Wally Green (born 1979) is an American

table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

player. He has played for the U.S. in more than 35 International Pro Tour competitions.

Early life

Green grew up in a low-income

housing project Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authorities, government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the d ...

in Brooklyn, New York. He became part of a gang and his juvenile

rap sheet A criminal record, police record, or colloquially RAP sheet (Record of Arrests and Prosecutions) is a record of a person's criminal history. The information included in a criminal record and the existence of a criminal record varies between coun ...

included

carjacking Carjacking is a robbery in which the item taken over is a motor vehicle.Michael Cherbonneau, "Carjacking," in ''Encyclopedia of Social Problems'', Vol. 1 (SAGE, 2008: ed. Vincent N. Parrillo), pp. 110-11. In contrast to car theft, carjacking is ...

and gun possession. He was shot twice, says that he grew up with domestic violence, and that he owned six guns when he was 13 years old. He was sent to boarding school in Nigeria for a time, and in New York he went to Lafayette High School. At Lafayette, he played basketball, football and volleyball, among other sports.

Table tennis

Green started playing table tennis due to a chance encounter at a pool hall, and discovered that other black people played the game. Playing sports was also a way to avoid his step-father. He found a mentor, who paid for him to train in Hanover, Germany. He played his first

International Table Tennis Federation The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) is the governing body for all national table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the p ...

(ITTF) game as global pro in 2001 in Germany. During the following years, he didn't win a lot, but he traveled globally, camera crews noticed him and

Rockstar Games Rockstar Games, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in New York City. The company was established in December 1998 as a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive, using the assets Take-Two had previously acquired from BMG Interactive. Foun ...

became his sponsor. According to ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', he "brought charisma and showmanship" to the sport. He won his first international match in the 2009 Korea Open. In 2015, he decided to participate as the only Westerner in the Pyongyang Open in North Korea. He said later that "I wanted the North Koreans to realize that Americans aren't their enemies" and, about playing in front of 5,000 North Koreans, that "You can feel the eyes of everyone looking at you because you're very different ... It's the most eerie, like really strange, feeling." Green stopped competing internationally in 2016. His record in ITTF events is one match won in singles, and two in doubles. In 2018 he said "I'm not the best player in the world, but I'm definitely the coolest. I'm sure of it. That beats being the best." He credits table tennis with saving his life.

Other activities

Green was involved in the promotion of the 2006 video game ''

Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis ''Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis'' is a 2006 table tennis simulation video game developed by Rockstar San Diego and published by Rockstar Games. The game is a realistic simulation of the sport table tennis, with the main objective to make t ...

'' in Tokyo, and provided

motion capture Motion capture (sometimes referred as mo-cap or mocap, for short) is the process of recording the movement of objects or people. It is used in military, entertainment, sports, medical applications, and for validation of computer vision and robo ...

for one of the characters. In 2009, he co-founded the table tennis franchise

SPiN Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning * Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis * Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...

with, among others,

Susan Sarandon Susan Abigail Sarandon (; née Tomalin; born October 4, 1946) is an American actorMcCabe, Bruce"Susan Sarandon, the 'actor'" ''Boston Globe''. April 17, 1981. Retrieved January 21, 2021. and activist. She is the recipient of various accolades, ...

. On his initiative, table tennis tables were installed in

Bryant Park Bryant Park is a public park located in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Privately managed, it is located between Fifth Avenue and Avenue of the Americas ( Sixth Avenue) and between 40th and 42nd Streets in Midtown Manhattan. The e ...

in New York City, initially as marketing for SPiN. In 2013, he released a hip-hop song called "A Game Nobody Knows (Ping Pong Song)". In 2022, he was featured in

Unanimous Media Wardell Stephen Curry II ( ; born March 14, 1988) is an American professional basketball player for the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Widely regarded as one of the greatest basketball players of all time, ...

's ''The Greatest Sports Stories Never Told''.

Personal life

Green suffered from pain for several years, and underwent

hip resurfacing Hip resurfacing has been developed as a surgical alternative to total hip replacement (THR). The procedure consists of placing a cap (usually made of cobalt-chrome metal), which is hollow and shaped like a mushroom, over the head of the femur whi ...

in 2018.

References

External links

*
Green Wally
at Table Tennis Guide
German Open 2013 Highlights: Liang Jingkun vs Wally Green
World Table Tennis video
The first-person story of how ping pong saved the life of a New York City kid and took him all the way to North Korea
''

New York Daily News The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ta ...

'', 2018, by Wally Green
Taking ping pong from losing, to winning, to diplomacy in North Korea - Wally Green
2022

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