2022 Australian Masters Games table tennis athlete 84yo Gordon Lee reprises his passion in Perth

After World War II, Gordon Lee's dad built a ping pong table from a sheet of three-ply wood and a pair of trestles on the family's back verandah.

«He came up with a couple of bats covered with cork and sandpaper in those days, and my mates had come around and we would go at it on the verandah,» Mr Lee said.

«We had a little Vegemite jar with a slit in the top of it and we put a penny in there every time we played — to buy a new ball if we broke the ball.»

That was when Mr Lee was a child.

Now, at 84, he was not only still playing ping pong but preparing his paddles for the Australian Masters Games in Perth next week.

Mr Lee trains with a robot, cycles, and swims to maintain his fitness, but said there was more to winning medals than staying in shape.

«I'm very competitive and I sort of base my game on concentration, consistency and confusion for the opponent,» he said.

«And it's just, I think, life experience, probably.»

Mr Lee said he found his niche in the game of ping pong after learning his light physique wasn't suited to Aussie Rules football.

«I could practice, it was cheap,» he said.

«I didn't need to be a strong-bodied man.»

He played competitively around Fremantle, sometimes against sailors who came in to port.

Mr Lee's dad would take him to the local tables to play, even in the middle of the night, if he learned that a skilled competitor had arrived in town.

Having honed his skills locally, Mr Lee progressed to the rank of ninth in Australia by the time he was 18.

But at around age 20, he drifted away from the sport after he got married and started a new job.

It wasn't until he was 65 that he returned to the game he excelled in as a young man.

Although the game had gotten faster and equipment technology had evolved, he started