Centretown’s National Table Tennis Centre is home to some of Canada’s elite ping pong players.
Ian Kent of Halifax moved to Ottawa last fall to train at the Little Italy facililty, taking his career full-circle in the run-up to the Parapan Am Games.
Kent, 53, is one of the oldest members of the Canadian team heading to the international competition in Toronto in August – but he’s also one of Canada’s medal favorites.
While he missed out on the 2012 Paralympic Games in London, Kent did win a gold and a silver medal at the 2011 Parapan Am Games in Guadalajara, Mexico.
He said he is hoping to repeat his performance on home soil.
Kent started playing table tennis as a 12-year-old with his older brother.
He quickly progressed up the ranks in able-bodied table tennis, representing Canada at the junior level for three years before getting into coaching. Kent coached the national able-bodied team from 1986 to 1991.
He was working out of Ottawa before taking a job at Dalhousie University to be with his three children.
While Kent’s national team dreams ended as a junior, they were given new life thanks to unlikely and life-changing circumstances.
Kent still remembers the day his life changed.
“In 1999, August 17, I woke up with what I now have, and that’s called Dystonia.”
Dystonia is a neurological movement disorder similar to Parkinson’s that affects everyone differently.
“My brain tells the large muscles in my lower back to do work when there is no work necessary,” Kent says.
“The work that it wants to be do is basically do a backflip – and as I fight the spasm, it gets worse.”
Kent spent two years resting and getting used to his condition before playing table tennis again in 2004 in the para divisions.
Paralympic table tennis follows the same rules as able-bodied table tennis, except that athletes are grouped according to their level of function through a classification system run by certified assessors.
Classes 1-5 are wheelchair classes and 6-10 are standing classes. Kent is a class 8 and has quickly risen in his division.
He’s ranked 31st in the world in his classification, according to the International Table Tennis Federation.
It’s a rise that John MacPherson, head coach of the Paralympic team, attributes to Kent’s experience in the able-bodied game and his drive to succeed, even at a relatively advanced age.
“He’s a fighter; he really does a really good job of managing his skills and his emotions,” MacPherson says.
“In any racket sport you have to be able to manage your emotions, because you’re out there all by yourself and you have no one to blame but yourself.”
Kent believes his previous experience as an able-bodied competitor is one of his greatest advantages, thanks to his level of skill and experience compared to his younger and potentially more athletic rivals.
“I’ve coached at the world level. My brain definitely works at a higher level tactically than the opposition.”
But with age comes a decline in durability, which is partly why Kent made the move to Ottawa.
This allowed him to take advantage of one-on-one coaching and collaborate with a muscle-activation specialist to keep him working at his peak and ensuring that his body is well taken care of.
The move wasn’t an easy decision. He left his three sons and his father behind, but they urged him to take advantage of his final shot.
“I’m definitely playing better than before,” he says. “It was the right decision.”
The move was for what Kent calls his “all-in effort” leading up to his bid to compete in the 2016 Paralympic Games.
During May and June, Kent will be in Europe training with the Dutch national team and testing himself against some competition.
He’s returning to Ottawa in July to finish up his preparations to defend his title in August and continue on his long road to Rio di Janeiro.