Ian Seidenfeld

Started: He began playing table tennis at age six at Table Tennis Minnesota in the United States of America. (Athlete, 02 Sep 2021) Reason: He was influenced by his father, who won Paralympic medals in table tennis and has run a table tennis club in Minneapolis, MN, United States of America. "My dad was a big part in why I started table tennis, but when I was young I was given a few choices between Chinese school, piano lessons and table tennis. I chose table tennis, and fortunately, it ended up being fun." (teamusa.org, 17 Jul 2017) Ambition: To compete at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris. (Instagram profile, 22 Nov 2023) Additional Info: FATHER AND COACH He is coached by his father Mitchell. "I had never hugged my dad after a match [prior to his gold medal at the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo], so the first thing that I wanted to do after winning was to go over and celebrate with him. In that tournament, we got a lot closer as a player and coach relationship. We are pretty close as a father and son, but we don't work as well together as we did in that tournament. Usually, we're fighting a little bit more, or we're arguing or I'm not listening. But there were a set of circumstances that kind of forced us to make it just me and him against the tournament, against the world in some ways." (tcjewfolk.com, 29 Sep 2021) OCCUPATION He works as an exchange-traded fund [ETF] specialist. He has also been a self-employed table tennis coach in Saint Paul, MN, United States of America. (LinkedIn profile, 12 Oct 2023)

Sporting Relatives: His father Mitchell Seidenfeld represented the United States of America in Para table tennis. He won gold and bronze at the 1992 Paralympic Games in Barcelona, and silver and bronze at the 1996 Games in Atlanta. (Athlete, 02 Sep 2021; SportsDeskOnline, 05 Apr 2021)