Olympic table tennis star and Gulgong-native, Michelle Bromley has her sights set on Paris in 2024 after competing at the Table Tennis World Cup in Chengdu, China.
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Michelle spoke from her hotel room in China where she and fellow Aussie teammates came off second-best against Japan and Romania in China which saw a new, mixed format for players.
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"It was just with the aim to be more exciting, they're trying to get it to be more exciting sport for people watching and not have the Chinese just dominate all the time," Bromley said.
"I think it's quite fun. And to be warming up with the boys and just being one collective team versus always mens and womens is quite cool."
Traditionally mens and womens teams were split, but the tournament saw both sides team up in a mixed effort across five matches starting with mixed doubles, followed by womens singles, mens singles, womens doubles and finally mens doubles.
Bromley's last international appearance was at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. Since then she has become a mother, giving birth to her son Lachie in late November 2022. Throughout her pregnancy Michelle was still training at least two days per week to keep up her fitness and maintain her skills with the paddle but wasn't sure if she would compete at a high level again.
"In my head, I really thought - 90 per cent chance - like that was me going to be done from an international standpoint with the sport," Bromley said.
"Post-baby I had about three months off just recovering from my c-section and then started dabbling again more from a fitness perspective, doing three days a week."
Soon Bromley realised that she still had the drive the compete and saw opportunity in local tournaments where she earned solid results. Good enough in fact to get selected to play at the Oceania Championships at Townsville in September. A bronze at the champs in Queensland earned her a spot in the team for the International Table Tennis Federation World Cup.
"What was exciting about this opportunity was playing in China, where it's the number one or two sport here from a popularity perspective," Bromley said.
"I've never actually been to China before and to be playing table tennis in front of the Chinese crowd. That was pretty awesome.
"Everywhere else I've been, you would not typically get packed stadiums... But outside of like Olympics and Commonwealth Games where the stadiums are sell outs, you don't usually get that in table tennis. So this is a really unique experience in that way."
With a renewed vigour, Bromley has her eyes set on qualifying for the Australian Olympic team that will compete at the 2024 Paris games, but admitted training with a one-year-old has its challenges.
"Sometimes I think it's healthy and good to have a break from something that you've been doing every single day of your life," Bromley said.
"I think the journey with me also being a mum now means I need to be a lot more flexible with my training schedule because before I could just be 100 per cent selfish, baby free and pretty much do whatever I wanted.
"Now I need to be a bit more mindful. If I'm going to train I need to - especially during the day at the moment when I'm on maternity leave - I need to take the baby with me.
"So sometimes I might get two hours out of him being happy to sit at the side of the court playing or watching or whatever he's doing. Sometimes I'll be done after an hour because he's just had enough.
"So it's been quite an interesting journey... having a baby. But I'm definitely keen now to see where the journey takes me as a mum and trying to be an elite athlete as well."
