A table tennis legend and gold medallist at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, Ryu is an IOC member since the Rio 2016 Olympics and the Korean was voted unanimously on to the ITTF’s Executive Committee, following an amendment to the ITTF Constitution, during the ITTF’s Annual General Meeting at the 2019 World Table Tennis Championships in Budapest, Hungary.

An inspirational role model in his country, where he has done much to promote the Unified Korean movement whereby players from Korea Republic and North Korea have teamed up in international table tennis competitions over the past year, Ryu Seung-min was also heavily involved at the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games.

This all makes him a more than appropriate figure to be representing both the IOC and ITTF’s Executive Committee, and hopefully the first of many more to come after it was approved in Budapest that any IOC member in table tennis can be appointed to the ITTF’s Executive Committee.

Ties between the ITTF and IOC have arguably never been stronger and exciting times undoubtedly lie ahead for what is certain to be an increasingly fruitful partnership.