In May of last year, Allard Law student Ivy Liao had it all in front of her. As a table tennis athlete who has represented Canada internationally since 2013, she has had her fair share of major accolades and successes before this moment.
She earned bronze at the Pan American Games in 2019. She has been a five-time Senior World Championship participant. She’s been ranked as a top-125 table tennis player worldwide in women’s singles, and has been part of a top-15 women’s doubles team.
But this was different. This was for the Olympics. After placing in the top two in the Canadian Olympic Qualification Tournament, Liao headed to Peru for the Pan-American Olympic Qualifiers. If she placed in the top four, she would be heading to Paris.
While the Olympics would be a dream come true, Liao’s pursuit of greatness in her sport is for more than just the wins.
Instead, it’s about what it means to represent her country as a first-generation Canadian, not just for herself, but for her parents and family as well.
“I know that [my parents] came to Canada with the hope of greater [things], with the hope of opportunity in mind, for themselves and for their children," said Liao. “I keep that close to my heart when I am playing and representing Canada, because I know how difficult it was for them to leave.”
Despite her eventual success, table tennis wasn’t Liao’s first choice. As a child growing up in Vancouver, Liao’s parents put her and her older brother in countless after-school activities, particularly those that kept her active and moving. Often falling ill as a child, a doctor suggested that, in order to improve her health, Liao needed to find ways to stay physically active.
While the after-school programs worked, her family would soon have to scramble for an alternative. When she was seven, her local community centre abruptly closed due to a workers’ strike, meaning she would no longer have access to the programs she and her family relied on. Needing a new physical outlet, a family friend took her and her brother to table tennis class to fill in for the activities lost. She has been playing ever since.
“It's crazy that it's been like over 15, 16 years now and I'm still playing the sport more than ever,” said Liao.
But Liao didn’t go from a seven-year-old table-tennis student to one of the top players in the country overnight. In the nearly decade and a half since then, Liao’s journey has been anything but easy.
Throughout her career, she’s faced plenty of adversity. She has had to deal with injuries, the pressure of competing at such a high level and the stress inherent in balancing her busy life.
“There have been many times where I've wanted to stop, or … was planning on stopping,” said Liao. “Momentum is what carried me forward … and a huge support network. Sometimes they were behind me, encouraging me, sometimes they were pulling me forward. But one way or another, I kept moving.”
Because Liao started university — pursuing a bachelor’s of commerce at UBC — with how much of a lifestyle shift post-secondary represented, there was a chance she would have to put her table tennis career on the shelf. In some ways, feeling the pressure of a result-oriented sport, she even fell out of love with it. However, when COVID-19 shut everything down halfway through Liao’s first year, her perspective on the sport changed.
She was not able to train or compete as she normally would, but the lack of a formal structure renewed her passion for table tennis. Being stuck inside her apartment, she was able to take up the paddle again with her brother — this time, just playing for fun. By removing the stakes, she was reminded why she played table tennis. Because she genuinely enjoyed it. All aspects of it. Whether it was competing, travelling, seeing her friends and fellow athletes, or being able to focus and train to do the best she can do — that passion started to come back.
“COVID led to me remembering how much I enjoyed the sport," said Liao. “It's not all about winning or losing or hitting your next goal. That motivated me to stay involved, even until today.”
With her renewed fuel to continue with table tennis, Liao further immersed herself in the sport during her time at UBC by joining the Table Tennis Thunderbirds Sport Club. While UBC doesn’t have a varsity table tennis program, the club that Liao joined is about as close as you can get. The Thunderbirds Sports Club (TSC) program is a place for 13 non-varsity sports — including table tennis — to compete at a high level under the T-Birds banner. The club was relatively new when Liao joined, but it offered an opportunity for her and other table tennis players to practice and compete with like-minded student-athletes.
“I think the wonderful thing about the TSC program is that it's not as much commitment as a varsity program, but it still provides opportunity for our athletes to stay engaged and involved with our sport, and take on leadership opportunities within the sport that help us develop — not only … at the table — but also beyond that,” said Liao.
