July 25, 1996
Cada's back in the paddle
FAMILY TIES STRONG FOR TABLE TENNIS STAR
By CHRIS STEVENSON -- Team Sun
ATLANTA -- While Petra Cada walked into the Georgia World Congress Center to the strains of the moving Olympic fanfare, her father Michael and her sister Michelle shopped for groceries.
While Cada, 17, blinked in the white-hot light that is Olympic competition, facing the sixth-ranked table tennis player in the world, Jun Hong Jing, her dad and sister stopped by Ottawa's Rideau Centre for lunch.
Cada would have wanted to have her father, sister and mother, Olga, here to share the view from this world summit and they would have wanted to be here, but hers is a remarkable family with a unique view of the world and a unity of purpose that often finds them apart.
For the past two years, Olga, Petra and Michelle have lived in Ottawa while Michael, a professor of mechanical engineering, teaches in Halifax at the Technical University of Nova Scotia.
When Petra was invited to join the national table tennis team in Ottawa two years ago, Olga and Michael decided it would be best if Olga moved with their then-15-year-old daughter, joining Michelle, who was attending the University of Ottawa.
The long-distance relationship has been difficult for Olga and Michael.
It was a drastic, but touching decision by two parents wanting to do what was best for their children.
And now they cannot share it.
"While we were having lunch at the Rideau Centre, we were thinking of her," Michael said. "I said to Michelle, `Petra is playing her first match now.'"
Petra's trip to the Olympics came with the quickness of a forehand smash. She qualified the day before the Olympic team was to be named, leaving no time for the family to make arrangements for travel, accommodations or tickets.
Olga, who is in Prague now, had made plans long ago for a trip to the Czech Republic.
Michael, a self-described "traditional" man, said the decision was made that if the family could not go together, they would not go at all.
"If anybody goes, it should be the whole family," he said. "This has been an accomplishment of the whole family. If I went down there by myself, I would feel uncomfortable.
"It is sad we can't all be there."
It is not even likely they would see Petra on television, should the CBC ever decide to show table tennis, since the Cadas don't watch television. They have a television and a VCR, but no cable. The TV is used to watch the "metres and metres" of tape the Cadas have of Petra and Michelle, a good player in her own right, in action.
"It was a decision made years ago," Michael said. "There is not much worth watching. It is very often a brain-wasting medium. I see other people affected by it. They repeat what they hear. I wanted my children to have their own independent minds.
"I listen to the radio or read the newspaper for news. I am a traditional man. I like the hard copy of paper in my hands. Television news is not reporting. It is catastrophe, disasters and blood just to attract you. It is very dark."
If Michael had been able to see Petra yesterday, he would have seen a young lady who appeared to be a little overwhelmed at first by the pomp and pump of the Games.
"I felt something," she said of the moment she walked into the Georgia World Convention Center. "I was proud to be here. It was a good feeling, a happy feeling. I felt special to be here."
She lost her first game of the three-match round-robin to Jing, an expatriate Chinese now of Singapore, 21-4.
"She tried to play too safe," head coach Michel Gadal said. "You have to take risks against this type of player. She made it easy by sitting back."
Cada played more aggressively in the second game and battled back from a 7-3 deficit to make it 7-6. But with a chance to tie the game, her backhand went long and she stood, her hand covering her eyes. The final in the second game was 21-13.
"It's hard to play the best player first," said Cada, who was seeded last in the group of four. "I wish it had been a three-out-of-five. The second game was much better."
"It would have been nice for my family to be here, especially my sister. She was in Europe and I haven't seen her for two months. I've been here for exactly a week, but it seems like a long, long time."
The time isn't passing any more quickly in Ottawa.
"My heart," Michael said, "is down there with her."
