By Peter Searles

Julia Can started playing table tennis when she was 8 years old and living in her native Sweden. Now, at the age of 21, she is living in Australia and studying at UC. Julia’s love of the sport has continued, and she is the newest elite player to join the UC Stars Table Tennis Club. She is also a table tennis coach and has taken on roles in sports management. Curieux recently had a chance to speak with Julia and UC Table Tennis Club Vice-President Quy Cao to learn about Julia’s journey as an athlete and her recent involvement in local competitions.

Julia began competing at a young age, taking part in youth national championships as well as regional competitions in Sweden. She began her coaching career while she was still living in Europe, teaching children. For as long as she has been involved in table tennis, Julia has also played tennis. She told us that while there is often overlap between table tennis, pickleball and badminton players, it is not necessarily as common for players to take on both tennis and table tennis. For Julia, she found an easy adjustment between the two sports and that they complement each other in terms of footwork and technique.

Throughout her schooling and later enrolment in a Bachelor of Graphic Design and Web Development at a Swedish university, Julia remained involved in both sports. She said that while it took time to develop the necessary time management skills to keep up with sport and study, her passion for sport made it possible to succeed at both.

Since moving to Australia and enrolling at UC, the UC Table Tennis Club has given Julia the training and access to competitions she needs to evolve further as a player. The club has also been an opportunity to socialise and meet new people. Her coach is club Vice-President Quy Cao who has been involved in table tennis as a player for 45 years and coach for 20 years. He is a member of the ACT’s main table tennis association, Table Tennis ACT (TTACT). After a back injury prevented Quy from playing for two years, he joined the UC Table Tennis Club in August 2024 as a way of getting back into the sport. Quy aims to provide opportunities for the ACT community to get involved in his favourite sport and has spent the past year steadily growing the club.

Julia played in the 2025 ACT Open Championships in late August. She told us the Open was fun and exciting and that it gave her a sense of the high level of competitiveness of Australian players. The Open was Julia’s first time competing against players who are trained in the Asian style of playing. While the European style involves playing further from the table and a focus on counter attacks, the Asian style incorporates swing serves, more top spin and even a different type of racket. Competing taught Juila a lot about this style and gave her the opportunity to develop and fine tune her skills.

Following our meeting, Julia went on to compete in the Uni Nationals at the Gold Coast where she was part of the UC women’s team for tennis. Immediately after returning to Canberra, she played the Table Tennis Australia (TTA) Canberra Tour, a huge one-day table tennis tournament she had been selected for, where she competed against the top players from around Australia.

Looking ahead to future opportunities, Julia will continue her involvement in sports management through sitting on boards, administrating clubs and coaching. She will also continue playing her favourite sports tennis and table tennis, as well as one she picked up more recently—Pickleball. While Pickleball is popular in Australia and the USA, it is not played as much in Europe, so Julia’s involvement in the sport began only after she moved here. She has found it a lot of fun and will have more chances to practice thanks to Quy’s recent establishment of a new club—UC Stars Pickleball, for which Julia is Vice President.

Julia explained that working towards competitions and tournaments is the usual goal for players, but beyond that her goals are to continue growing as a player and as a person. It’s also clear that when players are as committed to their sport as Julia and Quy are, they will create new opportunities to play for themselves and others. Bringing a European trend to Australia, Julia and Quy have plans to establish ‘racket lawn’ competitions. These are tournaments involving tennis, table tennis, pickleball and badminton. Players have to win at all four sports in order to take the championship!

As Quy told us during the interview, playing racket sports is not only fun, but it also connects people. To get involved, become a member of UC Stars Table Tennis Club and/or a member of UC Stars Pickleball club and follow UC Stars Table Tennis Club on Facebook for updates.

Julia Can - the new elite player for UC Stars Table Tennis Club

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