Buoyed by her renewed passion and supported by this new environment, Liao says she was inspired to take on a leadership role within the club by becoming the TSC’s external director. Because TSC teams are student-led and mostly self-financed, Liao and the exec. team couldn’t just focus on the sport, needing to spearhead efforts to grow opportunities and financial support for the club.
“It was a really cool opportunity to combine what I was studying in school in business, with the real world and an area that I was also very excited about and familiar with, table tennis,” said Liao.
The following year, she stepped into the club lead role, and took on even more responsibility. But with the impact the TSC had on herself and her peers, it was a responsibility she welcomed.
“I really enjoyed being able to support my teammates and my friends in having such an incredible opportunity to balance exercise and stay competitive alongside their studies,” she said. “Seeing my peers find community in the TSC … that's been wonderful.”
During her time at UBC, the TSC wasn’t the only place she was able to grow. As she worked toward her undergraduate degree, she discovered an interest in the law, sparked by the intersections between business and law in her classes. This new-found passion inspired Liao to pursue law after graduation, starting in the JD program at UBC’s Allard School of Law in 2024.
“I grew up in … East Vancouver, [and because of that], it was very clear to me how big a difference having knowledge and a voice around policies, about the law … could make,” said Liao. “I think a combination of factors, including those, inspired me to pursue law.”
Because Liao had continued to play table tennis throughout her undergraduate studies, by the time Liao entered law school, she was used to balancing her studies and her sport. Even with that experience, however, it was still a challenge. Going into Allard, for Liao, was another roadblock where, with the increased demands of a graduate degree, she thought she might have to cut back on her athletic career. Yet, through a community that supported her at every turn, being flexible and adaptable to Liao’s schedule, she was allowed to continue to pursue both her dreams.
“The community at Allard and the legal community in Vancouver has just been so empowering and so supportive," said Liao. “I've also noticed that table tennis is a really good distraction from law school and vice versa … that provided really good balance, which actually helped on both ends.”
It was right before she started law school that Liao had her sights set on the Olympics. She fell a few matches short of qualifying. But she doesn’t see this as a loss.
If her athletic career has taught her anything, it’s not to define things by the final result. For Liao, who has achieved so much in her long career as a table tennis player, this is just a small part of her journey, both in sport and who she is as a whole.
“My experience trying and failing at making it to the Olympics was invaluable in that I realized how much I had grown, and how much I got out of that opportunity to even try. I never thought that I would have the opportunity to actually go for it,” said Liao.
“It really made me respect the process of people who have goals or have grown a lot in their journey, even if it's in a direction they never thought they would go in. I see a lot of beauty in that, and it also inspires and motivates me to continue going down that journey for the different parts of my life, whether it is with table tennis or with law.”
Falling short of the 2024 Summer Olympics was not the end of Liao’s career, however. Most recently, Liao competed at the FISU World University Games in Germany, an international competition for student-athletes of different sports to represent their country and compete. While she was obviously there for table tennis, for Liao, these games were bigger than just one sport.
“The University Games … it was a wonderful experience … some of my fondest table tennis memories are [from] those games, being able to represent Canada — not just as a table tennis team, but as a [united] Team Canada,” said Liao. “From all the different countries, all of these students, all of these athletes, understood the grind of being a student-athlete.”
In a way, the University Games were a microcosm of what Liao has gained from her time in table tennis. It wasn’t the medals or awards. It wasn’t winning matches, tournaments or championships.
It was about the simple love for the game, and for the community around it, whether it be with her brother during the COVID-19 lockdown, with fellow table tennis student-athletes in the TSC or with a host of other athletes, playing wildly different sports, but still coming together under one banner. For Liao, that community has given so much to her. Now, she’s hoping to return the favour.
“Opening doors for others the way that doors have been opened for me is something I'm very passionate about. Being able to have the honour of representing Canada, that's kind of what it means to me — gratitude and wanting to give back,” said Liao.
“When I represent Canada internationally, I feel like it's not just wearing the Maple Leaf and representing myself or my name on the international stage. I feel like standing behind me is my whole community, and with that, a country, and I want to make them proud.”
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