By Graham Thomas
Anna Hursey believes her long stint in the limelight, that began as a table tennis child prodigy, will prove invaluable when she goes to her first Olympic Games this summer.
At just a month past her 18th birthday, the Welsh teenager will be one of the youngest members of the Great Britain squad heading to Paris later this month.
But being the focus of attention is nothing new to the veteran of two Commonwealth Games, who became Wales’ youngest senior international athlete in any sport at the age of 10 and was a climate change advisor to US president Joe Biden at 14.
“I’ve got used to having people watch me and being in the spotlight because I’ve had that for a long time now,” said Hursey, who is one of only two GB table tennis players qualified for Paris. The other is Liam Pitchford, 31, who is going to his fourth Games.
“The longer you are competing at a young age, the more it feels natural. I began when I was really young and managed to become one of the best U12s in the world.
“I carried on through cadet and junior levels and now into the seniors. That experience – as well as going to two Commonwealth Games – has really helped me and I feel more excited about Paris than nervous.”
Hursey – who was born in Carmarthen to a Chinese mother and English father before growing up in Swansea and then Cardiff – spent three years honing her skills in China, in the city of Tianjin.
Her schedule involved remote online schooling and 40 hours a week of intensive training sessions, but the discipline and routine proved invaluable.
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After being part of the Team Wales squad for the 2018 Commonwealth Games at the Gold Coast in Australia at the age of 11, she won a bronze medal in the women’s doubles at Birmingham 2022, as a 15-year-old alongside Charlotte Carey.
Now, she is intent on adding to the notable achievements of sporting teens in 2024, a year that has already produced a darts world championship runner-up at 16 in Luke Littler as well as a 16-year-old European Championship-winning footballer in Spaniard Lamine Yamal.
Last month, rising 800m track star Phoebe Gill clinched her Olympic place by winning at the British Championships at the age of 17.
“I watched a bit of the football and I saw the young players for Spain and the impact they made. I think it’s exciting for a sport when you see young people succeeding,” added Hursey.
“I think it has an influence on other young people who are watching. It can inspire them. That’s what I want to do in table tennis, get young people wanting to play the game and enjoy it like I do. It’s a great sport.”
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Hursey will go to Paris having broken into the world’s top 100 female players for the first time earlier this year.
Her surge – from 163 in the world a year ago to No.93 – coincided with her success at a qualification event in Sarajevo in May where she beat a string of players ranked above her.
Now, as Britain’s number one ranked female player, she is poised to become the first Welsh athlete to compete at table tennis at an Olympic Games.
What she lacks in Olympic experience, however, she intends to make up with careful preparation by tapping into the know-how of Pitchford, Britain’s men’s No.1, whose first appearance at a Games was London 2012, when he was 19.
“Pitch has been great to train alongside and he’s given me some good advice about what to expect in Paris,” added Hursey.
“It’s a very small team – just me and him – so it will be nice to have him with me in the athletes’ village, along with our coach.
“I just feel really excited and grateful that I’m going to an Olympic Games. I was excited about going to Birmingham for the Commonwealths, but an Olympics is a whole lot bigger.
“I feel like I am playing quite well at the moment, I have improved a lot in the past two years or so, physically and emotionally. I took a lot of confidence from the results I had at the qualification tournament, and I can’t wait to get to Paris.”
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