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Friday, June 1, 2001Human kinetics student a table tennis pro
For many athletes, competing in the Olympics serves as a climax, something to aspire to. Not so for human kinetics graduate Petra Cada. For her, the Olympics were certainly something to aspire to, but by no means have they
been the pinnacle of her glittering career.The 22-year-old Canadian immigrant had always wanted to represent her adopted country in sport, but hadn't seriously entertained the idea of playing table tennis at the 1996 Atlanta Games. "When I was a little girl," says Cada, who was born in Czechoslovakia, "my dream was always to go to the Olympics, but I had set my sights on 2000. When Atlanta (1996) came along, I went to a qualification tournament and qualified." Although she didn't get to wave the maple leaf from the podium, Cada's success at other world-class events eventually led to the title of champion. She has traded backhands at six world championships, two Pan-Am games, four Commonwealth games and 20-some professional world tours. Through the years, she has been crowned national champion 10 times, including once as doubles champion when she played with her older sister Michaela. She has travelled to more than 50 countries across four continents and, in 1993, placed third in the world at a championship event in Japan. Cada's fascinating story goes beyond her world-class table tennis and an impressive 8.5 CGPA at the University of Ottawa. Her first five years were spent under the totalitarian regime of Czechoslovakia's then-ruling Communist party. Eventually her family fled for the calmer shores of Canada and settled in Montreal. Soon afterwards, they relocated to Halifax where they lived for a decade. Their move to Ottawa was largely influenced by the presence of the National Table Tennis Training Centre. There, Cada excelled, and soon table tennis was as much a part of her life as anything else — except school. While competitive athletes themselves, Cada's parents recognized the value of a good education, and instilled in their daughter a strong sense of duty to complete hers, even at the cost of prestige in sport. "I know I'll never be number 1," says Cada. "I would have had to put my school career on hold, but in my family, school was number one. It's hard competing at that level and doing a degree at the same time because you always feel as though you'll never be number one in either." For now, Cada is content, even if she isn't number one . . . But there's always 2004. Meanwhile, she is contemplating continuing her education at the University of Ottawa in September by pursuing a master's in health administration, and will continue to compete in table tennis at the international level.
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