Liu Shiwen and Paul Drinkhall named co-chairs of ITTF Athletes' Commission

For elite table tennis players, the biggest result here was not a medal or ranking point but a seat at the table. Liu Shiwen and Paul Drinkhall were named co-chairs of the ITTF Athletes’ Commission, a move that puts two active player voices directly into the federation’s top governance layer.

The appointment matters because it goes beyond symbolism. Under the ITTF’s 2026-2030 terms of reference, the commission’s two chairs, one male and one female from different continents, automatically become members of the ITTF Executive Board. That means the people elected to speak for athletes now sit inside the body that helps shape the sport’s direction, including the decisions that affect calendar load, event structures, ranking systems, rule changes and competition conditions.

Liu was re-appointed after previously serving in the role, while Drinkhall is taking the position for the first time. The vote for co-chairs was conducted through Lumi, and all members of the newly constituted commission took part in the meeting. The ITTF’s structure gives the commission a formal mandate to represent athlete views, inform players about ITTF activities and regulations, and work with the federation on the sport’s development.

The broader commission was elected after the election phase ended on May 4, 2026, with more than 300 votes cast in the race for able-bodied athlete representatives. The final body has 10 members in total, eight able-bodied athletes and two Para Table Tennis representatives. The elected able-bodied members are Sharath Kamal Achanta, Charlotte Carey, Celia Baah Danso, Paul Drinkhall, Sami Kherouf, Liu Shiwen, Alberto Miño and Elizabeta Samara. Jack Hunter-Spivey and Tahl Leibovitz were deemed elected as the two Para representatives because only two candidates stood for those seats.

The result also extends a pattern the ITTF has been building for years. In the 2022 athlete election, voting was online through Lumi, athlete turnout rose 18 percent from 2018 and para-athlete participation almost tripled. Later that cycle, Sharath Kamal Achanta and Liu Shiwen became the first gender-parity co-chairs. Now the federation has kept the same dual-chair model while swapping in Drinkhall alongside Liu, a pairing that brings two widely recognized international careers into the room as the ITTF continues to emphasize athlete representation during its centenary year.