associated with a hot merch item. 

Definitely. Definitely.  

In the trailer, we see Chalamet’s character hustling. Do people hustle for money playing table tennis anymore like Marty Reisman did decades ago?  

Not as often as before. It’s not the same. Before, people really did use [the sport] to hustle. In table tennis, you play in rating events, and people would actually sandbag to win matches or lower-rated events, and their level didn’t represent the rating they had. But there are still—I would assume that it’s happening in other continents. Just not in the U.S.  

I'm assuming that being absurdly good at ping-pong—like Marty Reisman good—isn't a ticket to fame and fortune like it was for Reisman in New York during the 1940s and ’50s. So what's the best part of being awesome at ping-pong or table tennis?  

Definitely, there’s bragging rights. But now being good at table tennis opens a lot of doors—not only as an athlete, but employment. A lot of investment banks or venture capitalists or hedge funds are looking to hire athletes, because an athlete knows the grit, the hard work, the discipline. So for me, in particular, I was fortunate enough to have some good titles under my belt, and it opened up opportunities to meet people and share my passion and open up PingPod.