Liam Pitchford breaks new ground for British table tennis in Paris this summer as he becomes the first player to represent Team GB at four Olympic Games.

Carl Prean and Paul Drinkhall – the latter alongside Liam in London, Rio and Tokyo – have been to three Games but are now eclipsed by Pitchford.

Not that getting there was a straightforward as he would have hoped. He had enough points in the bag to qualify by world ranking – fuelled by reaching the final of the WTT Contender Muscat last autumn and performing well at WTT Champions Frankfurt soon after – but a recent shoulder injury meant it was still an anxious wait.

“I’m over the moon to finally be officially selected,” said the man from Chesterfield. “I knew I had a lot of points to go in by ranking. With the injury and not playing the qualification (the European Singles Qualification Tournament), I was still quite confident that I would get in.

“It’s obviously not the way I wanted to lead up to the Games. I would prefer to have a few tournaments under my belt, at least in the weeks leading up to it.

“I had an injection a few weeks ago and that helped it (the shoulder) settle it down. I saw the specialists and we put a programme together to get me back on the table.

“I did the work that I needed to do and when I did come back to the table, I felt good. I was hungry to go.

“The last few months have been really tough, coming back from injury, but I feel in really good shape. I’ve done a lot of off-the-table rehab and in the gym, and I’ve been back on the table a few weeks now and I’m feeling good. So yeah, I’m excited to get out there.”

While the lack of tournament preparation is not ideal, there has been high-quality training available at the Elite Training Centre in Sheffield, the new performance base.

“I was thinking about playing Tunisia (last month’s WTT Contender), but it made more sense to have another block of training and not waste time traveling and flying everywhere and risk another flare-up or something like that,” he said.

“It’s been tough, the training, but it’s been fun. It’s a good environment we’ve got going now in Sheffield. Everyone is training hard, working hard.

“Obviously, going out there without probably three months of competing, I don’t really know what to expect – but right now, in practice, I’m feeling good and I’m very happy with where I’m at.”

What would the 12-year-old Liam have thought if someone had told him you’re going to go to four Olympics – and counting?

“He probably wouldn’t have believed you,” said Liam. “I’m not even sure I was taking table tennis seriously at that age, so probably wouldn’t have expected it. But once I chose table tennis and wanted to do it, it was always what I dreamed of, to be an Olympian and to win Olympic medals.

“It’s a while since London now. Tokyo was a little bit different with Covid times, so I’m looking forward to being in the Olympic Village, back to normality. And with the Team GB it’s an amazing experience, so I’m looking forward to it again.

“I’m still hungry to get results and to win medals. I’m not going to say it’s impossible because I really don’t believe it is impossible – I think everything’s possible if I’m in good shape and feeling good and in the right place.

“I’m probably the best I’ve felt for a long, long time, so I’m happy and we’ll see what happens.”

Liam had family cheering him on in London and will also have support in Paris.

He said: “I think my mum and my sister coming out, so that’ll be nice. Most of my family came to London when I was there to see me play. It’s a little bit further from home, but not too far, so I think there’ll be a lot of a lot of fans from Britain coming over. I think we’re, bar France, probably the highest ticket buyers, so it’ll be the almost a home Games.”

Liam turned 19 just a few days before his debut in London, around a year older than team-mate Anna Hursey will be when she makes her first Olympic appearance in Paris, so how will he help her to deal with all the ‘noise’ of the Games?

“I’ll just try to encourage her, and also encourage her to experience the village and what it brings, being part of team GB. It can be a daunting place for someone so young. But I hope she just embraces it.

“She’s an incredible talent, to qualify like she did at 17 – I had a host nation place. To do what she’s done is quite remarkable – and I think she she’s only going to improve.”