At the 2014 Commonwealth Games, Ho won silver with Liam Pitchford
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Tin-Tin Ho was a teenage table tennis star who, aged 15, won a silver medal in the Commonwealth Games mixed doubles on her major international debut in Glasgow.
Media interest grew when journalists discovered her brother’s name was Ping and her “table tennis obsessed” father wanted to name his daughter Pong.
Ho seemed to be coping admirably with the attention and expectation — she won more Commonwealth medals in 2018 and claimed a historic spot at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics — but privately she faced challenges.
“I’ve never revealed it, but I’ve had a lot of problems with food,” she told ` Sport.
“At first I was very strict about what I ate, then it went the other way with what some people would call binge eating, and I think it just got a little bit out of control.”
Growing up, she never felt well enough to get a medical diagnosis, but she has sought professional help ever since.
Ahead of her third Commonwealth Games for England, the 23-year-old, who is studying to become a doctor, says she is speaking out about her journey in hopes it will help others.
Her interest in table tennis stemmed from her father, who became a coach, and the training facility he set up in their garage.
She was fascinated by the creativity and individual styles each player displayed in one of the “most unpredictable” and “coolest” sports.
However, like many teenagers, her teenage years brought with them challenges and societal “stresses” which, along with her pursuit of a career as a professional athlete, compounded these fears.
“I was quite worried about the weight and that was another pressure I put on myself,” says the Olympian.
“I was 14 or 15 when I started eating healthy for performance, but I started to get too strict about what I ate.
“At first I avoided all carbs and then I started to overdo it. I ate breakfast quite late in the day and then fasted quite a bit.”
Her situation escalated during her freshman year at university.
“When I lived at home, my mother always cooked balanced, healthy meals,” she recalls.
“As I moved out, I felt more pressure to make decisions about what to eat and diet-related issues preoccupied me – like balancing my personal weight and athletic performance, as well as thinking about issues related to meat consumption and the environment.
“I started cutting out meat and dairy and didn’t really know what to eat.
“It was quite exhausting because I couldn’t focus on important things like studying and table tennis because I was very worried about food.”
Feelings of hunger would drive her to “gorge” and “eat uncontrollably,” but she would then feel extreme guilt.
“I ate bags of oats all the time and my teammates knew I had this oat obsession.
“It was a joke between us, but now I look back and realize I was eating a lot of oatmeal, a cup of water and maybe a little yogurt or fruit every day and it wasn’t the healthiest diet. “
Her brother was visiting her at the University of Nottingham in late 2018 and it proved to be a pivotal moment.
“I would get restless at every meal and the whole time he would visit it would get on my nerves and make me feel bad for not concentrating on spending time with him,” remembers Ho.
“I realized there was a problem.”
After revealing her problems to her brother, she decided to contact a therapist and start working with him. She also decided to tell close friends and her team coach from Table Tennis England.
To complement the professional therapy sessions, Ho also kept a journal to record how she was dealing with the stresses in her life.
“Some days I still have those feelings [of anxiety]but I have this special group of people around me. So when I’m worried that I’m overeating, they remind me that I work out three times a day and I’m like, ‘OK, good point!'”
Just over two years after she first sought help, she became the first British woman to qualify for an Olympic Games via her world rankings since 1996.
Ho says her performance at Tokyo 2020 would not have been possible if she hadn’t asked for help.
“I’m not going to lie, it’s not like you’re talking about it [your problems] and it gets better immediately. It takes time, but trust the process,” says Ho.
“I was told that no one is too young to talk about what they’re going through,” says Ho, who is interested in a career in psychiatry after med school.
“You’re just as important, even if your problems seem smaller than others, and if you talk to someone, you can get the help you deserve.”
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