Teenage paddler with Indian roots, Prithika Pavade eyes an encore at Paris Olympics

Pavitra

France’s Prithika Pavade in action during her women’s singles round of 32 clash at the WTT Star Contender Goa 2024 at the Peddem Indoor Stadium in Mapusa, Goa on Friday.

She’s French, has Indian roots and at the Paris Olympics, six months away, she’ll be ranked higher than any other female table tennis player from the country of her birth and ancestry.

No wonder, then, that 19-year-old Prithika Pavade is making heads turn in both the countries.

Prithika’s father, who was born and raised in Puducherry, migrated to Paris after getting married. Prithika was born in the French capital and this summer, will get a r are opportunity to compete in an Olympics at home. On Friday, she gave a glimpse into what she’s capable of.

Currently ranked 33rd in the world and number one in France, Prithika fought back after being two games and a match point down in the third to beat South Korea’s Ryu Hanna 9-11, 9-11, 10-12, 7-11, 3-11 and set up a Round of 16 clash with another Korean paddler, Nayeong Kim.

In the table tennis circuit, it’s quite common to see players of Chinese origin play for top European countries. Prithika’s compatriot, 38-year-old Jia Nan Yuan, who recently won the European Top 16 Cup and the 2022 mixed doubles European Championship, also learned her sport in China before moving to France at the age of 18. Even USA’s top-ranked players Amy Wang and Lily Zhang have Chinese heritage.

TT

France’s Prithika Pavade in action during her women’s singles round of 32 clash at the WTT Star Contender Goa 2024 at the Peddem Indoor Stadium in Mapusa, Goa on Friday.

Seeing an Indian among the top women’s players though is a rarity. Ironically, she is ranked five spots higher than India’s Manika Batra.

Prithika even admits that she’s been asked about switching allegiances to India but she dismisses it at the source. “I was born in France. I’ve lived there all my life. Of course, India will always have a special place in my heart, but I’ve learnt the sport in France,” she says.

Though she learned and mastered the sport in France, her Indian roots played a huge role in her taking to the sport.

Her dad was a TT player and having played the sport at a regional level, he first encouraged Prithika to try out the sport when she was just six years old.

“My father wasn’t a national-level player, but he still had good skills. When I was six, he took me to a gymnasium that was about two minutes from our apartment. There was a table there and I enjoyed playing,” she says, adding that though her dad would have liked to coach the sport, he works the night shift at a hotel to support her family, making it almost impossible for him to become more involved with the sport.

“My dad was indeed the one who chose table tennis for me but he never forced me to stick to it. Later on, it became my choice because I just fell in love with the sport,” Prithika, who’s in her first year of university studying Chemistry and environmental science, says.

“I didn’t take the sport seriously at first and it was only after I won the U-14 French Championships that I realised it was something I wanted to do,” she says.

And she seems to be doing it quite well. At the age of 16, she won the European U-21 Championships and the same year, became one of the youngest-ever French players to qualify for the Olympics when she made the cut for the delayed Tokyo Games which was held in 2021. “That was probably the greatest moment of my life,” she says.

She showed that making it to the Olympics as a 16-year-old wasn’t just a one-off when she became the senior French national champion in 2022.

At her first Olympics, she was just happy to be there. This time around, there’s a lot more pressure.

While a singles medal might seem like an uphill task at the moment, she has formed a formidable mixed doubles partnership with fellow teenager, 17-year-old Felix Lebrun, who is ranked 8th in the world. They pose a realistic threat to Chinese dominance and are seen as France’s best hopes for an Olympic medal in TT.

Understandably, Prithika can’t wait for the home Games to get underway. “It’s the biggest event in almost every sport. I think our generation is very lucky because it’s crazy to have the Olympics at home. My first school and my first club in the same city. I will be a little nervous, but the most important thing is to enjoy the moment,” she says.

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