Texas Wesleyan ex vying for trip to Rio Olympics
Mark Hazinski considers competing in the 2004 Olympics “the experience of a lifetime.”
Now, he’s determined to go back for seconds.
Hazinski, a part of four national championship-winning table tennis teams at Texas Wesleyan, is competing in the U.S. Olympic Table Tennis Trials from Thursday-Saturday in Greensboro, N.C.
Hazinski, 30, made the U.S. Olympic team in 2004 as a doubles player.
“I’d definitely like to go back and experience it as a singles player,” he said.
Hazinski, who graduated from Texas Wesleyan in 2012, finished second in the recent 2015 U.S. Nationals, losing to 18-year-old Yijun Feng in the finals. A victory there would have allowed Hazinski to skip this week’s Trials and receive automatic entry into the North American Olympic Trials.
It was another close call for Hazinski, who missed out on advancing to the final stage of Olympic qualifying by one spot in 2008 and two spots in 2012.
His showing at Nationals in December has him confident. Adding to that confidence is the benefit of now being a coach at North Texas Table Tennis Center in Plano, where he runs the junior program and teaches adult classes. In 2012, by comparison, he said he was more focused on completing his Exercise Studies degree than training for the Trials.
“Now that I’m coaching full-time, I’m pretty much at a table six hours a day, and then I practice on the side and do physical training,” said Hazinski, who won nine singles and doubles collegiate national championships at Texas Wesleyan. “I feel like recently I’m in some of the best shape of my life.”
This year’s Trials marks the debut of a major format change. The traditional round-robin tournament has been replaced by three single-elimination tournaments, held one per day, with the winners filling the three available spots to represent the United States at the North American qualifier.
Hazinski looks forward to playing under the new format and believes the single-elimination aspect will increase excitement for spectators. He likes the possibility of winning the first day’s tournament and then taking the rest of the pressure-packed Trials off.
“But it could also be tough, mentally,” he added, “if you make it pretty far the first day, end up losing in the later rounds and have to restart the next day.”
Hazinski is one of five former Olympians among the 65 entries in the men’s field that includes Ilija Lupulesku, Hazinski’s doubles partner at the 2004 Games. In their first match in Athens, Hazinski and Lupulesku upset a Nigerian team with a 4-0 sweep. They then lost 4-1 to a highly ranked team from Taiwan, although they had game points in each game.
“I was happy to be able to compete, first of all,” said Hazinski, who was 19 at the time. “And then to play fairly well under that kind of pressure, it was definitely the experience of a lifetime. I’d definitely like to go back and experience it as a singles player.”
2016 U.S. Olympic Table Tennis Trials
Thursday-Saturday
Greensboro Special Events Center, Greensboro, N.C.
At stake: Three spots each for men and women to qualify for the North American Olympic Trials tournament in April in Markham, Canada.
This story was originally published February 2, 2016 at 8:35 PM with the headline "Texas Wesleyan ex vying for trip to Rio Olympics."