Heming Hu

Fast Facts

Sport: Table Tennis
Event: Mixed doubles and Teams
Olympic History: Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020
Coach: Russell Lavellle
Year Born: 1994
State Born: VIC

About Heming

Heming Hu started playing table tennis in the garage with his family at six years old. His brother began playing at the Greater Dandenong Table Tennis Club and Hu soon followed in his footsteps. Growing up in Dandenong in Melbourne, Hu attended Lyndale Secondary College and also loved playing soccer, there was a long time where he liked soccer far more than table tennis. Hu only started loving the sport when he got a really proactive coach who made sessions enjoyable. 

Hu now loves many aspects of the sport, the 1v1 environment perfectly suits his extremely competitive personality.

He enjoys how precise and fast it is, and that the smallest margins of change within a game can determine the match in a split second.

One of Hu’s favourite aspects of table tennis is the thrill of winning close matches when there is a lot of anxiety and mental build-up towards it. “The feeling of battling through as a successor during those times is a feeling of happiness that nothing else seems to give me," he said.

Hu had to overcome personal adversity during one of his seasons abroad in Germany, playing in the professional league. He came very close to throwing in the towel as he reached a state where, mentally, he was at his lowest point. However, he was able to overcome this period of trouble and learned how important it is not to dwell on or over analyse his losses, not to take things personally and to stay calm in everyday life. 

Hu’s first international competition was in Madrid, Spain in 2008. He notes this experience as the one that had the biggest influence on his future career.

After just missing out on representing Australia at the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games, he wore the green and gold at the 2014 Commonwealth Games where he finished 9th in the Men’s Doubles, 17th in the Mixed Doubles and 5th in the Team Event.

Hu went on to qualify for the Rio 2016 team event alongside David Powell and Chris Yan. Facing Hong Kong, the side bowed out 3-0 in the best of five-match series, with Hu getting his chance alongside Yan in the doubles, where they went down in straight sets.

Other highlights include when he placed 5th at the 2018 Commonwealth Games (Men's Team and Doubles), received his highest Men's World Ranking of 66, and became the Australian National Men's Singles Champion in 2019 and Oceania Cup Champion in 2018. 

In his spare time, Hu enjoys tennis, salsa dancing, movies, hiking, coffee, swimming, theme parks, cooking and good food.

He has many superstitions, and you’ll often see him wearing specific shirts, placing bottles in neat arrangements during matches, and wiping the table after each point. Hu also has another talent, he is a great impersonator and has impersonated names such as Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and John McEnroe.

Heming made his second Olympic appearance at the delayed Tokoy 2020 games, playing in both the team, and mixed doubles events. 

Pairing up with long-time compatriots Chris Yan and David Powell, the Australian squad would lose 3-0 in their opening fixture against hosts, Japan. In the mixed doubles event, Hu would pair up with Melissa Tapper and face french pair Lebesson and Yuan in their opening match. Unfortunatley the pair would lose out in the tie, defeated in straight sets.