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TOKYO — There are plenty of athletes who compete without modern conveniences, less money, improvised equipment or even disabilities.
Egypt's Ibrahim Hamato didn't let an inconvenience like losing both arms in a serious accident when he was 10 years old stop him from excelling at the sport he loves — table tennis.
To him it was a minor setback.
Hamato was featured at the ZEN-NOH 2014 World Team Table Tennis Championships in Tokyo, where he played against some of the best ping-pong players in the world in a series of exhibitions matches. He took it to several notables in the sport of table tennis, playing as an honored guest of International Table Tennis Federation President Adham Sharara.
His technique is modified a bit from that of his peers, as you’d expect. Hamato returns balls by holding the paddle in his mouth, gripping the handle with his teeth. He swings by rotating his torso and neck through the ball. His serve involves flipping a ball off his foot and smacking it with his mouth paddle in mid-arc.
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Table tennis isn’t everything to Hamato. But it’s pretty close.
“The best thing in my life is my wife, who is everything to me,” Hamato said in a report by CBS Sports. “The second part is table tennis where I find my biggest success being able to enjoy every point I win.
“Nothing is impossible as long as you work hard.”
