USATT to Host 2024 US National Table Tennis Championships in Huntsville

USA Table Tennis (“USATT”) will host the 2024 US National Table Tennis Championships at the Von Braun Center South Hall in Huntsville, Alabama, from July 3 through July 7, 2024. Known as “The Rocket City” for its long-standing leadership role in America’s space industry, Huntsville will be the first city in Alabama to host the US National Table Tennis Championships.

The Prospectus for the 2024 US Nationals can be found at https://omnipong.com/EntryForms/1091-77.pdf. Participants can register for the tournament at https://omnipong.com/Members.asp?ae=13917&h=3834 and can book hotel arrangements at the Springhill Suites Huntsville Downtown (745 Constellation Place, Huntsville, Alabama 35801) at the following link for USATT group rates: https://www.marriott.com/event-reservations/reservation-link.mi?id=1709659161726&key=GRP&app=resvlink.

“We’re extremely excited to host our National Championship for the first time ever in Alabama,” said USATT Chief Executive Officer Virginia Sung. “Huntsville is considered one of the top cities in the entire United States of America, and we think the players who participate in the 2024 Nationals will understand why. Not only does Huntsville have unique and growing community that has been instrumental in the success of America’s space industry, but the community has also invested a tremendous amount of time, energy and resources in developing and attracting an extensive foundation in the field sports and recreation. We’ve been impressed with the commitment and effort exhibited by the city leaders of Huntsville to host our National Championship, and we’re confident that this community will serve as a perfect launch pad for our players to earn a National Title in an Olympic Year.”

The 2024 US Nationals will offer a total of 115 events, including thirty-one open and age group championship singles events, which are headlined by the Men’s and Women’s Singles events presented by the Hsing Family Foundation, which hold a $7000 pay day for a first place finish. Amy Wang is the reigning Women’s Champion after bagging her second National Title in three years last summer in Fort Worth, Texas; and Nikhil Kumar will seek to become only the third man in US history to capture three consecutive Men’s Singles National Titles, joining Sean O’Neill (1987, -88, and -89) and Kanak Jha, who won four in a row (2016, -17, -18, and -19).

The 2024 US Nationals will also offer thirty-eight doubles events. The reigning Men’s and Women’s Singles champs – Wang and Kumar – actually combined their considerable talents last year to win the Mixed Doubles title, which of course is an event that will also hold special importance at this summer’s Paris Olympics. In Men’s Doubles, the pairing Jinxin Wang and Krishnateja Avvari are the reigning champs, while Amy Wang added to her medal haul last year when she teamed up with Rachel Sung to take the Women’s Doubles title.

The Nationals will once again offer the open ratings events for the top players in the tournament including the U-2600, U-2400 and U-2000. But there’s a little bit of something for everyone in this year’s Nationals as there will be ten adult ratings divisions and ten junior ratings events, ranging from U-2000 down to U-1000 for those just getting started in competition table tennis.

There is also a full slate of historic table tennis events with eleven hardbat events to be contested in the Wasserman Hardbat Championships and two sandpaper events. And, for the third year in a row, USATT will work closely with the good people at PingPongParkinson to an open event for persons living with a Parkinson diagnosis.

Located in the Appalachian region of Northern Alabama, Huntsville is the most populous city proper in the state of Alabama. During World War II, Huntsville was a critical base of operations for the US Army. After the war, rocket research in the city built the foundation for America’s space program. In fact, the city earned its nickname “The Rocket City” for its close involvement in the projects for America’s first orbiting satellite, the Apollo Lunar Landing Program, and more recently the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station. Huntsville also boasts a spectacular space-related museum, the United States Space & Rocket Center, which features the US Space Camp, Aviation Challenge, and the only Saturn V rocket designated as a National Historic Landmark.

Huntsville is also well-known in the sports world, boasting a newly renovated professional soccer facility that is the home to Huntsville City FC, a professional hockey team, the Huntsville Havoc, which plays in the Von Braun Center’s Arena, and the Rocket City Trash Pandas, the Double-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels. Among the over 60 parks within the city, Huntsville has recently developed a series of expansive outdoor sports venues, which include numerous state-of-the-art fields for soccer, field hockey, and lacrosse – as well as elite-level sand volleyball courts, which are poised to host the American Volleyball Coaches Association Fall Collegiate Beach Championships this fall, and a world-class cross country course that is considered one of the fastest in the country.

Huntsville’s growth has caught the eye of many across the nation, with U.S. News & World Report ranking the city as the Number One place to live in the United States in 2022.

The 2024 US National Table Tennis Championships will be staged in the South Hall of the Von Braun Center, an expansive facility which is named for the German-American rocket scientist, Wernher von Braun, who was a leading member of the research team that laid the foundation for the United States’ space program. The South Hall boasts over 80,000 square feet of open space, an vast and open lobby, banquet halls, underground parking, and a skybridge connected to one of the many accessible hotels in the fashionable and historic downtown Huntsville area.