By Marcel Vander Wier
The Guardian
Like most Canadians, Todd Gregory’s athletic dream began with practising in his basement when he was just four years old.
Unlike most Canadians, Gregory’s first love was table tennis.
In fact, the Charlottetown native enjoyed the sport so much, he quit the P.E.I. Rocket in 2004 to pursue his table tennis dream.
“You might ask if I’m Canadian,” the amicable 24-year-old joked from his window office high in the capital city’s downtown core.
This week, Gregory heads to Shenzhen, China, to represent the country at the 2011 Summerside Universaide from Aug. 12 to 23.
After graduating from UPEI in April with an economics degree, this will most likely be Gregory’s last competition at the event, also known as the World University Games.
He also competed in 2007, reaching the round of 64 in both singles and doubles as a 20-year-old.
This time, Gregory will compete with three of Canada’s finest university-eligible players from Quebec, forming the Canadian team with Pierre-Luc Hinse, Ling-Kun Yang and Guo Peng.
Gregory’s growth from four-year-old to tops in the Maritimes among table tennis players is a story of excelling at the family’s sport.
His father, Wade, and older brother Mark are also excellent players.
When his eldest was nine, Wade, a two-time Atlantic champion, purchased a table for the family’s basement and began teaching Mark the game he loved.
Todd, five years younger than his brother, was never far behind.
His first memory of competition came when he was attended an open tournament to cheer on his father and brother.
As fate would have it, the eight-year-old had brought along his racket and volunteered to play when a D Division participant failed to show up for the mixed event.
Gregory and his partner won the division, and a large plaque.
His father and older brother came in second in A Division doubles, taking home a plaque of their own, albeit slightly smaller.
“I liked holding that plaque over their heads,” Gregory laughed, years later.
Gregory’s won his share of awards since then, including five Atlantic singles championships in the past seven years, and is considered the best player on Canada’s east coast.
Back when the game was scored to 21, Gregory recalls facing off against his father in the family’s basement.
“He would give me 19-0 leads and then beat me 21-19,” he remembers.
Today, with the game’s score reaching 11, Gregory regularly gives his 58-year-old father a 9-0 lead and beats him 11-9.
The tables have turned in the Gregory family.
“He just loves the sport,” Wade told the Guardian. “Todd’s strength is his speed. He just got faster and faster.”
“Also, he doesn’t like losing.”
The youngest Gregory admits he was blessed to be facing off against two of the Maritimes’ best every time he picked up a racket.
Gregory grew up in Charlottetown playing a host of sports — golf, baseball, hockey, table tennis.
He excelled at all of them.
However, as the years went by, he found himself dropping his favourite pastimes one by one, until he found himself facing a choice between hockey and table tennis.
Drafted in the seventh round by the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s Rocket and serving as their back-up goalie as a 17-year-old, Gregory made the difficult decision to quit the team and focus on table tennis.
“Playing hockey helped Todd at table tennis,” his father said. “He was used to the ups and downs of being a goalie, by himself. It also kept his reflexes up.”
Gregory agreed, pointing out it’s his hand-eye coordination and general quickness that allow him to excel at his chosen sport.
“Being consistent is also a big part of the game,” he said.
The right-handed player conceded that he prefers singles play, and that his ultimate goal is to represent Canada in the Olympics.
For the time being, Gregory is celebrating his current career milestone, making the Canadian team for the Universiade.
“The thing I’m most excited about is it’s in China,” he said of the upcoming tournament, where crowds of 13,000 are expected. “I’ve played in front of big crowds in hockey, but never in table tennis.”
His goal is to improve the team’s ranking throughout tournament play.
He is also looking forward to taking on the best players in the world alongside his Canada teammates.
“Facing the best, we can take stock of where we’re at,” he said. “That’s the best measuring stick.”
**** Large Canadian team gunning for medals Canada will send its biggest team ever to the 26th World University Games in China. The hope is the squad will come back with a large medal haul. Chef de mission Peter Baxter is looking for a strong Canadian performance when the world’s second largest multi-sport event after the Olympics opens Thursday in the glittering new facilities and sweltering heat of Shenzhen, the rapidly expanding city of about 10.5 million in southeastern China. That would be outside of the record 38 medals the team won the only time the event was held in Canada in 1983 in Edmonton. That year, Canada was third in the standings behind the 113 medals won by the Soviet Union and the 54 by the U.S. The Canadian delegation has 246 athletes plus 103 coaches and other staff, who join more than 8,000 athletes from about 150 countries for the two-week event. They will compete in 24 sports. The Canadian Press
